Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
Bristol, TN
(April 28-30)

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Bob Gilbertson Tradicion Azul Monte Carlo

Bristol, prerace: Funny Car racer Bob Gilbertson is a big fan of oldies music and one of his favorite songs is the 1961 hit The Bristol Stomp by the Dovells. 

You can bet that it will be loaded into his I-Pod that he listens to to get him into the zone before he climbs into his Autolite XP Spark Plugs/Prestone Antifreeze Dodge Stratus for this weekend's NHRA O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. 

Bristol is a hometown race for Gilbertson, who is based in nearby Charlotte, N.C., and will have a big cheering section on hand to cheer him on.

"Bristol is just an couple of hour's drive from Charlotte and I'll have a bunch of family, friends and employees there to support me and my team," Gilbertson said. "It's a great track, I've had some success there in the past and hopefully we'll be able to win the race for my cheering section."

Gilbertson is also confident that he's got a car he can win with.

"We spent the break in the NHRA schedule racing last weekend at Rockingham and learned a lot. We ran low e.t., top speed, and reset the track record and even though we didn't win, we now know that we have a horse I can win with.

"The car is now consistent and we believe we've figured out what the new tires want. As long as I do my job behind the wheel and we don't have any parts breakage we should be able to do well and hopefully go rounds, move up in the points and maybe even win this dance."

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