Wed, 18 Oct 2000, 09:36 AM Yes Race Fans that's a Subaru!

By Lewis Bloom

When Ed Bennett III took on Frank Aragona Jr. for the Comp Eliminator championship at Gateway last June the two cars could not have been more different. . What made their final round match-up so much fun for Comp Eliminator class fans was the fact that Bennett was driving Robert Book's, Steve Schmidt powered, A/Dragster and Aragona was racing the world’s quickest flat six Subaru G/Econo Dragster.

Frank Aragona Jr.

Bennett earlier in the weekend had run the quickest pass ever in Comp history at a stunning 6.59. While Aragona had tried as hard as possible not to run "too fast" for fear of being penalized by the C.I.C. (competition index control) gods. This match-up is one of the reasons why comp is still a hard core fan favorite and miss-understood by most of the masses. The race ended even before it started, unfortunately, as Bennett backed up to far from his burnout into the water-box one more time. With a handicap head start of over 1.94 seconds Aragona left first and had a .645 reaction time, and was there for the taking, but Bennett instantly lost traction and the race was over. When Aragona Jr. crossed the finish line first and his win light came on some 8.50 seconds later his dad, Frank Aragona Sr. jumped for joy on the starting line. This was the first national event win for the Aragona family, a goal of theirs that actually started some 37 years before when Aragona Sr. started his Drag Racing career. Like so many times in NHRA sportsman class racing a father got a chance to watch his son take home the "Wally".

Frank Aragona Sr. started his racing career some 37 years before at the young age of 17 racing a 1953 Studebaker with his brother Joe. Like so many other New Yorkers, Aragona Sr. raced out on Long Island at West Hampton. He eventually switched to an Anglia in the mid sixties. The car ran B/Altered and Aragona Sr. was hooked forever. His next race car would be the start of a series of cars named "Light and Lively". The car was a homebuilt 1972 Vega, built to run Pro Stock, powered by a 350 cubic inch Chevy smallblock. That was in the day of Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins and Frank Iaconio who in that day ran 9.30 seconds. Aragona Sr. and his homebuilt Vega ran times only about 2 tenths slower than Jenkins and Iaconio. Eventually Frank switched to modified eliminator in the mid seventies. Then the switch was made to Competition Eliminator where the family has been for most of their racing careers. First came a Monza that ran C/Econo Altered, after that a Beretta built by the Smith Brothers of Massachusetts. The car was originally built for current Pro Stock Car racer Bob Benza who ran it ten times but never really liked it. Aragona Sr. ran the car in B/Econo Altered, C/Econo Altered and briefly in A/Altered. Eventually the Berretta settled into D/Altered. Things all changed in 1994 when Frank Jr. decided it was time to start his Competition Eliminator driving career.

Frank Jr.’s love of Drag Racing started 20 years ago when his dad took him to the Mac Tools Gatornationals in Florida. Jr. said he was "hooked" just like his dad spending most of the time in search of autographs. His first race car was a (no surprise here!) a 1969 Camaro which became available and was purchased by his dad. Like so many current racers Jr. spent most of his time bracket racing. He eventually ended trying to drive the family Berretta. This led to the purchase of a dragster built by Maryland’s Ken Keir. They took the old motor from the Berretta and put it in the new dragster. They sold the Camaro to make extra room in the garage. At that time they tried to run both cars which Sr. would say was "ridiculous", too much money and not enough time. Frank Jr. said that he enjoyed driving and his dad felt he would be more successful.

In his first year in competition in 1995 Jr. won the Orlando Division Two points race running as fast as .68 under. He went to the finals at his home track, Old Bridge Twp. Raceway Park at the Mopar Nationals in 1998 losing to Don Eckel III. Frank Jr. also made several trips to the finals at Division One events before eventually breaking their motor. The other problem for them was that their index in C/Econo Dragster was continually getting hit by other racers. They got tired of having to buy the latest, greatest cylinder heads to keep up. Frank Jr. asked his Uncle Joe a long time VW and Porsche engine builder to come up with a new combination for Comp. First they thought seriously about the Porsche powerplant, but eventually they settled on the SUBARU.

