FEATURE- From the Tower by Bob Frey

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Fri, 11 Oct 2013, 10:33 AM

Someone Had To End The Streak

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2013 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Shane Westerfield defeated Frank Manzo
in the Dallas final.

In the long and storied history of sports, all sports, there have been some unbelievable streaks, both good and bad. These come in the form of team records and streaks as well as individual accomplishments and they all seem remarkable and unbreakable. Case in point, the 59.1 consecutive scoreless innings that Orel Hershiser once pitched in 1988. Think about it, that's more than six consecutive games when you didn't allow a run. Amazing, isn't it? Then there is the "Great One" Wayne Gretzky who once scored a point in fifty-one consecutive NHL games. Now I won't go into the fact that you can score a point (and win the scoring title) without ever scoring a goal in hockey but that's a discussion for a different day. Of course if you're discussing streaks in sports you have to include Joe DiMaggio's record-setting fifty-six game hitting streak in 1941, a streak that nobody has even come close to in over seventy years. And what about UCLA's great basketball teams under head coach John Wooden? Those teams won a staggering eighty-eight games in a row and that included back-to-back 30-0 seasons. Oklahoma won forty-seven football games in a row, Cal Ripken played in 2,630 games and Wilt Chamberlin scored twenty or more points in 126 straight games. All fantastic records or streaks that will probably remain forever. Drag racing had its own historic streak and that was the one set by Frank Manzo who won an incredible forty-two consecutive final rounds at the national event level. But, like DiMaggio, Gretzky or any of those teams and players that I mentioned even Frank's streak had to end sometime and it did at the recent NHRA race in Dallas where he lost to Shane Westerfield.

Shane Westerfield is twenty-six years old and he works in the family's business, Coeste Design Incorporated. "We make displays for companies for industrial and trade shows," Shane said. "We do a lot for the PRI show, SEMA and the big NAMM music show. That one is really cool since it is like going to fifteen concerts all at the same time. If I'm working that event I usually try to sneak, I mean get into a few of the concerts." The business was started almost three decades ago by Shane's grandfather and father and is still going strong today.

In addition to working with his father Shane also got his driving genes from his dad. "He used to race boats and I always thought that someday I would get to drive it, but when I told my father that he said I would never drive the boat, and if I wanted to race it would be on land." In truth, Shane raced on land long before he had any ideas about driving the family's boat. "I started racing when I was about five," he said. "And I raced a lot of things from go karts to Jr. Dragsters and I enjoyed all of it." After winning a championship in the go karts Shane joined some of the sport's great young stars in the newly formed Jr. Dragster program. "The first race I ever won I beat Leah Pruett," he said. "Del Cox, JR Todd and Erica Enders were all contemporaries of mine in the Jr. cars." Now that would be some class reunion, wouldn't it?

Westerfield and crew celebrate win.
Even though his father wouldn't let him drive the boat he did let Shane work on it. "That's where I learned all about engines and how to fix them and make them run better." And as good as he was at that he knew that what he really wanted to do was drive. "Dad finally told me that I could drive and we started looking for a car, and we didn't have to look too long or too far because Sean Bellemeur was selling one and he didn't live very far from our shop." To listen to Shane you would think they knew everything about these Funny Cars when they went to buy one, but that couldn't be further from the truth. "Yeah, we were looking around it saying that we liked this and that but we really had no idea what we were looking at. Even when I got in the car I said it felt good and it really didn't." And the Bellemeur family didn't help. "Yeah, they kept telling me it looked like the car was made just for me," Shane added. "Only later on did I find out they just wanted to sell the car. We both look back on that now and just laugh."

He also looks back at his first time in the car with a little smile. "We went to Bakersfield and I had a bunch of guys helping me and it wasn't until I was in the car getting ready to do my burnout that I realized none of them had ever even been on the starting line before. In fact, the only guy who had was me and I was in the car." After trying to stage the car with the

Shane Westerfield
rear wheels, and after taking off and almost hitting the wall, Shane said that when the run was finally over it started to rain. Now normally rain isn't what a racer wants to see, but after his less than perfect maiden voyage Shane remembers that when he saw the drops hitting the windshield of the car he thought, "Good, now I don't have to do that again today."

Like every driver before him the more seat-time he had the better he became and Shane and his family operation was quickly becoming one of the best cars in the Division 7 area. "We did pretty well in the beginning, that is, after a few rough spots to start off with. But we made gradual progress and felt we were headed in the right direction." Until that direction changed, literally and figuratively, on one run. "We had some new brakes on the car at Pomona, something broke and I ended up hitting the wall and banged the car up pretty badly. It was really tough for us because we didn't have a big budget." But, undaunted, the family bought another car, an old Del Worsham Funny Car, and they have been running that ever since.

Shane Westerfield
While he was enjoying success in the car, getting quicker and faster every year, Shane said that he and his family always liked to add one new track a year to their schedule. "This year we picked Charlotte and we really enjoyed it." Of course they would have enjoyed it more if they had gone one more round. "We were in the semi-finals against Frank and I just messed up." By that he means that he left way too early, fouled out and lost to Frank. "That was tough because we had a really good car." So good that between that race and their next stop, the Texas Motorplex, they didn't even take the engine out of the car. "Our crew chief, Bob DeVour, looked at it and said it looked good so he decided to leave it alone." I guess that's why the crew chiefs make the big bucks because the car and driver performed flawlessly in Texas. "We ran well in every round, the car was good and I was driving well and that's a great feeling especially after the Charlotte race."

Going into the final round against Frank, Shane admits to being a little tentative. "I was, after all he is the man, but Bob and my dad said to approach it like it's just another time run and not worry about Frank." Easy for them to say, they didn't have to line up against him and try to end one of the longest winning streaks in drag racing history. "I actually thought about going over to him and asking him to sign my helmet before the run, but I thought better of it."

Going into that final round Shane had the confidence to know that he had run as quick as Frank in the previous rounds, in fact he had lane choice going into the match with the sixteen-time champ. "I took it very seriously but I was relaxed, too." Whatever he did it worked because Shane never trailed in the race, and his 5.555 was enough to hold off Frank's 5.583, and Shane had his first national event win and Frank lost in the finals for the first time since 2006. "After the race he just came over and said 'Good job' and that was it," Shane said.

Kayleigh and Shane
with special guest Wally.
While winning a national event and beating Frank Manzo are both pretty special and very rare, the good times weren't over yet for Shane. "I got married the week after the race and we even took the trophy to the wedding. Brad Littlefield bought a little tux for it and dressed it up. It was really cool."

With a few races still remaining on the schedule for 2013 it looks like Frank is going to win another Lucas Oil World Championship, but Shane says that the year has been a real success. "We won a race, beat Frank, I got married, we're in the top three in the points and the business is going well so what more could a guy ask for? I'd like to thank Bob DeVour, Scott and Jim DeFransisco, Greg Vanderwende, my mom and dad and my wife, Kayleigh, for all their support. And, like all racers, we couldn't do this without the help of our sponsors CP Carrillo, Fluid Sealing Products, Blake Brothers Racing, Lucas Oil, Coeste Design, Goodyear Tires, Jet Lube and A1 Technologies." And next year they will run another fifteen races, pick another new track to visit and try to improve on this year's finish in the points and maybe have a streak of their own, but regardless of how they do it will be tough to beat 2013 for Shane Westerfield.