POMONA, Calif. – This weekend, Feb. 7-10, the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series fires its mega-horsepower engines for the first time this season at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif. ) and no one is more anxious to begin the new straight-line racing year than Scott Kalitta, driver of the 7,000-horspower, nitro-fueled, bright yellow and red DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car. “I’m so excited about this year, ” Kalitta, a 45-year old resident of Palmetto, Fla., said. “Our DHL car started to show some big improvements at the end of last season, and we’ve carried that over into this year in (pre-season) testing. I’m more encouraged than ever that our race car will be able to contend for wins at every event. It’s going to be a good year for the yellow and red team. ”
Kalitta won the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals in the Top Fuel class in 2005. Kalitta is the son of team owner and drag racing legend Conrad “Connie” Kalitta. He returned to the Funny Car class in 2006 after many successful years at the helm of a Top Fuel dragster. He won the NHRA Top Fuel World Championship in 1994 and 1995 as well as 17 NHRA national event trophies, but got his first professional NHRA national event win under the carbon fiber canopy of a Funny Car in Houston in 1989. The CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals begins Thursday for the nitro-fueled classes with one qualifying session at 2:30 p. m. (PT). One more qualifying session follows on Friday at 2:30 p. m. Two more qualifying opportunities take place 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 24 national events in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
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