January 31, 2003

SPEEDZONE EXCLUSIVE
First look at Duane Shields' new car

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January 23, 2003

Cal Tebb's 7.50 Funny car out of Alberta. It's a 74 Vega body with a blown Chevy engine. The car will be raced with the International Blown Alcohol Association this coming year and will be featured as an exhibition class at the IHRA "Rocky Mountain Nationals". There has been extensive work put into restoring the body along with this candy apple paint job, all done by Joey and his staff at "Joey's Place" in Edmonton.

January 1, 2003
Our TOP ALCOHOL zone will be one of…if not the most important zone on speedzonemagazine.com. The reason is simple. These are the go fast cars that most fans and racers can relate to. They are not corporate entities, do not need million dollar budgets and are classes that a nine to five every day Joe can compete in. TA cars compete regularly at most local tracks, with the classes made up with some of the most approachable and well liked personalities in the sport.

Throughout the year, our TOP ALCOHOL Zone will highlight different racers and teams and events from across the continent, as well as highlights from as far away as Europe and Australia.

2002 Top Alcohol Dragster recap
• It was not the Rick Santos/Jack O’Bannon show for the first time in over five years.

• It also marked the first time that an A/Fuel Dragster won the championship.

Art Gallant, from Boxboro Mass won two of his first three races and battled all year long with Las Vegas standout Duane Shields in the “ShortLine Express” Blown Alcohol entry.

Going back and forth all season long, Arthur Gallant took the lead for good at Reading in September and held on for a two round (43 pts) victory in the final standings.

To start the year, The O'Bannon team ran at Pomona at then after a second round loss to Steve “I cut lights like a Super Comp Racer” Federlin.

O'Bannon surprised the class and his team by announcing they were done unless they could find a sponsor (the second surprise was that they did not find a corporation that would back the FIVE TIME WORLD CHAMP!!!!).

Federlin won that first race of the year to get his first ever national event Wally and stayed near the top all season long with his stellar driving. (ie: reaction times).

Controversary was around every corner in the class, due to the perceived advantage held by the A/Fuel Cars. While their performance at a number of national events was dominating to say the least in qualifying, the final numbers in the standings showed that the blown cars (nine of the top ten were blown cars), were still capable of going rounds and winning races. In the end, the blown contingent won seven of sixteen national events and over 30 of 45 divisional races. The national record was held by a blown car until the last race of the year when next-year’s-odds-on-favourite Morgan Lucas won at Pomona and reset the mark with an awesome 5.23.

In addition to the A/Fuel Car of Lucas, expect Gallant, blown competitors Shields, Federlin (both with new cars for 2003), David Wells (with the Santos car), and 2002 runner-up Mark Hentges to be the main combatants in 2003. Also look for sophomore Brandon Johnson, Gary Ormsby Jr. (if he does not end up in a Top Fuel car, right John Force!), and Tony Bartone to be players as well.

2002 Top Alcohol Funny Car recap
In Top Alcohol Funny Car, it was the Frank Manzo show again. This was his sixth-in-a-row and eighth world title overall. He won ten of thirteen events entered, and after racing only once in the first three months, went on a roll and won ten of his next eleven races. He had the title pretty well wrapped up in early August, and guaranteed it at Indy.

Five competitors battled for second spot with California’s Steve Gasparelli ending up as the bridesmaid. Division six veteren Bucky Austin had a chance to get third place if he won the final race at Pomona but a loss in the final round to Gasparelli which left him in fifth in the standings.

Don’t expect 2003 to be much different than the past six years. If Manzo pulls a Santos the field will be wide open. If he remains and runs a full slate, his region of competition lends itself to another dominant year as only Jay Payne and Von Smith are his usual tough competition.

While others in the east will challenge him on occasion, without regular competition from some of the mid-west and west coast stars (Austin, Gasparelli, Larry Miner, Pat Austin, Tate Branch, Marc White and at least a dozen other 5.60-5.70 cars), we see the pattern continuing.

As a homers of Div. 6, we hope that Bucky Austin can keep his performance level for the whole year and improve on his reaction time which could well give the west coast it's first TAFC title since Randy Anderson in 1994.

This group will hopefully give the NHRA the unity the two classes have desperately needed for over a decade. As a group they have the best chance to get NHRA’s attention on all aspects of the class particularly arbitrary rules changes, scheduling and payouts in my opinion. With executives such as Duane Shields and Shelly Howard (to name a couple) on board, TARA should be in good hands. Hopefully NHRA will listen and strongly consider ideas put forward. Any Top Alcohol teams are strongly encouraged to join.

Here is the info needed:

Name:

NHRA Eligible Class Designations:
Top Alcohol Dragsters and Top Alcohol Funny Cars; including blown alcohol and injected nitro dragsters, and blown alcohol funny cars.

Have two Full Member Boards (one for dragsters and one for funny cars), a Technical Board, and an Associate Board.

Eligible Full Members: (with full voting privileges)
-Licensed Drivers who have driven in competition within the past 2 years.
-One designated Car owner per team of a car that has run in competition within the past 2 years.

Technical Members: (vote only on recommendations of the Technical Board)
-Designated Crew Chiefs (one per team, or independent Crew Chiefs who have had an active advisory Crew Chief role of a car in competition within the past 2 years)

Associate Members: (vote only on recommendations of the Associate Board)
-Crew Members
-Sponsors
-Any other interested party

Membership Dues per annum:
-Full Membership $250 per team/or/individual
-Technical Membership $ 75 per Crew Chief
-Associate Members $ 75 per Member

Board Membership:
-Full Member Dragster Board
-One Driver or Owner from each NHRA Division, based upon where the team is based, not upon which Division is claimed by a team. Board Members are to be appointed by Full Members within each Division.
-Other Drivers or Owners needed to balance board representation equally between blown alcohol dragsters and injected nitro dragsters. These Board Members are to be appointed by the seven divisional Board Members.
-No more than two board members may be from one NHRA Division.
-Full Member Funny Car Board
-One Driver or Owner from each NHRA Division
-Technical Board
-At least one member from a blown alcohol dragster, an injected nitro dragster, and two blown alcohol funny cars.
-Associate Board
-Composed of five Associate members

The Governing Body of the Association is the combined Full Member Dragster Board and Full Member Funny Car Board. Any decision of the Association as determined by vote of the combined Full Member Dragster and Funny Car Boards must carry at least two-thirds of the board member's votes.

Officers:
President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer

Officers shall be appointed for a term of one year by the representatives of the Full Member Boards.

If you are ready to join, please send a check or money order made out to the 'Top Alcohol Racers Association' to one of the addresses below:

Bruce Bowler                        
Phoenix Motorsports             
3660 E. 40th Ave.                 
Denver, CO 80205

Shelly Howard
10021 S. Yale, PMB 107-116
Tulsa, OK 74137