FUNNY CAR
NHRA regular Bob Gilbertson has been to all but one of the IHRA events this season but despite that he was in a points position where if he “ran the table” -- that is qualified number one, re-set the ET record and won the race -- he would be in a position to contend for the $150,000 that IHRA/Evan Knoll pays the Funny Car points champ at the end of the season. Gilbertson and his crew reasoned that if they indeed ran the table and put
themselves in position to win the IHRA championship they would take a pass on the NHRA race at Dallas because they aren’t in the top 10 in NHRA points, and instead would race at the IHRA event in Canada.
Well, they did everything they planned for and a little extra. The team took the ET record away from Gary Densham, setting that standard at 4.841, They also re-set the speedrecord at 318.09, ran one of if not the quickest ET in IHRA history with a 4.786 clocking, and then in the final round win over Paul Lee had aspectacular fire. It was one of the most dominating performances in fuel coupe history. The team’s performance got them into third place in points, just ten points behind two-time winner Jack Wyatt and 24 markers behind the leader Dale Creasy Jr.
With three races left in the season the IHRA Funny Car points race promises to be a dog fight and to think that without Evan Knoll and Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels there wouldn’t even be an IHRA fuel flopper class. 
Just as the U.S. Nationals may have prevented some Top Fuel cars from attending this event it also may have accounted for the short field in F/C.
Gilbertson got the bye run in the first round thanks to his number one qualifying efforts, but there was no such break for Creasy and Wyatt. Unbelievably both Wyatt and Creasy had tire shake and both shut off 
advancing Vinnie Arcadi and nitro Funny Car rookie Paul Lee.
Veteran Terry Haddock had one of the many fires in the class, allowing another rookie, Andy Kelly, to advance. (To give you an idea of just how many fires and oildowns there were, the first professional rounds took almost four hours to complete and the IHRA clean-up crew went through 600 gallons of VHT compound.)
