The stock and trade of drag racing is surprise. The fact that it is a sport so heavy on momentary performance means that there are things that can happen in the blink of an eye that wouldn’t manifest themselves in longer form styles of racing. The truly magical stuff is when it doesn’t just happen once over the course of a day but it happens multiple times and that is exactly the case here in Texas 20 years ago.
Bob Gilbertson has been one of the most fun and fun loving funny car drivers of the last 20 years. A hardcore racer who never, ever took himself too seriously, the dude personified the drag racing funny car driver attitude that so many awesome racers have had over the years. Anyway, running on a small budget, a limited schedule, and with limited resources, Gilby wasn’t necessarily anyone’s pick to win the 2000 O’Riley Nationals in Texas but as a wise man once said, if you qualify you have an equal chance to win as the other 16 drivers on Sunday.
Over the course of four rounds, Gilbertson thumped John Force, beat Jim Epler on a redlight, saw Ron Capps cross the center line in front of him, and finally looked over the find Jerry Tolliver on the opposite side of the track in the final. Here’s how it went down!
Hit the image of Gilby below to see him score an improbable Texas win –
