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Well if that's what you expected, you were wrong. Instead of competing on the IHRA Pro Stock circuit in 2007, Gillig is instead staying home in Arlington Heights, Illinois to take care of the family pizza restaurant. "I'm back at the restaurant and working to make it bigger and better," Gillig says, adding that he and his parents are the owners of the business his father founded 32 years ago. And in a bit of a twist, while Tony Gillig is home watching over the family business, his father, Bob Gillig, will be at the track working as John Montecalvo's crew chief. "Most parents live vicariously through their kids," Gillig says, speaking of parents who follow their children through Little League baseball and other sports. "I am the reverse. I'm living vicariously through my father." Gillig finished the 2006 season in second place in the season championship point standings, just 15 points behind Pete Berner. "By far, it was the most successful season I've had to date," says Gillig. Even though the 2006 season was his best yet, Gillig and car owner Tim Houston knew they would not be back when the 2007 season opened in San Antonio. "We discussed it at the start of the 2006," says Gillig. "I was feeling a little burned out and I needed to spend more time with my business." At the same time, he says, Houston had also come to the conclusion that it was time for him to get out of drag racing. "It wasn't a surprise," Gillig says of his departure from racing. "We agreed to it and it ended great."
"I talked him into racing Pro Stock," Gillig says. But after three years, it became clear to both Gillig and Houston that the competitiveness and technology of the IHRA Pro Stock class had grown far beyond what either was able to field for the coming season. "It really changed between 2004 and 2006," explains Gillig. "In those three years, the class changed by leaps and bounds. Racing has gotten so expensive and so competitive that having drive and talent is just not enough." Also contributing to Gillig's decision to take some time off from racing were his growing family and business obligations. "I've got a little girl who is 5 (years old) and she was starting to realize how much I was gone," he says. At the same time, he says, taking weekends off from the restaurant business was becoming more difficult. "The restaurant business is not very conducive to racing," he says, adding that Friday and Saturday evenings are the two business times for most restaurants. Like many drag racers, Gillig got his start when he was a teenager. But unlike many teens, Gillig didn't start by racing his street car. Instead, he started with a tube frame dragster that he and his father bought and completed. "It was an 8.90 (second) car," Gillig says. "My dad and I found a car that a guy had started but had never finished." The two Gilligs finished the car and raced it for several years before moving on to bigger things. "My dad and I started racing Pro Stock in the mid-90s," Gillig said. "We started on a Midwest Pro Stock circuit. We raced IHRA from 1997 to 1998 and then raced NHRA Pro Stock until 2001."
"When I quit in 2001, I thought 'This is probably it,'" he says. "I sat home for a year and then Tim called." The 2006 season proved to be the most successful one of their time racing together. Gillig says that the highlight of the year came when he won the race in martin, Michigan. "My whole family was there," he says. "Some of the guys who worked on the team had there friends and families there too." While Martin, Mich. was a high point, the autumn race in Rockingham, NC was the low part of the season for Gillig and his team. "We went into that race as the point leader," he says, but lost the lead and any hope of winning the championship when he lost to Robert Patrick in the first round. "We got bit by the new qualifying ladder," Gillig says. Starting in the 2006 season, IHRA changed to a new ladder in which the number one qualifier races the number nine qualifier in the first round. In the past, the number nine qualifier would have raced the number eight qualifier. Gillig qualified number nine for the fall Rockingham race, putting him into a first round matchup with Patrick. "We didn't have the fastest race car," Gillig says, explaining that his 2004 Mustang body style was an old body style with aerodynamics that made it slower in the final one-eighth mile of the drag strip. Even though the new qualifying ladder could have cost Gillig a first round win at Rockingham, he refuses to blame it for causing him to lose the championship.
No matter how the ladder is drawn after qualifying, says Gillig, qualifying points are very important so most racers will try to qualifying at the top of the order. "Pete Berner and I had the same number of round wins," says Gillig. "We both won 22 rounds of racing." But because he qualified higher in the order than Gillig in more races, Berner was able to earn the 15 points he needed to win the championship. "Qualifying points are huge," exclaims Gillig. Since the 2006 season ended, Gillig says he has not looked for other driving opportunities, though he would be interested in driving again if the right situation is available. "I would drive if I could fly in on Friday and fly out on Sunday," he says. "But with the way my business is, I can't spend any time working on a car." In addition, Gillig says, if and when he gets back into drag racing, it will have to be in a way that lets him bring his family with him to the track. "If I ever race again, I'd have to do it the way I want to do it." Gillig and his wife, Jodi, have a five-year old daughter named Jessica. "I could go racing again if my family could be part of it." Now that he's not racing, Gillig keeps in touch with the sport through frequent phone calls to friends and his father. "I just call all the guys to find out what is going on," Gillig explains. During the 2007 season opener in San Antonio, Gillig and his father talked many times throughout the race weekend. "I was on the phone with him all day," Gillig says of his father. "Even though he is very good at what he does, he likes to bounce ideas off me." Gillig says that the part he misses most about racing is not seeing many of his friends as often as he did in the past. "The hard part about quitting racing is that you make so many friends that you don't get to see anymore," he explains.
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