Zane moves into first place with second victory

National Dragster, Jul 9, 2004 by Jodauga, John

Most experienced racers are reluctant to size up their chances for a national championship in June, and Lee Zane is no exception, even though his latest victory, at the K&N Filters SuperNationals presented by Strauss Discount Auto, vaulted him past Bernie Cunningham into first place.

"I'm not trying to think about [the championship] much at this point; it's way too early to get wrapped up in it," said Zane, who earlier won the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil and the LODRS events in Orlando, FIa., and Reading. "One of the reasons we're doing better this year is that I came into the season with a more relaxed attitude, and all I'm trying to do is cut back on my mistakes. When we won our first race of the year in Orlando, it was a positive way to start the season, and I've been enjoying every minute of 2004 so far."

Zane competes in Stock and Super Stock because he enjoys racing on the full Tree.

"That's what I did when I first started running in bracket competition with a footbrake car," he said, "and I still like doing it today."

To win his latest event, Zane had to drive his '73 Apollo past Keith Ohanesian's '84 Camaro in a heads-up battle between two K/SA entries. The race proved to be anticlimactic after Ohanesian fouled with a -.005 light, but Zane had the performance advantage anyway, posting an 11.731 against Ohanesian's losing 11.776.

Said Zane, "This was our second heads-up race of the year, the first taking place in Orlando. Even though we're pretty fast, we try to avoid headsup races as much as possible because it messes with our game plan of running on a dial. The current national record holder [Bob Mulry, of Hollister, Calif.] is from the West Coast, but we can run with just about all of the guys on the East Coast."

But whether he's racing heads-up or on his dial, Zane has proven to be equally adept at reaching the winner's circle, and he has placed himself in solid position to contend for this season's Stock crown.

The key race: "My semifinal race against Bob Broadbent," said Zane. "I had a .018 light, which wasn't really bad, but he drilled me with a .001, and I was there for the taking. Fortunately for me, his car apparently spun the tires off the line because his 60-foot clocking was much slower than normal." The slow start held Broadbent to a 10.900, well off of his 10.71 dial, which enabled Zane to overtake him on the top end with a .122-over 12.012.

The riinner-Up: Though Ohanesian lost the heads-up final to Zane, he won a similar contest on a holeshot against Jason Kinash's K/SA "85 Camaro in round three, 11.922 to 11.894. Ohanesian had a huge starting-line advantage, .025 to .221.

Fast fact! Three drivers recorded perfect .000 reaction times during eliminations, including Zane, who accomplished the feat in his round-two win over Steve Ficacci's I/SA '72 Road Runner. The other perfect lights were recorded in the first round, by Norm Hall's G/SA '7O Nova, and in the second stanza, by Kinash.

Did you know? Zane has a '78 Camaro that he built for bracket competition, but his schedule in the last two years has left little time to race it. "I was able to race it a lot more often when I worked for a furniture company," said Zane, "but after I started racing full time for a living, my schedule of NHRA national events, LODRS races, national opens, and other similar forms of competition doesn't leave me too many open weekends. We've been pretty much on the road since the beginning of March, and we'll continue to do that until the end of November."

Quotable! "Although my current plans are to run more in Super Stock, my ultimate goal is to some day compete in Pro Stock. I think that's the dream of any NHRA Sportsman racer. The Pro Stock drivers I admire the most are the ones who came up through the Sportsman ranks, like Jeg and Troy Coughlin, Jason Line, Dave Connolly, and Steve Johns. If the opportunity to drive in Pro Stock ever materialized for me, I'd do it in a heartbeat." - Lee Zane

Best packages: I. Bobby Twynam (East Hanover, N.J.) .004/11.131 (11.13) round four; 2. Michael Iacono (Wading River, N.Y.) .016/11.340 (11.34) round one; 3. Peter Biondo (Mount Laurel, N.J.) .008/10.500 (10.49) round two.