GILBERTSON WINS NORTH AMERICAN NATIONALS
Epping, postrace: - Nitro Funny Car racer Bob Gilbertson had without a doubt the best weekend of racing he's ever had in his career at New England Dragway as he won the IHRA North American Nationals Sunday.
Gilbertson not only won the event and moved into striking distance of the eMax points lead, but also set both ends of the IHRA World Record, had low E.T., top speed, was the number one qualifier and for the second week in a row won the Best Appearing Car award to cap off an almost perfect race.
Gilbertson defeated Paul Lee in the final round with a 4.93 second elapsed time to easily cover Lee's 4.96 to win his second IHRA National event but suffered an engine explosion and fire that severely damaged his new Jungle Jim tribute car body.
"This was a great weekend for me and my team," Gilbertson said. "Everything came together for us, the car ran good and was very consistent, the team worked their butts off and gave me a car I could win with and my crew chiefs Nicky (Boninfante) and Tommy (Delago) made the right calls that put us in the winner's circle. I could have entered the car in a bracket race as we ran 4.85, 4.84 and a 4.83 in the final to win the deal and we'll go on to the next race with confidence and momentum on our side."
"The only down side of the weekend is that we blew the side off of the new Jungle body but it's not as bad as it looks," Gilbertson added. "We're sending the body back to Indy Speed, Custom & Restoration who painted the car to get it repaired and we should be able to bring it back out real soon."
Television coverage of the race will broadcast on SPEED TV on Saturday, September 30th at 4 PM with a repeat broadcast on Monday, October 2nd at 5 PM.
