This is the one. The NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event that Doug Kalitta, driver of the 8,000-horspower “Big Red” Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, looks forward to attending every year. Kalitta and his Mac Tools team always put a big red circle on the calendar for this weekend’s, July 27-29, Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in the wine country of Sonoma, Calif.
Why does Kalitta like this NHRA event so much? Answer: He has won the Top Fuel title trophy at the Sonoma event a record five times (2005, 2004, 2000, 1999, and 1998). Top Fuel is NHRA drag racing’s quickest and fastest professional category with quarter-mile elapsed times of less than 4.5 seconds at speeds over 330 mph.
“We sure do like Sonoma or, maybe I should say, Sonoma likes us, ” Kalitta, a 42-year old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., said. “Our Mac Tools team has had some great success at Infineon. Sometimes you just get a feel for a certain place and everything just happens like it’s supposed to.
“We’ve got three races to go now before the Countdown cut-off. Hopefully we’ll get our Sonoma magic working again this year and start a winning streak over the next three races. ”
This season the NHRA instituted the new Countdown to the Championship points system. Only the top eight in POWERade points after the first 17 national events will be allowed to vie for the season championship. This weekend’s event in Sonoma is the 15th of the season.
Kalitta is currently 12th in POWERade championship points. He is 87 points shy of 8th place.
Kalitta also posted a Top Fuel title runner-up finish in Sonoma in 2002.
Since winning the NHRA’s equivalent of Rookie of the Year, the Automobile Club of Southern California’s Road to the Future Award, after the 1998 drag racing season, Kalitta has driven his dragster to 29 Top Fuel national event titles, which already ties him for sixth in career wins for the sport’s quickest and fastest class. In the past four NHRA seasons, Kalitta has solidified his place among the best Top Fuel pilots of all-time. Last season was arguably the best of his straight-line career. He won a career-high five national events in 2006 and led the POWERade points for almost the entire second half of the season. After finishing just 14 points shy of his first NHRA championship, Kalitta garnered his third career runner-up points finish in 2006. He was also points runner-up in 2003 and 2004.
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