Ron Bankes (Stacee Kenington photo)

For the Alcohol Funny Car program, Ron Bankes of St. Thomas, Ont., put the first notch on his gun as he piloted his Ron Bankes Marine Service / Federated Insurance sponsored 2002 Firebird for the win over 2012 NDRA Alcohol Funny Car champion, Larry Dobbs and his Sportz Truck Tents by Napier Enterprises sponsored ’02 Firebird.

(Stacee Kenington photo)

Bankes commented, “Although we’re always out to win, we really came out on Friday to test the car. It hasn’t had a complete run this year and no data to work with and we had some stuff to iron out. Picking up this win is definitely a bonus!”

He continues, “During qualifying, we broke an oil line on the first pass but got that fixed. Then our second was good. On Saturday night, the car touched the wall and banged up the headers. It looked like we were done, but Dylan Hache came to the rescue. Earlier, he had some bad luck with his Funny Car and was out of the competition. Dylan and his ‘For Wheels Racing’ team pulled the headers from his car and walked them over to our pit. They fit perfectly and we were good to go for Sunday.”

Bankes took Gasport, New York’s Vince Rastelli and his Vince’s Auto Wrecking / Climax Collision sponsored ’01 Corvette in the first round and had the bye for the second.