Doug Kalitta, driver of the 8,000-horsepower, bright red Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, begins his 10th season behind the steering wheel of a 330-mph quarter-mile rail rocket this weekend, Feb. 8-11, at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series 2007 season-opener, the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals, at fabled Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Pomona, Calif.
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 Mac Tools/Kalitta Motorsports dragster to an astonishing 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 the entire second half of the season until a heart-breaking finale in Pomona at the year’s final event that resulted in Kalitta ending up just 14 points shy of his first NHRA championship.
“That’s all in the past, †Kalitta said. “It’s a new season and everything has been reset. We can’t dwell on that stuff. We’ll go back to Pomona looking to win the event and none of what happened last year will affect that. â€
Kalitta, who has finished in the top 10 in points in every season of his Top Fuel career, holds the time slip for the quickest run in NHRA history, 4.420 sec., Chicago 1 – 2004, and he is also a former USAC National Sprint Car Champion (1994).
The CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals begins Thursday, Feb. 8, for the Top Fuel class with one qualifying session at 2:30 p. m. (PT). The next qualifying attempt will be made on Friday at 2:30 p. m. Two more qualifying sessions follow on Saturday at 12:30 p. m. and 3:30 p. m. The top sixteen qualified cars will race Sunday in final eliminations beginning at 11:00 a. m.
All times and dates subject to change.
The CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals is the 1st of 23 national events in the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
