After some off-season personnel changes on his Kalitta Motorsports team, native Canadian Jeff Arend, driver of the bright yellow and red-striped, 8,000-horsepower DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, and the DHL crew are highly anticipating getting back on the track this weekend, Feb. 5-8, at the season-opening NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event, the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.).
Longtime Kalitta Motorsports tuner Jon Oberhofer and Nick Boninfante will serve as co-crew chiefs on the nitro-fueled DHL Funny Car in 2009. Arend joined Kalitta Motorsports last season to assume the driving duties of the DHL entry after the tragic death of Scott Kalitta as the result of injuries he suffered in a high-speed racing accident in June in New Jersey. Arend is a 14-year Funny Car veteran with one NHRA Funny Car national event win to his credit – Reading, Pa., 1996. He is married to Windy, and they have a daughter, Jenna, 8.
“I can’t wait for Pomona,” Arend, a 46-year old resident of San Dimas, Calif., said. “The team chemistry between Jon “O”, Nicky and me is awesome. The whole team is ready for some wins. I expect to qualify well, and I believe that we have as good of a chance as any to win the Winternationals. It sure would be fun to do well, being the hometown boy and having a lot of friends and family there. A win by the DHL team would also be a great way to start our year-long celebration of Connie’s 50 years in drag racing.”
In 2009, Kalitta Motorsports is celebrating 50 years of drag racing by team owner and drag racing legend Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. Over the past 50 years, Kalitta, who has been involved in the sport as a driver, tuner, and as an owner, has dedicated unequalled amounts of time and resources to building one of the most successful teams in the history of auto racing. Kalitta Motorsports has won five world championships and over 50 national event titles in five different drag racing sanctioning bodies since it was established by Connie in 1959.
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