Native Canadian Jeff Arend, driver of the bright yellow and red-striped, 8,000-horsepower DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, is hoping that some radical changes to his nitro-fueled flopper will allow him and his team to get a fresh start to the 2009 season this weekend as the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series heads to historic Gainesville Raceway for the 40th annual running of the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.
“We’ve made some drastic changes to our car since Phoenix (previous event),” Arend, a 46-year old resident of San Dimas, Calif., said. “Sometimes it’s time to hit the reset button and kind of start over. Our DHL car makes as much or more horsepower than all of the Funny Cars out there, but we’ve really been struggling on how to get that to translate into good lap times. We changed a lot of things in the clutch of the car and even some things on how we run the motor in the past couple of weeks.
“Going into one of the biggest races of the year this weekend in Gainesville with a new combination is a little daunting, but the season is early and now is the best time to make the big, wholesale changes if we want to put ourselves in contention to run for the championship, and of course we do. Our DHL team is up to the challenge.”
At the first two events of the 2009 NHRA season, Arend has qualified 10th and 16th respectively, but as of yet has not won a round of eliminations.
Arend joined Kalitta Motorsports in 2008 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, 9.
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, Connie, 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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