NHRA Top Fueler Doug Kalitta Seeks Dixie Redemption in Atlanta
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Commerce, Ga.
Apr 25, 2007
Also for Kalitta and his team to look forward to this weekend is the fact that they are the two-time defending Top Fuel champs at Atlanta Dragway. The Mac Tools team won the trophy there in 2005 and again last year by defeating Melanie Troxel in the title round.
“Atlanta has been great to us lately, ” Kalitta continued. “I’m not sure what it is about that track, but we seem to always have a good handle on it. Hopefully that magic will continue this year. It would be an enormous boost for this team if we could make a strong showing in Atlanta again. ”
Finally, another reason for Kalitta Motorsports’ Top End Team, so nicknamed because of their location at the end of the race shop in Ypsilanti, Mich., to look to Atlanta for redemption is that again they will run the special edition Chip Foose/Foose Design paint scheme that made its debut in Las Vegas two weeks ago. World-renowned custom hot rod builder and TV personality Foose will partner with Mac Tools and Team Kalitta in the Peach State for the first time.
Foose, Mac Tools and Kalitta initially teamed up in 2006 for special edition paint schemes at the spring Las Vegas NHRA event and again at the world’s most prestigious drag racing event; the Mac Tools U. S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mac Tools has introduced several Chip Foose themed products since the development of their partnership. Continuing the tradition on this first anniversary of the Chip Foose, Mac Tools and Kalitta Motorsports dragster partnership, Mac Tools is proud to introduce, simultaneously with this new Foose dragster, the coordinating new Chip Foose MB1350 1969 Chevy Camaro Toolbox. The triple palms, signature of Foose designs, are represented on both the dragster and the Tool Box while both sustain the classic Foose color scheme of orange, black and champagne.
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.
The Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals begins Friday, April 26, for the Top Fuel class with one qualifying session at 4:30 p. m. (ET), and then another qualifying session at 7:30 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.
