BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
Around June, Freehold’s Cat Manzi decided to try something he had never done before, go all out for the North American dash driving championship.
Already a Harness Hall-of-Famer with more than 11,000 career wins, there was nothing left for Manzi to prove, or was there?
At 55, he was at an age where most drivers begin to cut back on their driving schedule, not increase it. But at mid-season, when he found himself atop the standings, the veteran reinsman decided the time was right to try and win his first driving title.
“It was never a goal of mine,” said Manzi of the national driving title. “If it happened, it happened. It would take special circumstances.”
Those special circumstances arrived this year.
“I had the drives that got me in good position in June,” he said. “I was never close before [to winning the title], and I figured this would be my last chance. I had to give it a try. I didn’t want it to slip away.
“I started going to Monticello [where his career began] a couple days a week when Freehold was closed and I raced at Pocono,” he added.
The ever-busy Manzi was driving at Freehold during the day and the Meadowlands at night, and any time those tracks were closed he looked elsewhere for rides.
The increased schedule that had him on constantly on the move was a concern.
“I’m tired now,” he said. “I was worried about going extra hard.”
That’s where Manzi counted on his workout regimen that includes runs around his Freehold neighborhood two or three times a week, making the difference.
“No question it did help,” he said.
Wherever Manzi went, the magic hands that made him a track champion at Freehold Raceway 18 times kept carrying him to the winner’s circle.
He stayed ahead of the pack the last half of the season and was rewarded with his finest season, 727 wins and the 2005 dash winning championship. The added bonus — he became the oldest driver to accomplish the feat.
“I’m proud of that,” he said.
The driving title wasn’t quite the smooth ride that it appeared.
“Two months before the end of the season I tore a ligament in my bicep,” he note. “It had me worried. It made it harder to drive. I had to compensate for it.”
It took six weeks for the injury to heal fully. Manzi though was able to drive through it and maintain his winning ways, and his edge on runner-up Yony Morgan (who won 700 races during the year).
Manzi has won Triple Crown races, is the No. 2 all-time winner in the sport’s history and a Hall-of-Famer. But the driving crown was something special.
“There’s nothing I can compare it to,” he said. “It was a lot of hard work.”
There was another honor awaiting the driver, who like fine wine, gets better with age — his first United States Harness Writers Association’s Driver of the Year award.
“This was my best year,” he said.
Manzi had a lot of people rooting for him in his quest for history in 2005.
When the Harness Hall of Famer made an all-out effort to win his first-ever season driving championship, he collected a lot of fans along the way — many were the drivers he battled daily at Freehold Raceway and the patrons of the historic daytime track. They liked the idea of the season champion coming from Freehold.
“I got that feeling that they were pulling for me,” he said.
Manzi won 483 of his races at Freehold in ’05.
The Freehold driver also had the support of everyone 50 and over. In a young man’s game, the 55-year-old Manzi gave hope and encouragement to all of the veteran drivers around his age, as well as anyone in their golden years who thinks their best is behind them.
“The older drivers were rooting for me,” he pointed out.
What about 2006?
“I don’t have any goals,” he said. “I take it as it comes. I always want to win as many [races] as I can.”
Manzi said that he will continue to race at Freehold during the day and the Meadowlands at night during this month, but take a day off now and then. By February, he figures to have recovered from his draining drive to the ’05 championship and return to his normal race schedule. Who knows, come June, he could be in the hunt for the driving title again. Could he possibly top ’05? He’s already done more than any diver in his 50s has done before, and he shows no signs of slowly down. Driving remains his passion.