Bertsch then advanced to the final where he met and defeated Pete Berner after Berner went red. Bertsch ran a convincing 4.124 elapsed time at 176.10 miles per hour in the final.

“It is just hard work by my crew and me working on myself. It is a good way to go out at the end of the year,” Bertsch said. “We have been working all year little by little, we haven’t made any drastic changes, it has just come together really well over the last three races.”

Bertsch defeated Berner and Gugliotta – both championship contenders – Rocky Watford and Carl Baker to pick up his second win in the last three races, and all eyes were on Bertsch’s semifinal matchup with Gugliotta.

“I knew whatever I did one group of people was going to be happy and another group was going to be a little sad, but I try not to focus on that and simply race the track. That is what I did tonight,” Bersch said.

When all was said and done, however, it was Montecalvo’s championship that stole the show.

After nearly two decades trying to be a world champion Montecalvo was finally able to see his dream realized thanks to a little help from his friends.

“So many people came up to me and said it is not over and that was just very hard to believe. When I finally found out, I really didn’t believe them at first,” Montecalvo said. “I have got a lot of racing friends up in the sky and every time I race I pray to them to keep me safe and successful and I truly believe they were looking over me today.”

Montecalvo spent most of the season trailing the field, but was able to take the points lead for the first time last month when Gugliotta suffered his third first round loss in four races. He then did just enough to assure that his name would go down in history as the 2009 IHRA Pro Stock champion.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. Over the years it has been one thing or another that has prevented us from winning it, but this is finally our time,” Montecalvo said.

Bertsch put an end to Gugliotta’s championship hopes in the semifinals with a solid run as Gugliotta left the line late and wiggled down the track to give Bertsch the win and Montecalvo the championship. Bertsch ran a 4.101 to Gugliotta’s 4.205.

In the other semifinal matchup Berner easily dispatched of Ned Katuran with a blistering 4105 second pass in the eighth mile.

While two of the three professional categories had their champions locked up entering Sunday, the Elite Motorsports Pro Stock bunch still had unfinished business and it all started in the semis.

Needing just one round win to seal his first ever championship, Montecalvo smoked the tires in his semifinal matchup with Ned Katuran and Katuran easily picked up the victory and in turn opened the door for Gugliotta.

Gugliotta kept himself alive with a win over Trevor Eman. In the other two semifinal matchups Berner won a close one against Richard Freeman and Bob Bertsch easy got around Rocky Watford.