During Sunday’s the first round of Funny Car final eliminations at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd Int’l Raceway in Brainerd, Minn., Scott Kalitta, driver of the yellow and red DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, suffered a disappointing loss to end his racing day much earlier than desired.
Kalitta, the No. 7 qualifier, faced off against No. 10 qualifier Jeff Arend. Kalitta’s 7,000-horsepower nitro-fueled flopper began experiencing critical traction problems approximately 200 feet passed the starting line. Arend had no problems with traction in his lane and went on to take the win, 6.370 seconds, 139.99 mph to 4.851 sec., 324.36 mph.
Kalitta is the son of team owner and drag racing legend Conrad “Connie” Kalitta. He returned to the Funny Car class last season 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.
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