NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals and NHRA New England Nationals
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Bristol Dragway; Bristol, Tenn.
Post-Event Wrap-Up
Doug Kalitta, Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: Doug Kalitta was the No. 6 qualifier at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster made four qualifying attempts all within .107 seconds showing excellent consistency. Kalitta’s quickest elapsed time was recorded in the Friday night session when he reached the finish line in 3.764 seconds.Bristol Eliminations: Kalitta advanced to the semifinals on the strength of two excellent runs posting elapsed times of 3.724 and 3.773 seconds. Including the four qualifying attempts, the Mac Tools Toyota team made six strong runs in a row expanding on the consistency it showed in qualifying. Kalitta defeated Clay Millican and Steve Torrence before losing to Antron Brown in the semifinals. The two were side-by-side late in the run when the Mac Tools car began dropping cylinders allowing Brown to win the round.
NHRA New England Nationals Eliminations: Kalitta was the No. 12 qualifier at last week’s New England Nationals which was run during Bristol qualifying. Kalitta posted a strong 3.764-second effort but lost to Leah Pruett’s 3.745-second run by eight thousandths of a second.
Unofficial Point Standings: Kalitta leaves Bristol in ninth place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails eighth-place Josh Hart by 29 points and leads his teammate, 10th-place Shawn Langdon, by 37 points.
“Kalitta on Bristol: "It felt good to get in the semifinals, and Bristol is a great place so we’re happy to have some success here this weekend,” Kalitta said. “It’s also great to get back into the Mission challenge (Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge) for Norwalk. In that semifinal run, we definitely needed everything we could get on that one so we were pushing it hard. I’m really proud of our guys on this Mac Tools Toyota team. My guys just keep plugging – we’re all trying hard, and we’re all hungry.”
J.R. Todd, DHL Funny Car
Qualifying: J.R. Todd was the No. 7 qualifier at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. The DHL Toyota made four solid qualifying attempts with elapsed times all within .092 seconds. He recorded his quickest time Friday night when he needed just 4.025 seconds to reach the finish line. Bristol Eliminations: Todd was in a great race with John Force when the engine in the DHL Toyota began having problems causing the engine to automatically shut off. Force went on to advance to the second round.
NHRA New England Nationals Eliminations: Todd was the No. 8 qualifier at last week’s New England Nationals which was run during Bristol qualifying. The 2018 champion defeated Cruz Pedregon and Matt Hagan before losing to John Force in the semifinals. It was Todd’s second semifinal of the season.
Unofficial Point Standings: Todd leaves Bristol in 10th place in the NHRA Funny Car point standings. He trails ninth place Cruz Pedregon by 27 points and leads 11th place Alex Laughlin by 36 points.
Todd on Bristol: "It was definitely unfortunate to not get this DHL Toyota GR Supra down the track on Sunday after having really good, consistent runs all weekend in qualifying. We’d just been a tick off of the front runners which put us in the qualifying spot we had. We learned from each of those qualifying passes, but at the end of the day, we had some issues in the first round. We’ll put that behind us, get back to the shop, regroup and get ready for Norwalk.”
Shawn Langdon, Kalitta Air Bounty Hunter Top Fuel Dragster
Qualifying: Shawn Langdon was the No. 14 qualifier at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. His best qualifying attempt came in the first attempt Saturday afternoon when he posted a 3.842-second effort at 323.97 mph.Bristol Eliminations: Langdon had a brilliant .029 reaction time, and the Kalitta Air Toyota team made its best run of the weekend – a 3.779-second effort at 325.85 mph, but it wasn’t enough. Steve Torrence won the round with a 3.691-second pass.
NHRA New England Nationals Eliminations: Langdon was the No. 2 qualifier at last week’s New England Nationals which was run during Bristol qualifying. Langdon raced No. 15 qualifier Tony Schumacher who defeated the Kalitta Air driver 3.797 second-pass to Langdon’s 3.846.
Unofficial Point Standings: Langdon leaves Bristol in 10th place in the NHRA Top Fuel point standings. He trails
Langdon on Bristol: “The Kalitta Air car just wasn’t great from the word go at Bristol which kind of stinks because we had two races this weekend and went out first round in both. That’s happened a lot in the last few races now. We have a really good group of guys and a great team – we’re just kind of in a rut right now. We have to keep working at it until we get this Kalitta Air Toyota Bounty Hunter car headed back in the right direction.”
Photos: Gary Nastase
Next Race: Team Kalitta will be back in action June 23-25, 2023 at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. For additional information, please visit www.nhra.com. For additional information on Kalitta Motorsports, please visit www.teamkalitta.com.
