NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Due to persistent rain that limited time-trial and qualifying efforts, the majority of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series portion of the Dodge NHRA Nationals was completed Monday at Maple Grove Raceway, where the sun shone most brightly on seven-time national champ Peter Biondo, who scored his milestone 50th career win. The man Biondo met to reach that lofty plateau was Michael Iacono, who minutes later would rebound to win the Super Stock title.

Other winners of the event were Jackie Fricke (Top Alcohol Dragster), Andy Bohl (Top Alcohol Funny Car), Al Ackerman (Comp), Amanda Boicesco (Super Comp), and Craig Porter (Super Gas).

Just three weeks after collecting his 49th victory in Super Stock at the NHRA Carolina Nationals in Charlotte, Biondo snagged career win No. 50 in Stock in Reading. Racing in his 75th final, “the Terminator” drove his B/SA ’69 Camaro to the victory over Iacono to become just the 17th driver in NHRA history to reach the 50-win milestone. Seventeen of Biondo’s 50 wins have come in Stock eliminator, with the remainder split among Comp, Super Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street. [Watch video]

Iacono, who scored his first victory at the 2004 Reading race, quickly recovered from his loss to Biondo in the Stock final to corral his sixth win with a victory minutes later in the Super Stock final in his familiar pink GT/DA ’92 Camaro. Iacono, the 2007 national champ in Stock, was sharp on the starting line with a .009 light against Carroll Morris, which forced Morris to break out by .007-second at the other end. [Watch video]

Fricke scored her first win in Top Alcohol Dragster by driving John Finke’s A/Fuel Dragster to a final-round victory over former national champ Chris Demke. No. 2 qualifier Fricke, whose husband, Shawn, is a national-event-winning Division 1 Super-class racer, made her best passes of the weekend on back-to-back efforts in the semifinals and final, besting Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals champ Dan Page in the semifinals with a 5.29 at 278.35 mph, then improving to a 5.26 at 278.92 mph (top speed of the meet) to beat Demke, whose car lost the blower belt in the final. [Watch video]

Bohl, who last year scored a huge win at the U.S. Nationals, collected career win No. 3 in Reading with his Howard’s Cams/Competition Products Camaro when he defeated Sean Bellemeur in the final on a holeshot, 5.57 to 5.51, after a clutch .006 reaction time. Bohl, runner-up at this event in 2011 in his first final-round appearance, was solidly in the low 5.50s in the middle rounds but slipped a bit in the final, where the driver was there to make up the difference. [Watch video]

Former Comp national champ Ackerman, who hadn’t won a national event since his dominating, three-win championship campaign in 2010, wheeled his F/Dragster to his fifth win with a final-round defeat of Joe Carnasciale, (-.65) 7.88 to (-.61) 8.89. Ackerman, who posted his last victory in Indy in 2010, was appearing in his 14th final round with his four-cylinder, fuel-injected Pontiac-powered dragster. Earlier this year, Ackerman was a runner-up in Epping. [Watch video]

Super Comp victor Boicesco was one of only two first-time national event winners among the Reading Sportsman champs, but winning is no stranger to her family: Her father, Iggie, is an eight-time national event champ who won in Reading in Super Gas in 2008. Although Jack Sepanek gift-wrapped the win for her with a final-round red-light, Boicesco, a former winner in the Jr. Dragster class, would have been all but unbeatable anyway in her ATI Performance Products dragster, putting together a sterling .002 package launched by a perfect reaction time. [Watch video]

Porter also earned his first national event Wally with his victory in Super Gas in his second final. Porter, runner-up in his ’93 Mustang last year in Gainesville, went the distance this time by outmaneuvering final-round opponent Ed Alessi Jr. at the finish line. Porter got the better launch, then took the double-breakout victory, 9.88 to 9.86. [Watch video]

Previous events:
Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals
NHRA Carolina Nationals
AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals