Doug Kalitta, driver of the No. 50 Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel dragster, raced his way to the final round of eliminations Sunday at the annual running of the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn.
Kalitta took on Tony Schumacher in the final round. The two venerable Top Fuel pilots put on a great side-by-side race for the fans, but Schumacher was able to barely edge out Kalitta at the finish line stripe to get the event win, 3.879 sec., 303.43 mph to 3.857 sec., 310.91.
En route to the final round, Kalitta, a 12-year Top Fuel veteran, defeated Doug Herbert, Cory McClenathan, and Shawn Langdon respectively. Kalitta’s trip to the “money round” was the 57th of his career, the 2nd this season, and the fourth of his career at Bristol Dragway.
“What an awesome day for our entire Kalitta Motorsports team,” Kalitta, a 44-year old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., said. “We sure would’ve liked to get the win, but it just wasn’t meant to be for us today. Our whole team did a great job all weekend making our No. 50 dragster better and better, and going rounds today was a huge boost for our team.”
Kalitta’s teammate, Jeff Arend, driver of the DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, qualified his nitro-fueled flopper in the No. 14 slot (4.335 sec., 280.02 mph). He was defeated in round one of Funny Car eliminations Sunday by Del Worsham, 5.321 sec., 179.04 mph to 4.378 sec., 254.57 mph.
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.
The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals was the 8th of 24 national events in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
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