To quote Aragona Sr. they "wanted to build something different, competitive" and Uncle Joe came up with the Subaru. Joe spent two years working on the motor even before they put it in the car. The opposed six cylinder powerplant is 203 cubic inches and comes out of the Subaru SVX model, Sr. said the "one with the funny window". Uncle Joe needed to have everything custom built, billet crank, cam-shafts, you name it. They actually received some advice from Pro Stock Bike racer and former Winston Champion "Pizza" John Maffaro, since the motor is similar to a four valve Suzuki. Tom Slawko did the heads which took over five months to perfect and the carbs are by Holley, 350cfm two barrels on top of custom Hogan manifolds. The converter is by Coan and the three speed transmission is by A-1. The car itself was your basic dragster built once again by Keir. The car was ready and the Aragona’s took their new Subaru powered dragster to the track to start testing.

They started testing the new combination at the end of 1998 and it was not "running at all". Frank Jr. said they would "break it, then fix it" and start the process all over again. Early in the season in 1999 the Aragona’s brought both their dragsters to E-town to test one more time. The C/Econo Dragster ran .52 under while the Subaru ran .64 under in E/Econo Dragster. They went onto the Mopars and qualified number One.

Unfortunately to quote Jr. " I drove terrible in 1999", until they started to film their runs that’s when they started to figure out some of their problems. They noticed the front wheels where popping right out of the beams, adjustments were made and the car was starting to go fast. The only problem according to Jr. is "when you get fast you get stupid". He then talked to long time family friend and former Winston Comp champion Sal Biondo about driving a fast (based on Index) car. Biondo said try to pick a spot on the race track, try to run consistent, .55 under. "He taught me how to race smart".

The year 2000 started off terrible with a finish line crash at the Gatornationals. Frank Jr. came out of it physically fine but was in the "dumps" about his wrecked car. They called Keir on the way home and took the car to his shop. Once they took things apart it did not look as bad, just "crunched up". Keir took two weeks to repair the chassis and with the help of Uncle Joe, Tommy D’s Custom Paint of New Jersey and F&F Studio’s from Long Island the car was repaired in five weeks. With the repaired car the team went to Atco and tested on the same weekend as the Delmar Delaware FMDRS race once again having problems with head gaskets blowing out of the motor. They thrashed again changing the cooling system, and headed down south to Delmar to try to qualify for the event. Aragona Jr. went from not being in to number one at 8.50 seconds, .70 under. During elimination’s he took to much C.I.C. eventually losing to Jeff Taylor. At that point the decision was made to go to St. Louis.

At Gateway Aragona Jr. qualified number one at .70 under and took out Doug Auxier in round one. He had a bye in round two and then met up with the very tough Doug Engels in the quarter- finals. Engels who would eventually win his first ever national event at Brainerd ran .49 under with a great .525 reaction time, but could not catch Jr. who ran .52 under. In the semi’s Jr. took on Joey Tanksley and his B/Econo Dragster. Tanksley was quicker off the line but only ran .51 under and could not catch Aragona. Aragona took more index as he ran .63 under, even though he lifted at 1200 feet. In the final he took on the quickest comp car ever Book/Bennett’s A/Dragster and took the win when Bennett lost traction right off the line. When the win light came on Sr. "thanked god" and thought it was "fabulous". He was interviewed on the starting line about the win and his New York accent boomed through the track's bleachers. Racers and NHRA officials stopped Sr. all the way down the track on his way to pick up his son and say congratulations. Frank Jr. asked his dad "what took you so long". Jr. almost pushed the car back to the trailer by himself, he said it was "a great moment for the family". The icing on the cake was a win at the next Division One points race at Lebanon Valley.

In Memphis, where Jr. beat Jeff Taylor in the Comp final after they qualified number one at a whopping .81 under. He defeated Arnie Martel’s hired gun, Taylor, who had also run as quick as 7.82 seconds in D/Altered in qualifying, but lost in the final when his car went toward the centerline. Two national event wins in one seasons and last week at the Bristol Division Two points meet set the national et and mph records for G/Econo Dragster at 8.305 seconds and 157.71 mph. That's not bad for a little Subaru.

This year the Aragona’s are looking for a top ten finish in the Comp Federal Mogul standings. With the help of their friends things turned right around after a near disaster at Gainesville. Jr. said "that’s what makes the sport so attractive". Sr. is very proud of his son saying he "is a good kid who cares about other people". People as in the Aragona family make racing so much fun, especially when you hear the high revving sound of the national event winning Subaru……