Peter Biondo Doubles Up During NHRA Division 2 Event Held at Gainesville Raceway
- Feb 28, 2011
Before the elation of his victory in Super Gas and his semi-final finish in Super Stock, that Biondo had just bagged a few days earlier in Bradenton during the NHRA Division 2 season opener, could hardly begin to fade, he was back at it again for the next scheduled Division 2 event in Gainesville, Florida. Biondo once again entered both Super Stock and Super Gas and like all other drivers at the event he couldn't say he didn't have a chance to get both himself and his cars dialed in with the five time runs for most of the classes. "It was the 'Time Trial Nationals'," he laughed. "We all got plenty of time runs, really more than anyone even needed. I guess they have their reasons, but I don't understand why they just didn't try to get in first and maybe even second round in on Saturday."
"It ended up being the same exact scenario as Bradenton, where we were really rushed in the later rounds on Sunday night to hot-lap so they could get everything done," he added. There is always a very good chance that giving someone like Peter Biondo all those extra time runs and opportunities to study the track and weather curves, especially after having so many laps in both cars the previous weekend, will not bode well for the rest of the competition. "It was just one of those weekends where everything just fell into place," he reflected. "It all started with first round of Super Gas when the guy went red against me by two-thousandths. I was set up to run an eighty-seven and luckily I picked my spot and dropped and it went a 9.900. So that qualified me number one on the ladder and so then you get the first bye-run." Biondo's placement on the Super Gas ladder faired very well for him. Since there were thirty-three cars going into round two, which meant there would be not one bye but a shot at a second bye in rounds to come, on his side of the ladder. "Getting a shot at two bye runs very rarely happens," he pointed out. "I just felt like I did my job every round and maybe felt like I got away with squeaking the finish line a little too tight once when I was running Caruso. I went down there and was whomping him and got there by a thousandth. I didn't mean to make it that tight but everything was just clicking." It wasn't the only class things were "clicking" in for Biondo during the Gainesville event. He was also slashing his way through the rounds all the way to the final in Super Stock. "Both cars were just so 'dial-able', so predictable and so consistent," he reflected. "It was just a matter of A, I screwed up or left the window open for someone or B, somebody just put down a really good run. Fortunately for me, neither one of those things happened in either class." "I had a lot of momentum going into the Gainesville event after winning at Bradenton," he said. "I had a lot of confidence and that's probably the biggest thing that carried over from the prior weekend." Biondo first found himself with a Wally in Super Stock after giving himself a huge holeshot advantage and plenty of room to reel in the victory over division three racer Jerry Silveus. The celebration would have to wait just a few minutes longer while he literally raced back up to the lanes to finish his other final round in Super Gas. After seven tough rounds, he pulled out another holeshot win and defeated Carl Freeman when the numbers on the boards both came up 9.918 and the margin of victory for Biondo was his .006 advantage at the tree. Making it to a final at this level is not an easy thing to do and chances that a driver will do so in two classes, let alone double up, are extremely rare. Biondo is not your ordinary racer and with his latest accomplishment of doubling up at the Gainesville NHRA Division 2 event, that makes it three times in his astonishing career that he has achieved this level of success. "In the mid-nineties I won Super Comp and Super Stock and in the late nineties I won Comp and Super Stock," he said. "Getting a shot to double up like this, well your chances are few and far between. It's a very special occasion for sure." "It's really hard to finish twice like that, to do it all in one day and I've been very close a lot of times," he continued. "For those drivers who haven't been there, those last couple of rounds are so hot-lapped, it really is tough to keep focused on the task at hand. Your adrenaline is going two to three times more than it has been pumping the rest of the race, because you are literally physically running around. That part is really challenging." Biondo and both of his entries loaded up with nothing but the finest products including K&N air and oil filters, proved that they were certainly up for the challenge, after the 'dress rehearsal', so to speak with his first near double in Bradenton and finishing the job at Gainesville. In only the two events in the books and back to back weekends for Biondo in 2011, he already has 3 NHRA Division wins and a semi-final; one would think he wouldn't want to take a break from the on-track action now. "Well there are two sides to that," he confessed. "It was hot lap city down there [Florida events] and I feel like I really need a weekend off and of course the other side of that is strike while the irons hot. Part of me wants to keep going and part of me wants to rest." "After one weekend off, I'll be fired up and ready to go again," he added. Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
