Thanks in part to the rain that pummeled the greater New England region over the course of Friday evening and all day Saturday, Bertsch and his fellow pro-stock drivers ended up with only one qualifying session, the first of four scheduled sessions. "The air conditions were phenomenal during the day Friday," explained Bertsch. "Everyone figured the air would get even better as the night qualifying session arrived, so we all took a few chances during the early session to learn a few things and see what the cars would do." Bertsch's first qualifying effort would find him sitting second in the field, and although he was technically tied for first, he would be seeded second as the top qualifying car had run a slightly faster MPH.

The rain would commence shortly thereafter on Friday, destroying anyone's hopes of blistering qualifying times on Friday night. Saturday would prove to be more of the same, as the rain washed out any and all activities at the track.

Thankfully better weather would prevail on Sunday, although Bertsch and the rest of the field would have to roll into eliminations with only one pass down the track under their belts, which was no easy task. Bertsch would face privateer Carl Baker in the first round, and would take the win by more than two seconds, despite the car being moving around a bit prior to the 330ft mark. That win would end up giving Bertsch a bye-run in the second round due to the number of cars in the field and how the brackets stacked up.

In the semi-finals, Bertsch would face his toughest opponent of the day up to that point, defending IHRA Elite Motorsports Pro-Stock champion Pete Berner in a Pontiac GXP. Despite Berner having lane choice over Bertsch, Bertch's Rislone Mustang would leave first and never look back, taking the win in a barn-burner of a race. That would advance Bertsch to the finals, where he would face another tough driver, the #10 qualifier Michael Bruno and his Pontiac GTO.

Bruno would blast off the line first with Bertsch right on his heels, and by the 60ft mark Bertsch's Rislone pro-stocker had reeled Bruno in. From there on it was all Bertsch, as the rocketed his way to a win, in the process running his personal best ET of the season and the quickest ET of the weekend for pro-stock, a stunning 6.333 at 220.19mph. Bertsch was elated.

"This is just fantastic, to have picked up the win here," said Bertsch. "With all of the circumstances surrounding the weekend, the rain, only having one qualifying session, having to race the defending champ in the semis.it just feels awesome. We definitely earned this one!"

Bertsch's team did indeed earn it, although some mechanical hiccups in the pits nearly kept them from advancing. "We had a couple of close calls where they were calling for us to come to the line and we were trying to get the car finished up," explained Bertsch. "We had the clutch out of the car a few more times than we normally would have, as we fought a couple small mechanical issues that had we not fixed probably would have cost us the win. Thankfully the IHRA officials were understanding and we were able to keep making our passes. We definitely were scrambling a couple times!" said Bertsch with a chuckle.

Bertsch and his Rislone team were certainly elated with their win, but they were humble as well. "My biggest thanks has to go to Bob Mermuys and everyone at Rislone for standing behind us despite the tough year we have had. Nothing made me happier than to be able to call them and say 'I won!" Bertsch went on to add that "Jon Kasse has helped us tremendously with our engine program, he's clearly given us the power we need to win, it has just been up to us to get it down the track right. A big thanks as well to Ram Clutches for sticking with us, and Share Capital as well for all their help. Every bit helps and without all these great people behind us we couldn't do what we do."

So with the big win in New Hampshire behind him, where does Bertsch head from here? "We've only got a couple of races left in the season, Budds Creek and Rockingham. I definitely hope that we can get a small streak going here to finish the season on a high note, and hopefully hold on to that momentum in the off season. It has been a rough year so far, fighting tire shakes and bad luck and what not, but I like to think this Rislone Engine Treatment team has turned a corner."

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Based in Holly, Mich., Bar's Products is an ISO 9001:2000 certified company. For more information about any Bar's Leaks or Rislone products, visit www.barsleaks.com

Courtesy of Kyle Doyle