At the annual running of the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at historic Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla., Scott Kalitta, driver of the bright yellow and red DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, seemed poised to get their first win of the 2008 POWERade Drag Racing Series during final eliminations.
Kalitta and the DHL team qualified their nitro-fueled flopper in the No. 9 position (4.892 seconds, 325.37 mph) in the 16-car field for final eliminations. Kalitta faced off against No. 8 qualifier Ashley Force in the opening stanza of quarter-mile racing in the Sunshine State. Under clear skies Sunday morning, the wily veteran, Kalitta, and the upstart, Force, rolled to the starting line to race against each for the first time ever. Kalitta’s DHL mount suffered traction problems almost instantly after the venerable driver hit the throttle and that allowed Force to get an unchallenged win light, 13.385 sec., 74.88 mph to 4.984 sec., 290.38 mph.
“We’re not exactly sure why the DHL car did that, ” Kalitta, a 46-year old resident of Palmetto, Fla., said. “We’ve looked at all of the data and some things just don’t add up, but we’re going to stay here tomorrow and test and get it figured out. ” Kalitta leaves Gainesville in 10th place in POWERade Funny Car championship points.
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 ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals was the 3rd of 24 national events in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
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