Pete Berner's weekend didn't quite turn out like he expected, but he wasn't displeased with his
early exit from the Mopar Canadian Nationals. In what was possibly the closest race in IHRA Pro
Stock history, Berner succumbed to eventual winner, Dean Goforth in round one. Berner qualified
second with a 6.349 at 219.04. That matched him up against Goforth, who qualified 13th with a
6.463. On paper, the race should have been Berner's, but Goforth pulled out his quickest number of
the weekend (6.360) combined with an .034 light to cross the finish line at exactly the same time
as Berner, the margin of victory coming in at 0.0000.
"I doubt I'll be in another race that close the rest of my career," laughed Berner. "That was an
incredible race, one for the history books. We certainly weren't expecting to be out in the first
round coming into this race, but I'm tickled with the results of this weekend. I was excited for
Dean to win his first ever Iron Man and he definitely earned it. I think he beat his opponent off
the line every round and his crew did a great job of tuning for the track. Congratulations to the
entire team on their win.
"The level of competition we're seeing in IHRA Pro Stock right now is just incredible. There are
several teams more than capable of still making a bid on the championship. The top four competitors
are separated by only 23 points. That's just a little over a round. It's hard to find racing that
good anywhere. And with runs like the one between Dean and I where there's literally zero inches
between us at the finish line, it's no wonder the points are shaping up like they are. The tenacity
of these Pro Stock teams really can't be matched. When one team raises the bar, all the others rise
up to meet it and the level of competition just keeps growing. There's four races left in the
season and no way to guess at who might come out on top at the end. It's an awesome thing to be a
part of. I hope the fans are enjoying watching it unfold as much as we are."
Berner is in third place after the Mopar Canadian Nationals, but only nine points out of first.
Such short ground is easily made up and Berner is looking to do exactly that at the next event just
two short weeks away.
