Pete Berner

With Gugliotta’s third first round loss in the past four races, he dropped to second in the standings as John Montecalvo leaped to the top of the charts by 33 points heading into Rockingham. Berner also moved up into the hunt and is now just 61 points behind Montecalvo as the three head to the World Finals with a chance to claim the 2009 Elite Motorsports Pro Stock championship.

In the quarterfinals Montecalvo continued to expand on his brand new points lead with a victory over Ned Katuran, Cary Goforth moved on via a win over John Pluchino, Bertsch continued to knock off giants with his second straight win over a driver in the top three in Pete Berner and Dean Goforth defeated Mark Martino.

Montecalvo took over the points lead thanks to a strange victory over Richard Freeman in the opening round. Both cars shook the tires off of the line, but Freeman went red by the narrowest of margins. Montecalvo got back in the throttle and coasted across the line to take the win light.

Freeman gave it all he had in an attempt to save Gugliotta’s points lead, but his jump start allowed Montecalvo to overtake the lead heading into the World Finals in Rockingham next month.

Montecalvo was able to take the points lead via a huge upset win by Bertsch in the opening round. Bertsch had a solid launch off of the line while Gugliotta went into a severe wiggle, shutting it off moments later.

Unofficial point standings (top 10)

Top Fuel
1. Del Cox Jr. 854; 2. Bruce Litton 780; 3. Bobby Lagana Jr. 590; 4. Mitch King 491; 5. Tim Boychuk 450; 6. Terry McMillen 375; 7. Terry Haddock 198; 8. Smax Smith 194; 9. Dom Lagana 187; 10. Scott Weis 166.

Pro Modified
1. Kenny Lang 929; 2. Ed Hoover 797; 3. Chris Russo 337; 4. Tony Pontieri 265; 5. Raymond Commisso 202; 6. Harold Martin 193; 7. Andy Jensen 167; 8. Pete Farber 166; 9. Ike Maier 154; 10. Tommy Gray 134.

Pro Stock
1. John Montecalvo 579; 2. Frank Gugliotta 546; 3. Pete Berner 518; 4. Cary Goforth 506; 5. Mark Martino 419; 6. Bob Bertsch 403; 7. JR Carr 400; 8. Richard Freeman 378; 9. Dean Goforth 342; 10. Jason Collins 288.