If the ADRL U.S. Drags III event was staged in Las Vegas, Brian Gahm would have had long shot odds.

Gahm, the 2009 ADRL Extreme Pro Stock series runner-up, opened the first qualifying session with a tire-rattling aborted run which left him unqualified. The second session was no better. By the end of the day he was a paltry 14th, well below the past champion’s standards.

Gahm and crew chief Cliff Moore checked, double checked and triple checked every nook and cranny of the team’s Mustang. Obviously the car had an abundance of horsepower and the chassis combination appeared to be on the up and up.

If the ADRL U.S. Drags III event was staged in Las Vegas, Brian Gahm would have had long shot odds.

Gahm, the 2009 ADRL Extreme Pro Stock series runner-up, opened the first qualifying session with a tire-rattling aborted run which left him unqualified. The second session was no better. By the end of the day he was a paltry 14th, well below the past champion’s standards.

Gahm and crew chief Cliff Moore checked, double checked and triple checked every nook and cranny of the team’s Mustang. Obviously the car had an abundance of horsepower and the chassis combination appeared to be on the up and up.

If the issue had been a snake it would have bit them, at least that’s how Gahm saw it.

“We had a bad set of tires that we didn’t find out about until later,” Gahm, a 5-time Extreme Pro Stock winner explained. “We just kept getting behind and luckily we were able to get good enough weather which allowed us to get in all of our qualifying runs.”

Knowing how to win when the car wasn’t up to snuff came in handy for Gahm.

“It forces you to get up on your wheel a little more,” admitted Gahm. “When you have a bit of advantage, you tend to lay back and relax a bit. I like winning when you have to get after it.”

The weekend’s victory was refreshing for Gahm and his crew, but he understands if future victories are to come, he and the team had better put in some testing laps in the near future.

“I have to be at work tomorrow,” said Gahm, who planned to drive back to Lucasville, Ohio Saturday night. “We have some work to do.

“We’re not happy with where we are at,” he continued. “We have some things we need to work on but I can’t get away to test. If we can’t get the test time, we’ll have to do some during the events. We’re decent but we haven’t worked on our car since last year. I was angry at the car last year but she’s come around.”

Now Gahm says, they need to get on the same page just like old times.