"We ran the car pretty conservatively the first three runs and for the final I decided I needed to do my job on the tree and Jimmy said he'd give me a 5.90 and we ran a 5.91," Thomas said afterwards. "We never had the heads off the car all weekend and never hurt a thing so it was a great race all the way around."

Mark Thomas, like all the pro class winners at Edmonton's Bud Park, scored his first victory of the season. (DRO file photo by Ian Tocher)

PRO STOCK

Bader's sigh of relief may have had more to do with the mountain-motored Pro Stock field in Edmonton than anything else. With east-of-the-Mississippi-based IHRA the only outlet for these mid-six-second wonders, there was no local talent pool to draw from, so the respectable showing of 15 cars was surely a welcome sight.

Points leader Carl Baker qualified his 2002 Cougar on top in the thin air with a 6.629 pass at 209.64 mph. Fourteen entries ran in the sixes and topped 202 mph, with Pete Berner's '03 Mustang rounding out the field with an off-the-pace 7.146 at 148.98 mph. Eventual finalists Jason Collins and Rick Jones started from the third and fifth positions, respectively.

Jason Collins made the long drive from Rainbow City, AL, worthwhile by taking the Sunoco Pro Stock win in his Virginia College-sponsored 2002 Cougar.
(Photo courtesy of IHRA)

In round one, Collins took care of Gary Henry while Jones sent Jeff Dobbins packing. Next up were Elijah Morton and Frank "The Flying Meatball" Gugliotta for Collins, and John Montecalvo and Doug Kirk for Jones. In the final, Collins took a very slight advantage off the light and held the lead all the way to the stripe with a 6.720-secs pass at 207.08 mph, compared to the 6.760 at 207.80 by Jones.

"Pro Stock is so competitive now that anyone can win on any given day. You just got to be on your game on the starting line and get to the other end of the racetrack. I was shocked everyone ran so well at this altitude," Collins said in victory lane.