Division 1 takes Jeg’s Allstars team championship (NHRA.com / Phil Burgess)

The team from Division 1, which won two of the first five Jeg’s Allstars team championships and a third in 1995, broke a long winless drought in the special Sportsman-only competition with a dominating performance in the 22nd annual classic, contested Saturday at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.

Led by defending Allstars Top Alcohol Funny Car champion Frank Manzo, Bob Lang’s Northeast Division troops piled it on to win their fourth team title and the $20,000 team bonus on the strength of additional wins by Don Pires Jr. in Stock and Lynn Hoosigan in Super Street.

After finishing the first round in a tie with Division 2, Division 1 forged ahead by 100 points in the second round before finishing strong in the money rounds to tally a total of 1,300 points. Division 3 finished second with 1,000 markers, followed by Division 2 at 900. Division 5 finished with 700, followed by Division 4 (600) and Divisions 6 and 7 (200 each).

The outing was particularly disappointing for perennial powerhouses Division 2 and Division 4, both five-time team champions whose racers have collected 34 and 39 wins, respectively, to lead the way in Allstars history. It was only the third time that Division 4 had been shut out and the fourth time that Division 2 had been skunked in the event’s 22-year run.

Frank Manzo, an Allstars winner in 1996, ’97, ’98, and 2005, collected his fifth crown with a final-round defeat of Division 5’s Cy Chesterman. Manzo took the win with a 5.54, 261.07 while Chesterman had to slow to a 5.72, 254.52 after getting loose.

Pires drove his B/SA entry to a final-round 10.64 on a 10.63 dial to defeat Division 2’s Mickey Whaley, who broke out with an 11.97 on a 12.00 target, but it was Hoosigan’s triumph over Division 2’s Michael Ruff that sealed the team title. She drove her Lynn’s Kitchen ’66 Chevelle to an easy win when Ruff went barely red with a -.001 reaction time.

Division 3 made it close with a trio of its own wins, beginning with Marty Thacker’s 5.37 rout of defending Top Alcohol Dragster national champ Steve Torrence, representing Division 4, and continuing with wins by Division 2 transplant Jeff Taylor, the reigning Comp world champ, who defeated Division 2’s Glen Treadwell with a devastating (-.74) 8.92 against Treadwell’s CIC-compromised (-.59) 8.03. The win was the fourth for Taylor in Allstars competition; hepreviously won for Divisions 1 and 2. Rock Haas notched Division 3’s final score in Super Gas, where Division 2’s George Smith broke out with a 9.88 against Haas’ safe 9.96.

Shawn Langdon, like Manzo, defended his 2005 Allstars crown, but as a non-points-earning blocker in Super Comp, he couldn’t help the Pacific Division’s cause. In the final, Langdon scored on a holeshot, netting a .009 to .045 edge at the green against Division 5’s Gary Stinnett and hanging on for an 8.94 to 8.91 victory. Langdon’s Division 7 teammate in Super Stock, Kevin Smith, made it to the final but was turned away by a red-light against Division 5’s Don Duke.