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Gasoline has a much higher BTU rating than glow fuel, not lower. Gasoline has approximately 114,000 BTU's per gallon. Methanol, the burning ingredient in glow fuel, has about 57,000 BTU's per gallon.

The reason an engine makes more power running on methanol is because an engine uses TWICE as much of it, thus releasing more BTU's. Further, methanol has a cooling effect on the intake charge which helps power, and has a higher octane than gasoline so engines designed to run on it can be made with a higher compression ratio, which once again, provides more power. Further, most glow fuel has a percentage of nitromethane in it, which increases power even more.

As mentioned though, the difference is not as great as it might seem, because gasoline engines are able to turn larger, more efficient props and that must be factored into any glow versus gas considerations.

AV8TOR
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_gallon_equivalent