Big names looking for
wins at Raceway Park
Track hosting NHRA
Federal-Mogul series
this weekend
Clarksburg’s Peter Biondo and Morganville’s Frank Manzo are two of the biggest winners in Federal-Mogul drag racing.
This weekend they will be looking to a drag strip they can call home, Raceway Park, to help them continue their quests for championships this year in a National Hot Rod Association Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series event to be held Friday through Sunday. This is the fifth of six stops on the NHRA Federal-Mogul Northeast Division schedule.
Biondo (Stock Eliminator) and Manzo (Funny Car) were NHRA Federal-Mogul Northeast Division Champions in 1999. Manzo won the Mogul national championship as well.
Manzo has dominated the Funny Car Division, winning 10 Northeast titles including the last five straight, and he is not slowing down in 2000. With wins at the first three stops of the series he’s on his way to No. 11. The news isn’t good for his challengers this weekend either because Manzo is the defending champion at Raceway Park.
The versatile Biondo has won Northeast titles in the Super Street, Super Stock, Super Competition and Stock Eliminator divisions. He was a national champion in Super Stock. Not bad for someone who started out playing ice hockey in Queens, N.Y.
"My father Sam has been racing for more than 30 years, and my brother and I have been going to the track with him our entire lives," said Biondo. "Dad always gave Sal and me the choice of what we wanted to do, but really I’m just better at racing than I was at hockey."
The record would seem to confirm that with six Northeast titles (four straight) to his credit. Sal Biondo has won two Federal-Mogul Northeast championships.
Drag racing has become a business for the Biondo family. Sam Biondo began by selling racing parts out of the back of his station wagon in 1985 and the business has grown since into a racer-oriented, mail-order auto parts company called Biondo Products. Peter Biondo, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business management at St. John’s University, Jamaica, N.Y., is the vice president of the family business. In between business and racing, he’s constantly involved in the sport.
Biondo competes in two classes in the Drag Racing Series, the Super Stock and Stock Eliminator, where he is the defending champion.
"It can be a little difficult, especially if you’re doing well in both classes," he explained. "The more rounds you go, the less time you have between runs so you might not have time to go through your game plan or go over your notes. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened to me lately. I’ve been doing well in one class or the other."
Biondo has one victory in the Super Stock Division this year. His brother Sal Biondo has been a runner-up.
The defending champions at this week’s stop at Raceway Park are: Ron Still, Dragster; Manzo, Funny Car; Tom Ekroth, Competition; Dan Fletcher, Super Stock; Ronald Urquart, Stock; Michael Glaser, Super Competition; Chuck Szilagyi, Super Gas; and Don Garbinski, Super Street.
More than 600 drivers will be competing in the eight racing categories this weekend.
Gates will open at Raceway Park at 8 a.m. each day for the NHRA Federal-Mogul Drag Racing Series. Qualifying and time trials begin at 10 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The Dragsters and Funny Cars are scheduled to run on Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Eliminations begin at 10 a.m. Sunday, with the Dragsters and Funny Cars starting at noon.
Call 446-7800 for additional information on the Federal-Mogul event.

