Biondo keeps rolling, finds pot of gold at Silver Dollar

National Dragster, Jul 25, 2003 by McKenna, Kevin

Determined to win another national championship after a pair of second-place finishes, Peter Biondo won his third Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series title of the season with a convincing performance at the rain-delayed Southeast Division event at Ed Swearingen's Silver Dollar Raceway. Biondo reclaimed the lead in the battle for the national Super Stock title from Division 6 competitor Jeff Lane following his final-round victory over Blair Patrick, who red-lighted in his SS/FA Mustang.

Biondo, who had no reaction time worse than .024 in eliminations, used a perfect .000 light and a .01-over 10.40 in the semifinals to get past Joe LoCicero, who put together a strong package of his own: .015 light and 9.876 (9.87 dial).

Patrick, a top five finisher in Southeast Division Super Stock competition last season, reached the final following a round-three win over Andy Fogle and a quarterfinal victory against Arvester Faulkner's GT/FA Firebird.

Division 1 racer and drag racing school instructor Doug Foley won the Top Alcohol Dragster title over Jason Cannon, 5.62 to a slowing 6.17. After qualifying fourth, Foley's run to the final included a pair of huge upsets against former Division 2 champ Michael Gunderson and reigning Division 2 champ Marty Thacker, who was the low qualifier with a 5.50. Against Foley, Thacker had trouble and coasted across the finish line.

The biggest upset might have come in round one, when Cannon took out current national points leader Tony Bartone, 5.54 to a slowing 6.28. By beating Bartone and making it to the final, Cannon moved to within 26 points of Bartone in the Division 2 Top Alcohol Dragster standings.

Jim Sickles, whose previous two appearances at Division 2 events resulted in a win and a runner-up finish, scored his second Top Alcohol Funny Car title following an incredible final-round run against Jay Payne. Payne, who earlier had defeated Mark Billington, left first by more than a tenth, .037 to .146, but couldn't maintain the advantage, and Sickles drove by at the last instant for a 5.85 to 5.96 victory. At the finish line, the margin of victory was just .001-second. Despite the loss, Payne, an eight-time divisional champ and the 1995 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champion, remains atop the Division 2 standings, though he has attended one more event than Sickles.

Mike Saye, the reigning NHRA Comp champ, won for the first time this season after driving his G/A Olds to a (-.50) 8.68 in the final against Don Eberly, who was not far behind with a (-.46) 9.13 in his F/SMA Achieva. Saye, runner-up at the season's first divisional event in Gainesville, qualified fourth and stopped Larry Sexton, Tim Timmerman, and Pro Stock driver and crew chief Tim Freeman on his way to the final.

Eberly, a former Super Gas racer from Brunswick, Ga., used a pair of upsets, one against low qualifier Glen Treadwell in round two and another against 50-time national event winner David Rampy in the semi's, to reach the final.

Kevin Helms' bid to win an unprecedented third straight national championship in Stock got a huge boost after he drove his B/S '69 Camaro to a final-round victory over Jorge Camera's K/SA '78 Aspen. Helms, who already has three national event wins to his credit this year (two in Stock, one in Super Stock), won with a .02-over 10.54 after Camera broke out with a 12.38 (12.41).

Carnero, of Miami, had to get past former national champ Alan Peters and former Pro Stock racer Jeff Velde in order to reach his first career final. The victory allowed Carnero to move into contention for the Division 2 Stock title. He currently is in fifth place, 52 points behind leader George Tamasi Jr.

Steve Cohen won the national championship in Super Comp in 1987, the first year that eliminator became a regular feature at national events. Cohen is the points leader again after winning his second event of the season. The Trilby, Fla., racer beat Orlando's Jim Perry in the final when Perry fouled by .001-second.

A round earlier, Perry nailed the index in taking an 8.908 win over Lindsey Wood, and Cohen downed eventual Super Gas winner Bryan Robinson, 8.911 to 8.921. Cohen and Perry are now first and second, respectively, in the Division 2 Super Comp standings.

Robinson, of Iuka, Miss., quickly recovered from his loss in Super Comp and returned to claim the win in Super Gas following a three-thousandths victory over Ralph Barrett in the final. Robinson left first, .014 to .017, and that was the difference because both drivers finished with matching 9.925 elapsed times.

Barrett, currently second in the Division 2 Super Gas standings, took a tough route to the final; he was forced to get past former national champ Sherman Adcock before earning a bye into the final. Against Adcock, Barrett posted a perfect 9.900 in his '02 Corvette.

Robinson was also dialed into the 9.90 standard. He used a 9.904 to take out Jeff Chandler in the semifinals, one round after cutting a .001 reaction time on his bye run.

Florida neighbors James Barbera, of Trenton, and Mike Griggs, of Ocala, locked horns in the Super Street final. Barbera emerged the victor after a close 10.897 to 10.891 double-breakout race. Barbera, in a '66 Chevy II, was aided by a slight six-thousandths advantage off the starting line.