No one could see what was coming at this past weekend's Amalie Motor Oil North American Nationals.
With shortened qualifying due to rain, Pro Stock teams only had one attempt at the track before
going into eliminations. This made for some interesting play on race day. The top two in points
went out in rounds one and two, leaving the door wide open for Pete Berner to step through and make
up some ground, and that's exactly what he did.
Berner qualified third in his one and only chance at the track, posting a 6.354 at 221.89. Between
that Friday night qualifying session and Sunday, weather conditions changed drastically, making it
a real tuner's challenge on race day. Berner made the right moves in round one with a conservative
6.422 when opponent Trevor Eman turned on the red eye. In round two Berner took out JR Carr, laying
down a 6.394 to Carr's 6.448. In the semi final round Berner succumbed to eventual winner Bob
Bertsch. Still, Berner was able to draw within three competition rounds of taking over the points
lead.
"It would have been nice to make it to the finals and gain some more ground on the points leaders,"
explained Berner, "but Bob did what he needed to do to win and he did a great job. Congratulations
to him and [runner up] Mike Bruno. That was Bob's first win and Mike's first final round. It seems
I'm a stepping stone for a lot of first timers this year. Cary Goforth and I raced in the final
round at Rockingham earlier this year when he won his first Iron Man. Then later on in the season
his dad, Dean, beat me on the way to winning his first IHRA National. And now it seems to be a
pattern with Bertsch doing it again this weekend. You know, it's really exciting to watch these
guys get their first win, but they're going to have to quit doing it at my expense," continued
Berner jokingly. "It would be exciting to see me win a couple of races too!
"We really just missed the combination in the semis. We're gaining experience with this new motor,
but it needs a completely different combination than we're used to. It's all part of the growing
pains."
With Berner closing in on points leaders Frank Gugliotta and John Montecalvo, things are heating up
going into the final two events.
"It seems Frankie, Monte and myself are doing everything we can to make this year as exciting as
possible. Maryland is just around the corner and we're going to give it our best there and see if
we can't shake things up a little more."
