Pete Berner took the early pole position in qualifying for the IHRA Sooner Nationals, and looked to
retain it until the third session when he relinquished it by a slight one hundredth of a second to
remain in the number two spot. Berner was consistently quick in the oppressive heat of the day,
marking the lowest elapsed time of the first and second qualifying sessions. The third session he
posted his quickest time, 6.396 at 218.87 which landed him in second.
"We missed it a hair on that last run," tells Berner, "but all in all I'm happy with today's
performance. We were making good runs and running consistently fast which is what we like to do. I
think we're in good shape for tomorrow. Congratulations to John Montecalvo for winning the
Quarter-Max Pro Stock Challenge. He made a really good run in these tough conditions to get that
award.
"Despite this heat the track has been great. I've got to hand it to the IHRA staff and Dave Cook
for their hard work this weekend. These fans have also been great sports in this heat. We've had a
good crowd out here and I want to thank them for coming out and rooting for us.
We've won the last two years here and I hope we can put on a great show for the fans and do that
again tomorrow."
