NHRA Nitro Funny Car Driver Scott Kalitta Moving Forward with New Toyota Race Car in Reading
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series veteran Scott Kalitta, driver of the newly christened Kalitta Air Toyota Solara nitro-fueled Funny Car, is optimistic that this weekend's, Sept. 14-17, annual running of the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Penn., will yield even more performance highlights for him, his team and his new Toyota ride.
Kalitta and his Kalitta Air team debuted the 2007 Toyota Solara Funny Car body to the drag racing world at the previous NHRA event in Indianapolis two weeks ago with tremendous success. Kalitta set career best Funny Car performance marks for elapsed time, 4.761 seconds, and for speed, 322.11 mph, in Indy. Now, he and his 7,000-horsepower entry head to Reading looking for even more quarter-mile milestones.
"The new Toyota is making huge strides for us," Kalitta said. "Just like anything, we had a couple of growing pains with the new body when we first got to Indy, but we tweaked some things here and there and by race day it was doing what we knew it could do. We're very pleased and hope we can continue moving forward with our new Solara."
Kalitta, a 43-year old resident of Palmetto, Fla., made the switch from Top Fuel to Funny Car this season. Scott has one NHRA national event win in his career in nitro Funny Car and that was at the Houston event in 1989 while driving with a broken left foot. In Top Fuel, Scott scored two POWERade world championships (1994-1995) and 17 NHRA national event wins.
Kalitta won the Reading event in Top Fuel in his back-to-back championship seasons of 1994 and 1995.
The Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals begins Friday, Sept. 15, for the Funny Car class with two qualifying sessions at 3:00 p.m. (ET) and 6:00 p.m. Two more qualifying sessions follow on Saturday at noon and 3:00 p.m.
The top 16 qualified cars will race Sunday in final eliminations beginning at 11:00 a.m.
All times and dates subject to change.
The Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals is the 19th of 23 national events in the 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
About Kalitta Motorsports
Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Kalitta Motorsports is a Top Fuel and Funny Car drag racing team in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) POWERade Drag Racing Series. The racing operation was started in 1959 by now legendary drag racer and team owner Connie "the Bounty Hunter" Kalitta. His son Scott Kalitta drives the Kalitta Air Funny Car. Scott's cousin, Connie's nephew, Doug Kalitta drives the flagship Top Fuel dragster for Mac Tools. Native Australian Dave Grubnic drives the StriVectin-SD Top Fuel dragster, while Hillary Will drives the Kalitta Motorsports-managed and Ken Black-owned Top Fuel dragster.
Connie serves as head tuner for all Team Kalitta entries. He is assisted by crew chiefs Rahn Tobler (Mac Tools dragster), Jim Oberhofer (Hillary Will-driven dragster), Jon Oberhofer (StriVectin-SD dragster). Connie serves as crew chief on the Kalitta Air Funny Car.
Associate sponsors on all Kalitta Motorsports' race cars include Red Line Oil, Summit Racing Equipment, Technicoat Companies, Zantrex-3 and Fischer Honda.
