Pro Sportsman Association
Both Whiteleys Win Vegas Again, Payne Takes West TAFC Title
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Las Vegas, NV – At the final Lucas Oil Series event anywhere in the country this year, Annie Whiteley, who’s undefeated in four career 
regional starts at Las Vegas, and husband Jim Whiteley swept the alcohol classes for the third time since last year, Annie in Top Alcohol Funny Car and Jim in Top Alcohol Dragster. Both won photo-finish finals, Annie by three-thousandths of a second over Jay Payne, who clinched the West Region championship, and Jim by just one-thousandth over Garrett Bateman.
Jim, who locked up the national championship with his victory at last week’s Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas, clinched the regional title with his fifth final and fourth win of the season. After a final-round loss to Ray Martin at the Phoenix opener, he won the next four – Denver, Tulsa, and now both the spring and fall Las Vegas races.
Top Alcohol Champs Whiteley, Manzo Going Out in Style
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Las Vegas, NV – Reigning national champions Jim Whiteley and Frank Manzo, who have said for months that this will be their last season, clinched championships with victories at the Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Whiteley his second straight in Top Alcohol Dragster and Manzo his eighth in a row and 17th overall in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
Whiteley and archrival Chris Demke finished 1-2 in last year’s final standings, again in this year’s standings, at Indy, at this race, and even in qualifying for this race, which was the only time Whiteley didn’t come out on top. He was second to Demke, 5.29 to 5.30, but quicker in all four rounds, starting with a 5.28 (low e.t.) against Las Vegas’ Duane Shields in round one. Demke beat Jeff Ashwell in that round with a 5.32 and kept his deteriorating championship prospects alive with a 5.40 second-round win over Dan Mercier, who, unbeknownst to Demke, who thought he got left on, had red-lighted.
Professional Sportsman Association Progress Report
Opening the Lucas Oil Drag Racing season with a new president, Alcohol Funny car racer and former track owner Ray Drew, the Pro 
Sportsman Association moved forward with attainable, measureable goals for 2013: connect with the fans in the stands, continue providing race reports from every regional event and expand into national event coverage, and work more closely with NHRA and track operators.
“NHRA is on board with what we’re doing, and is looking to do more in 2014,” Drew said. “PSA representatives were at the off-season meetings with NHRA Division Directors and track operators in almost all of the divisions, and I think that the tracks that worked with us the closest this year – Chicago, Earlville, and Norwalk – are the ones that had the best results.”
Samsel, Noakes Win First NHRA Titles at Maple Grove
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Reading, PA – At the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, veteran Robin Samsel won his first NHRA title of any kind in 
Top Alcohol Dragster and Canadian Paul Noakes did likewise in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
Samsel, a soft-spoken 64-year-old great-grandfather from Marion, Ind., who has been racing Top Alcohol Dragsters since 1996, had two previous final-round appearances, both runner-ups in regional/divisional competition, including one earlier this year. In his first national event final, Samsel produced one of the best reaction times of his career, a .020, to get the drop on Brandon Booher, who is known for his lights but had just a .083 that time. Any other light Booher had all weekend – or any other run with that .083 reaction time – would have been enough to win, but he slowed from his earlier 5.30s to a 5.51 and fell short of Samsel’s 5.56 by seven-thousandths of a second as both drivers made by far their slowest runs of eliminations.
Tatum, Lombardo Take Noble Regional Wins
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Noble, OK – At the second-to-last event of the 24-race Lucas Oil regional series, former Super Gas national event champion Aaron 
Tatum, who had raced only four times all year and hadn’t won a round, went the distance in Top Alcohol Dragster, and John Lombardo kept his national championship hopes alive and wrapped up the Central Region title with a victory in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
Tatum, who DNQed at his first three races this season – the Tulsa regional and both the national and regional events at Topeka – and was ousted in the opening round at Dallas in his only other start, managed a 5.80 in the final to take out upstart James Stevens, who smoked the tires right off the line and slowed to an 8.90. Stevens, who competed just three times this season, has improved every time out: he was beaten in the first round at Denver, barely lost in the semifinals in Topeka, and earned his first final-round appearance here with wins over Michael Manners in round one and defending event champ David Brounkowski in the semifinals.
