PRO STOCK

Twenty-seven Pro Stockers attempted to qualify at Norwalk and John Montecalvo's Chevy was the quickest of them all, setting a new track record at 6.567 seconds. It was number-10 qualifier Doug Kirk who had the best raceday, however, as his Charlie Hunt-led team rebounded from an expensive outing at Martin, MI, just two weeks earlier, where engine failures almost put them out of commission.

Former IHRA champ Doug Kirk earned his first win of the year after qualifying 10th with his 2003 Ford Mustang.

Kirk, the 1993 IHRA Pro Stock champion, used superior starting line reaction times to take out John Bartunek, Pete Berner, and Jeff Dobbins in the prelims at Norwalk before facing off against Carl Baker in the final. Baker actually left first, but when his car broke almost immediately it handed Kirk his 15th career win.

"I was telling Charlie (Hunt) after we won that we might be able to recoup some of what we tore up at Martin," Kirk said. "It has been a tremendous weekend for us. I can't say enough good things about my crew, and about my family who have supported me so much this year. We had a lot of help this weekend, and it paid off."

Also leaving Norwalk a winner was Frank "The Flying Meatball" Gugliotta, after pocketing $20,000 for winning the Sunoco Pro Stock Shootout, a special race within a race for the top eight qualifiers over the past year. In just his second outing in a new Jerry Haas-built Mustang owned by Steve Thodos, Gugliotta beat Rick Jones and John Montecalvo before polishing off Pete Berners in the Shootout final.

Frank Gugliotta, from Mt. Airy, MD, scored the biggest win of his career in the Sunoco Pro Stock Shootout at Norwalk Raceway Park.

"I never would have dreamed in a million years. This one was for Steve Thodos and the boys, they earned it. This car came around for us when we needed it to," a tearful Gugliotta said after winning. "I think back a couple of races ago when we fell short and now I look at what we were able to accomplish today, and now I can see it was worth it. Of course I want to thank Bill Corwin and the folks at Sunoco Race Fuels for putting together such a great race program for the IHRA."