KALITTA TEAM HAS TOP FUEL RIVALS ON THE ROPES EARLY
The Kalitta Motorsports starting-line brawl is its own phenomenon.
But JR Todd in the Optima Batteries Dragster and Doug Kalitta in the Mac Tools entry packed a 1-2 performance punch for the team Friday at the AAA Texas FallNationals.
The Kalitta Motorsports starting-line brawl is its own phenomenon.
But JR Todd in the Optima Batteries Dragster and Doug Kalitta in the Mac Tools entry packed a 1-2 performance punch for the team Friday at the AAA Texas FallNationals.
And between them, they had the provisional top two spots and had both ends of the track record covered at the Texas Motorplex at Ennis, south of Dallas.
Todd, going for his second consecutive No. 1 start, staggered the competition with a class-best 3.761-second elapsed time (at 317.87 mph). And points leader Kalitta threw a speed-record 326.71-mph haymaker along with his 3.765 that fell just five-thousandths of a second short of the provisional No. 1.
Al-Anabi Racing’s Shawn Langdon, the reigning Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel champion had owned both previous marks, at 3.767 seconds and 325.53 mph, since last September.
Todd’s and Kalitta’s cars were the only ones that produced 3.76-second passes Friday on the 1,000-foot course.
First-session honors belonged to Tony Schumacher, who took over the No. 2 spot in the Countdown standings with his opening-round victory at Charlotte. The U.S. Army Dragster driver was quickest early Friday with a 3.790-second, 322.11-mph performance.
Todd said team owner Connie Kalitta, who calls the tuning shots on the Optima Batteries car, was “loaded for bear” because track conditions were right. And the timing has been terrific for Todd.
“With this Countdown, it takes getting hot at the right time,” Todd said. “It’s nice to get the Friday night run out of the way and get locked into the field, because you don’t want to be screwing around and having to worry about qualifying when you’re racing at the same time.”
Todd indicated the added pressure to compete in rescheduled eliminations from a previous race doesn’t upset him or please him. It just is another aspect to think about but a bit of a burden on his team and even on his rivals.
“I’d rather finish the race when you start it,” he said, referring to Saturday’s completion of the Pep Boys Carolinas Nationals that unacceptable track conditions and then rain forced into the Dallas-event weekend. “But they [NHRA officials] made the right call last weekend with track conditions not safe. We had no business racing there on Sunday.
“With the Countdown, it’s hard to make up races. It’ll be OK. It’s just going to be busy for the guys who’ve got to finish both,” Todd said.
Round 2 of the Charlotte event will happen during the third overall qualifying session Saturday. The semifinals will be part of the fourth and final Dallas qualifying session. The Charlotte finalists will square off in a third run Saturday that will not count toward AAA FallNationals qualifying. So the Charlotte race will be finished Saturday evening. That will leave Sunday to focus strictly on the Dallas event.
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