At Edmonton, Quain Stott said his team had never before raced "in this kind of altitude (2,200 feet ASL), and we were hurting parts all through qualifying, but we kind of expected that. I've raced in this kind of altitude in a nitrous car, but never in a blown car, so we went through a little bit of a learning curve." (DRO file photo by Ian Tocher)

Stott quickly took care of May in the first round, then trailered the nitrous-assisted '57 Chevy of Glen Kerunsky and Harold Martin's nitrous-EFI 2002 Grand Am in the quarter-

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and semi-finals, respectively. On the other side of the ladder, Distefano went through Joe Delehay, Carl "Big Dog" Spiering, and Mitch Stott to reach his career first IHRA final round.

Distefano took a slight advantage off the start, but proved no match for Stott, who went 6.352 at 226.92 mph, while Distefano slowed to a 6.400 at 214.95, by far his worst pass of the day. After the race, Stott dedicated the win to the founder of his sponsor, who recently passed away.

"We're tickled to death and glad to be here in Canada. I really enjoyed the people here; I've never felt more welcomed in my life anywhere I've ever been," a jubilant Stott said. "This win was in memory of B.R. Lee, the founder of LeeBoy, and I wanted to win this for him."

FUNNY CAR

IHRA regulars took the top five qualifying positions in Alcohol Funny Car at Edmonton, led by points leader Rob Atchison's 5.878 at 237.21 mph. Mark Thomas was the only other driver to make it into the fives with a 5.949-second pass, and the top two qualifiers also were the only drivers to run fives on raceday. Western Canadian entries made up most of the rest of the 14-car field, with Edmonton's own John Evanchuk the quickest of the locals at 6.110 and 228.94 mph.

Stettler, Alberta's Rory Christianson put his '96 Daytona-bodied flopper into the field in eighth place, but fell in the first round to number-seven qualifier Larry Dobbs, the sixth and final IHRA regular at the race. All six of the regulars made it past the first round.
(Photo courtesy of IHRA)

After failing to qualify at the last race, in Richmond, VA, Thomas redeemed himself with a win over Atchison in the final round at Edmonton. Thomas left first off the green in his Ethanol Performs Avenger and went 5.919 while setting top speed of the meet at 240 mph flat, with Atchison running his slowest pass of the day at 6.008 and 237.90 mph.