Westerfield Wins First, Whiteley Continues Roll – AAA FallNationals TA/D and TA/FC Report
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Ennis, TX – At the AAA Texas FallNationals in Dallas, Shane Westerfield handed Frank Manzo his first final-round loss in nearly eight 
years to earn his first major Top Alcohol Funny Car victory and Jim Whiteley put the Top Alcohol Dragster championship almost out of reach with his sixth overall win this season.
With increasingly quicker reaction times, Westerfield left on everybody he faced and reeled off one low-5.50 after another, highlighted by a 5.55 to 5.58 final-round decision over Manzo, whose last runner-up was 43 finals ago at the 2006 Winternationals. “That’s about the best weekend anybody could have – not because I won but because I ended his streak,” Westerfield said. “That’s all anybody wanted to talk about.”
Manzo Back in 1st Place, Booher Wins First National
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Concord, NC – At the Carolina Nationals in Charlotte, Frank Manzo won for the third time in a row and the 103rd time in his 
unparalleled career to shoot from sixth to first in the national Top Alcohol Funny Car standings, and in Top Alcohol Dragster Brandon Booher won his first national event to keep alive a longshot bid for the national championship.
Manzo, who uncharacteristically stumbled through his first three national event starts this season without reaching a final, backed up his Brainerd and Indy victories with a dominant performance in Charlotte, qualifying No. 1 and running low e.t. of every round, including a final-round 5.59 against rival Mickey Ferro’s 5.70.
Bateman Wins TA/D, Gasparrelli Takes TA/FC at Woodburn
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Woodburn, OR – Overdue Garrett Bateman won Top Alcohol Dragster and many-time Division 7 champion 
took Top Alcohol Funny Car at the second of two West Region Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events at historic Woodburn Dragstrip outside Portland.
Bateman won the final over snake-bitten Chris Demke, who fell for the seventh time in nine 2013 finals when his car dropped a valve in low gear. Bateman, at the wheel of the HipLink A/Fuel Dragster, pounded out a final-round 5.45 at 261 mph, by far his best run of eliminations, to take down Demke’s hamstrung 5.63 at241.
Demke had a decided edge to that point, with low e.t. of both the first round and the semifinals. He dropped Gregg Lawrence, who won one of the Woodburn events last season, in the first round with a 5.38 – two-tenths of a second better than the next-quickest car.
Dreher, Williams Earn First Season Wins
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
At Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa, Top Alcohol Dragster veteran Jared Dreher, who opened last season with a regional victory at 
Indianapolis, and defending Central Region Top Alcohol Funny champ Kirk Williams both scored for the first time this season.
Dreher picked up the fifth regional/division event title of his career with a final-round decision over reigning Central Region and event winner Gord Gingles, who had won his last two races – the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd and the Central Region race in Topeka. Gingles, who has established himself as one of the best on the Tree in just his second year in an A/Fueler, was second off the line this time and shook violently before shutting off to a 6.31 at 179 mph.
“We both shook hard, but he shook worse,” said Dreher, who won with a 5.48. “His was so violent that it broke the puke tank and had body panels hanging off the car when we got down there. Mine shook pretty bad too, but not that bad.”
2012 National Champs Whiteley, Manzo Reign at Indy
Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Indianapolis, IN – Reigning national champions Jim Whiteley and Frank Manzo ruled the most prestigious race of any season, the 
Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, Whiteley in Top Alcohol Dragster and Manzo in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
In the Top Alcohol Dragster final, Whiteley beat Chris Demke, the number two driver in the nation behind him last season, the number two driver behind him in points this season, and No. 1 qualifier for this race, 5.35 to 5.37. “That was a lot of pressure,” Whiteley said. “Winning Indy is something I really wanted to get done before I stop racing in Alcohol Dragster, and points-wise, this is just huge.” With the final-round victory, he passed Demke to take the lead in the national championship by less than one round, 668 points to 649.
