Fri, 16 May 2008, 09:38 AM You Won't Be Able to Blame Me

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc. & Jim Samuel

Frank Manzo

There are certain things in sports that you just don't do. You don't talk to the pitcher when he's throwing a no hitter. You don't talk to the kicker when he's getting ready to attempt a game winning field goal. And you don't mention hitting streaks to a batter when he's going for a record. With that as a background, I guess the same thing could be said about drag racing. You don't mention a winning streak while the driver is still winning. Frank Manzo is on a winning streak, an incredible winning streak and I wasn't going to mention it for fear that I might jinx him. Now I have to admit that I never believed in that jinx thing but since a lot of people do I go along with it. Anyway, other than a brief passing reference to Frank's streak I haven't mentioned it a lot. On the other hand, Brad Littlefield did a great piece in a recent issue of National Dragster and it detailed everything that Frank has done during this incredible run. The way I look at it, the cat's out of the bag and now it's fair game to talk about the streak. And if Frank should lose soon, like this weekend in Norwalk, don't blame me. Blame Brad!!

Manzo in '80.

Frank Manzo has not lost a round since July 1, 2007. Let me say that again. He has not lost a round in over ten months. The last time he failed to win was in the second round at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio last July. It went in the record books as a round loss to Mick Snyder, but in reality Frank lost when he broke on the burnout. Since then he has reeled off thirty-nine consecutive round wins including wins at six national events and five divisional races. He will look to extend that remarkable streak this weekend when he attends the Division 3 Lucas Oil event at that same Ohio race track. The event is called the 2nd Annual B'laster PB50 Cavalcade of Stars and it is going to attract a huge field of alcohol funny cars including one Mr. Frank Manzo. Frank went there last year and won the race when he beat Daniel Wilkerson in the final round. That win came in May of last year so it isn't part of the streak but it is part of the legacy that is Frank Manzo. For the record, Frank has won seventy-four national events and has been in another two dozen final rounds. That means, with just two more final round appearances he will hit the 100 mark. His first national event win came at the 1980 Sportsnationals in Bowling Green, Kentucky when he beat Mike Kosky in the old Pro Comp class. Since then he has run off a string of national event victories that is almost unparalled in the sport. Consider this.he has won his last thirteen national event final rounds. The last time he lost in a final at a national event was at the Winternationals in 2006 when he fouled out against Jay Payne. Before that loss he had won ten straight final rounds going back to 2003 when he lost to Bob Newberry in Houston, Texas. He is 41-4 in his last forty-five national event final rounds so his current streak is no fluke.

Frank Manzo

Not only has Frank been winning but he has been doing it with some outstanding runs. As of this moment Frank has nine of the top ten quickest runs in the history of the class and he has all ten of the fastest runs in the class. Only Bob Tasca's 5.451 at Gainesville last year keeps Frank from sweeping all of the performance marks in the class. Over the course of his streak, the one that Brad mentioned, he has averaged, averaged an incredible 5.555 on race day at the national events and an impressive 5.726 at divisional races and that includes his 6.49 in the final round at Virginia recently. In that round Frank broke, coasted across the finish line and was still able to win and maintain the streak. Years from now Marty Nothstein, who was in the other lane, will look back at that run and think about what might have been. It is, in the interest if fair reporting, one of the very few "lucky rounds" that Frank has won over the past year during this incredible streak. Frank is also driving well when you consider the fact that he has been first off the starting line in twenty of the thirty-five rounds that featured two green light starts. Not bad for a guy who has the best car in the class, is it? And, since he is headed to Norwalk for a Lucas Oil division race, I guess I should mention that he has had a lot of success on the divisional level although he very rarely ventures outside of the friendly confines of his home division, Division 1. Since 1979, when he went to his first divisional final round, Frank has run off an incredible 94-32 mark in final rounds at divisional races and all but eight of those wins have come in Division 1. He's picked off six D-2 wins and a pair at Division 3 tracks. Ironically, two of those eight out of division wins came last year, the one in Norwalk and the other in Atlanta.

As Brad pointed out in his story, there have been other great streaks over the years and Frank has surpassed most of them. Tony Bartone went thirty-seven straight rounds without a loss back in 1995 and 1996 and Frank has now moved past Tony for the all-time sportsman mark. Pat Austin, who had a pretty good career of his own, won seventy-two of the seventy-nine rounds he competed in back in 1988 and then he won ten national events a year later. With the way the points were structured then, and still are for that matter, Pat's ten wins at national events could only land him in third place in the points that year. Pat also had a very good year in 1990 when he put another nine national event wins on the board. Meanwhile, Blaine Johnson and his brother, Alan, had a couple of very good years including 1990 and '91 when they won thirteen national events and a dozen divisional races. Still, there was always that one blemish that kept them for putting together a streak like Frank's. Bob Glidden, who once went a full year without a loss, won fifty consecutive rounds during his rampage in 1978 and '79, a streak that eventually ended with a red light start in Denver. Which brings up an interesting point. Back then a professional driver could go to a race and not claim it for points. So, if he had a long winning streak going and lost a round but didn't claim the race, which in essence meant he wasn't there, would the streak end? Just wondering.

Since the beginning of the 1998 season Frank has been to eighty-six national events and he has been to the final round at fifty-six of those with forty-eight wins, and his record over those eighty-six races is an astonishing 245-38. During that stretch he has qualified in the top four spots at eighty-three of those races. But as Frank would say, that's all behind him and now he must concentrate on the business at hand which, right now, means winning in Norwalk. I'm sure there are a lot of teams heading for Ohio who hope to put an end to that streak so that they'll have something to tell their grandchildren someday. Hey, for the sportsman racers to beat Frank Manzo is like a fuel Funny Car driver being able to tell his family that he beat John Force. And just like beating John, beating Frank doesn't happen that often.

Manzo and crew.

Frank has a wonderful team and he gets a tremendous amount of support and encouragement from his wife, Michelle. He also has a great crew that is led by crew chief John Glade and includes Ed Hoffman, Fred Bauer and Scott Siesing, and they are there to help him and support him in his quest for another national championship. The way he is running right now he certainly has to be considered the odds-on favorite to win it all, but don't tell that to Frank or to the guys in D-3 who will look to put an end to his streak this weekend. That's the streak that Brad mentioned, not me, so if Frank doesn't win this in Norwalk don't blame me. Blame Brad!!

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