The pair of Burgess and Billes caught a few breaks to get to the championship round. This Pro Mod series uses NHRA’s 1-vs-16 pro ladder that favors the quicker qualifiers and in the first round he dumped Massachusetts’ own John Russo and his 2000 Chevy S-10 pickup with a 5.979 at 241.45 blast the easily covered Russo’s troubled 6.723 at 164.79.

In the second round Burgess’s opponent again had traction issues and his 6.062 at 241.07 easily defeated Mike Knowles' tire-smoking 8.408 at 110.60 mph.

Mike Castellana’S Al-Anabi 1970 Camaro was the highest qualifying nitrous car at the U.S. Nationals with a Reher-Morrison nitrous motor.  (Ron Lewis photo)

Then in semi-finals against nitrous racer Burton Auxier, Burgess had his best reaction time of the race to that point with a .036 to Auxier’s stellar .003. His 5.996 ET got him to the winning stripe just .039 seconds before Auxier.

For the final Rowe had lane choice and a performance advantage but it wasn’t to be as Roger Burgess made a career drive. He left first and thanks to his Billes tune-up ran his best lap of the week, a 5.956 at 241.80 mph.

As he climbed out from his car, the first words out his mouth were, "This one is for Bobby.

"We came to this race with a very heavy heart, mourning the loss of our friend and teammate Bobby Monacelli,’ Burgess explained. “We didn't talk about it, but every member of this team was resolved to win this event in the honor and memory of Bobby.”

The race was spectacular in that, with just two laps of qualifying, the bump spot dropped to a 6.120 by Kirk Wilmes, which is more than a tenth quicker than last year’s 6.132 bump. This year there was a good mix of supercharged, nitrous oxide-injected and turbocharged powerplants in the qualified field. Racers representing the U.S., Canada and Scandinavia were racing at the U.S. Nationals event.

With their finishes, supercharger racers Roger Burgess and Danny Rowe joined nitrous racers Burton Auxier and Mike Castellana in solidifying their positions in the Matco Tools Pro Mod Clash, which pairs the top eight drivers in a race-within-a-race at the series finals in Las Vegas with a grand prize of $25,000 going to the winner.