Biondo’s sixth championship is one of his most memorable
from nhra.com-by Kevin McKenna, National DRAGSTER Senior Editor


A rare combination of talent and motivation that only comes along once in a generation, Peter Biondo added another chapter to his already impressive résumé this season by winning the 2011 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Gas championship. Biondo has now won six national championships during his career and joined a short list of racers who have claimed that honor in three separate classes.

Ironically, Biondo had rarely ever given any thought to racing in the Super Gas class much less pursuing a championship, but an opportunity presented by his close friend and fellow champ Anthony Bertozzi proved to be too good to pass up. Driving Bertozzi’s ’63 Corvette roadster, Biondo claimed a win the second time he drove the car at the fall Charlotte event in 2010 and quickly realized it could be the start of something good.

“I do like diversity, as far as all the different body styles, which is part of what attracted me to Super Gas,” said Biondo. “I’ve pretty much just concentrated on Super Stock and Stock, but last year before Indy, Anthony told me, ‘I bought a Super Gas car. It’s here whenever you’re ready.’ Once I tried it, I took a liking to it.”

Committed to driving the car for the 2011 season, Biondo wasted no time establishing himself as the early championship favorite. While most of the country was still in hibernation, Biondo headed south for the season-opening Southeast Division Lucas Oil Series events in Bradenton, Fla., and Gainesville and claimed back-to-back wins, grabbing a points lead he would never surrender.



“Up until that point, I was not really planning on chasing points in either class,” said Biondo. “Then we go to Florida and I win three races in two weeks between Super Gas and Super Stock. At that point, it was kind of obvious that I needed to keep following it. It would have been hard to fold that hand.”

Though Biondo’s final points total represents a monster season, he admits that there were challenges along the way. By midseason, he began to feel that the car had lost some of its consistency, so Bertozzi purchased a new engine, one that allowed the car to run 9.90s at more than 170 mph.

“That turned my season around,” said Biondo. “I got beat early a few times, including a loss to Mike Sawyer in the third round at Englishtown [NHRA SuperNationals], and we started to figure there was something wrong with the car. It just wasn’t as consistent as it had been. We were struggling to dial it, and Anthony said, ‘Tell me what we need to do, and we’ll fix it.’ At the next race, we’ve got a brand-new engine, and I’m running 172 mph. The car picked up 10 miles per hour, and it was so much more consistent than it had been. That was the key to the championship right there. That goes to show you what kind of a guy Anthony is. He provided everything we needed to be competitive.”

Down the stretch, Biondo regained his form; he grabbed a win at the Division 1 Lucas Oil Series event at New England Dragway and then scored again at his home track, Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. At that point, Biondo had already posted a gaudy points total, yet he knew his lead was not safe.

“Every time I started to think I was in good shape for this championship, someone would put together a great race and almost pull even with me,” Biondo said. “When I won Englishtown, [Division 5 racer] Mike Wiblishouser went a bunch of rounds in Earlville, Iowa, and was right behind me. There was never a time when I felt like I was totally in control of it.”

In his final points-earning opportunity, Biondo padded his lead when he won the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals in Reading, claiming his seventh national event win at Maple Grove Raceway since 1995. Despite a season that included five wins, Biondo still had to wait until the final weekend of the season to clinch the title, and even then, he was forced to take matters into his own hands before he could be assured of the top spot.

Towing west to the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Biondo’s primary challenger was fellow Division 1 racer Mike Sawyer, who needed to advance to the semifinal round in order to take the lead. Having already lost the Super Stock championship two weeks earlier in Las Vegas, Biondo followed Sawyer to the staging lanes and defeated him in one of the most dramatic races of the season.

“Everyone told me that all the pressure was on him, but I was feeling it, too,” said Biondo. “That could have backfired if he’d beaten me, and the way he had been driving, I knew he would have been more than capable of winning enough rounds to pass me.

“Even the strategy of trying to race him was a gamble. I know he usually waits a while to go to the lanes, so I was waiting around, and then, I saw his car drive by. I actually missed him by one spot, and then they pulled his father [Ray] for the bye run, and that put Mike and I together in the second pair. It was definitely a chess game.”

With his latest title, Biondo has now joined the short list of racers who have won national championships in three separate classes, a list that includes just David Rampy, Scotty Richardson, and Jeff Taylor. However, Biondo is not sure if he’ll defend his title because he’s also debating a return to Stock, where he won the 2005 national championship.

“I will have a tough decision next year because I really miss my ’69 Camaro [Stocker],” said Biondo. “Out of all the cars I race, that is the most fun to drive. I’m going to think about it for a few weeks and then decide what to do. For now, I can’t say thanks enough to Anthony Bertozzi and [crew chief] Rodney Eades; to my girlfriend, Emily Lewis; to my father, Sam; brother, Sal; sister, Krista; the crew at Biondo Race Products; Phil Monteith; Tom Dauber; Rich Schreiner; Tom Kurucz; Kyle Seipel; and [Stock champ] Joe Santangelo. They all made this possible for me.”


Biondo’s 2011 Track Record 689 Points
Bradenton Motorsports Park (Div. 2) Won event
Gainesville Raceway (Div. 2) Won event
Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals Third round
VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA Four-Wide Nationals Quarterfinals
Maple Grove Raceway (Div. 1) Third round
New England Dragway (Div. 1) Won event
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park (Div. 1) Won event
Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals