Jack Wyatt (Brad Turk photo)
Jack Wyatt had his own issues in his race against Macklyn as he came to the line with no oil pressure and never stepped on the throttle. Macklyn was able to answer the call but had nothing for Haddock and only ran a 5.82 against Haddock’s 5.183/254.38 pass.
“You never underestimate anybody and you run your own race…that’s what we were doing,” Haddock said. “There have been plenty of times when it was us back there thrashing in the pits. We waited for them and the fact that they were able to make it says a lot. They had help from other teams back there and that shows how much teams work together out here. There were people back there helping Macklyn, but we also had people from other teams helping us. IHRA is such a great organization to race with. On the other side you would have never seen that.”
Haddock qualified No. 2 on the ladder and, with the victory, took over the 2008 NFC points lead from two-time defending champion Dale Creasy Jr., who suffered a season-ending injury in Edmonton two weeks ago.
“The points are really tightening up at the top, but we really miss Dale out here,” Haddock said. “If he was here he would have been over there working on our car to help get us to the finals with everyone else.”
PRO STOCK
Frank Gugliotta (Brad Turk photo)
In a showdown between Ford “Hemi head” power and GM “Wedge” power the Ford faithful were rewarded at Grand Bend when Frank “The Flyin’ Tomato” Gugliotta (Mt. Airy, MD) drove Bob Yoak’s Mustang into the IHRA winner’s circle for the second time this season when he stopped Pete Berner’s Quarter Max-backed Pontiac in the Pro Stock final. It wasn’t an easy win as the final round was the closest Pro Stock race of the weekend, with Gugliotta crossing the finish-line stripe a mere sixth-thousandths of a second ahead of Berner. Gugliotta ran a 6.389 at 217.14 to defeat Berner’s 6.398/217.00.
“I saw him the whole time,” Gugliotta said of Berner in the final. “He was in front of me, then I got around him and held on. Pete and I have had some battles over the years, really good races, and the track was awesome the whole week long.”
Pete Berner (Steve Embling photo)
After a sluggish start Friday, Gugliotta and his ’07 Mustang turned things around.
“We struggled in the beginning and the car was not running very well, but it really started picking it up as the weekend went on,” Gugliotta said. “I have a great group of guys who really work hard and I can’t say enough about (car owner) Bob Yoak. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. I’m lucky he gave me the opportunity to do this and I can’t thank the man enough.”