Frigo, Hool Take Rescheduled Topeka Wins in Earlville

Written by Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association

Earlville, IA – At the rescheduled “WIBW Thunder in the Heartland” Topeka regional, Sidnei Frigo picked up his first Top Alcohol Dragster win this year and Kris Hool his first in Top Alcohol Funny Car since he opened the regional era with a victory at Gainesville in February.

Completing the last two rounds at Tri State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa, the day before qualifying began for the regularly scheduled regional event there, Frigo topped Randy Meyer in a great final, 5.40 to 5.43, after gaining a slight edge at the Tree, .067 to .078. It was the Brazilian driver’s second career win, including the Division 2 race last year at zMax Dragway in Charlotte.

“We backed it down because we hadn’t made a run in that lane,” said crew chief Tom Conway, who tuned the car to an early shutoff 5.34, 253 on the one time trial allotted all returning drivers. “The groove there is narrow, but if you can keep the car in the middle of it, you can really run hard.”

Frigo shut off to a 5.87 at 185 mph on a semifinal single when Texan James Thompson, who had won the Topeka event in each of the past two years, was unable to make the trip north to Iowa for the rain date. Meyer won the other semifinal over John Finke in a match crucial to Finke’s East Region championship hopes, 5.54 to 5.99.

Had Finke reached the final, East leader Rich McPhillips, who was monitoring the results from the Indy pits and halfway packed up, would have driven to Earlville for this weekend’s event.

The final-round loss extended a frustrating streak for Meyer, the 2003 national championship team owner, who has five runner-ups in five finals this season – two at national events, two in regional competition, and one at the Jegs Allstars event.

Hool, who finished in the national top 10 last year for the first time in his career, strengthened his position in the national standings with his third consecutive late-round finish. He reached the semifinals in his last two national event appearances, in Seattle and Brainerd, and put away three of the most feared drivers in the class at this race with consistent 5.80s: Cordova runner-up Dale Brand and perennial title contenders Jay Payne and Tony Bartone. Coming from the bottom half of the field, Hool upset Payne in Topeka, 5.80 to a shutoff 8.27, and erased Brand in the semi’s, 5.86 to 14.05.

Bartone qualified No. 1 in Topeka with a 5.64 and beat Bruce Carlson there with a 5.68. In Earlville, he narrowly got around Lance Van Hauen in the semi’s, 5.782 to 5.786, then slowed to a 5.91 in the final and lost to Hool’s 5.83. Bartone, who lost the national championship to Frank Manzo last year largely because he didn’t perform as well on the divisional level as he did on national event tracks, has yet to win a regional event in three tries this year.