What more is there to day about Frank Manzo? While the Top Alcohol Funny Car contingent may be as tough as you’ll find anywhere, ‘Ace’ is simply in a class all by himself, and he proved that again by earning his record-tying 15th NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series championship on Monday at the Auto Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading. With the title in hand, Manzo is now tied with John Force for the most championships in NHRA history and shows no signs of slowing down.
Manzo entered the Maple Grove event leading the points, with longtime rival and former champion Tony Bartone hot on his heels. Manzo had a perfect scorecard on the divisional side to his credit, while Bartone had a likewise perfect winning card on the national side. With just a runner-up finish that would improve his points tally from a second round loss earlier this season, ‘Ace’ and the Al-Anabi Racing team would clinch the title. Bssed on ehad-t-head matchups as the tiebreaker, Manzo would win out over Bartone should they finish the season even.
Well, Manzo accomplished that only as Manzo would, blasting to the quickest pass in Top Alcohol Funny Car history in a semifinal walk of Todd Veney at 5.411 seconds at 264.44 MPH. An exclamation point was put on the season with a final round win over andy Bohl, which saw the second quickest pass in history at 5.419 that backed up the earlier pass for a new national elapsed time record and a perfect season on both the national and divisional side.
With that, Manzo claimed his 6th straight championship dating back to 2006 and 15th overall going back to the 1981 season. Just as impressive, he captured his unprecedented 21st NHRA Division 1 crown this season.
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