At first glance, it appears to be just another case of racing nepotism. But Doug Kalitta has proven over the past nine seasons that the choice to put him in the Kalitta Motorsports dragster may have been more by deed rather than bloodlines

Kalitta, who drives a Top Fuel entry for uncle Connie Kalitta, has become one of the top competitors in the sport, winning 29 national events while being a perennial top-10 competitor. Now, after finishing second twice and third once during the past three seasons, he's on the verge of winning a POWERade Series championship, a prize that's his if he and his Mac Tools team can take care of business during this weekend's 42nd annual Automobile Club of Southern California Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Kalitta closes in on Top Fuel title

 

 

 

 

At first glance, it appears to be just another case of racing nepotism. But Doug Kalitta has proven over the past nine seasons that the choice to put him in the Kalitta Motorsports dragster may have been more by deed rather than bloodlines

Kalitta, who drives a Top Fuel entry for uncle Connie Kalitta, has become one of the top competitors in the sport, winning 29 national events while being a perennial top-10 competitor. Now, after finishing second twice and third once during the past three seasons, he's on the verge of winning a POWERade Series championship, a prize that's his if he and his Mac Tools team can take care of business during this weekend's 42nd annual Automobile Club of Southern California Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

"My team...they're hungry, just like I am," said Kalitta, who leads three-time champion Tony Schumacher by 45 points coming into the event. "We have a never-say-never attitude. Winning the championship is what it's all about for us. It's gotten us this far. We're happy to be were we're at."

But it hasn't exactly been a straight trek for Kalitta, whose career in the sport actually began more than 20 years ago when he was a crewmember on Connie Kalitta's Top Fuel team during the 1980s.

While the dream back then was to hopefully get the chance to drive a dragster, he was forced to look down another road when his real first opportunity to drive came in the circle-track set, mainly open-wheel racing. Kalitta, 42, drove USAC Midget and Sprint cars and earned Midget Series Rookie of the Year in 1991 before scoring a USAC Sprint Car national title in 1994.

"It was just a different opportunity, kind of like what got me back to drag racing (in the late ‘90s)," Kalitta said. "It came to me. With anything, you have to stumble on to something, or have the money to do it, and I got the opportunity to drive the sprint cars. That's the way it was with the open-wheel stuff. At work, I knew a guy, whose car Connie was sponsoring, so I had the opportunity. Then when (cousin Scott Kalitta) retired, I had the opportunity here."

 

 

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That came prior to the 1998 season after Scott Kalitta, who won back-to-back Top Fuel titles in '94-95, decided to take a break from drag racing and concentrate more on the family business.

Doug Kalitta was content with the USAC circuit, but then the phone rang. It was Connie, who wanted him to return to drag racing.

"It was a tough decision," Doug Kalitta said. "There was a lot of stuff going on at that time. But (Connie's team) was a proven team that had won championships. I've had no regrets."

Neither has the team. Kalitta has proven to be a perfect fit. He scored one win in two final rounds en route to finishing sixth in points during his rookie season. He has since gone on to win 29 national events, which ties him for fifth on the Top Fuel all-time win list. Kalitta also has proven to be quite capable off the starting line, where this season he has a class-high seven hole-shot wins.

"I don't look it other than going up there and trying to give it the best you can," Kalitta said. "It's great the statistics are what they are, but it’s all about trying to get the trophy at the end of the day."

This season, he and the team have been on their game. Kalitta has won a class-best five national events and is 41-17 on race day. He's qualified No. 1 just once, but also has eight trips to the semifinals and has just three first-round losses.

"Doug is making it real tough on us," said Schumacher, who is still hoping to be just the second Top Fuel competitor to win three consecutive series titles, joining Joe Amato ('90, '91, '92). "He's got a great team behind him. When they started with the three cars (two years ago), they were way off. One car would do one thing, the other would do something else, and the third car would do another. But now it's together and they can learn from each other. It's good and it's paying off for them."

 

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Especially this season, although Kalitta didn't get off to the start he and the team had hoped for.

He won just five of 11 rounds during the first five events and advanced no further than the semifinals. He also found himself 190 points behind then-leader Melanie Troxel, who advanced to the finals at each of the first five events, winning two. But Kalitta and crew chief Rahn Tobler, Shirley Muldowney's husband and crew chief during her championship runs, didn't panic.

"We just (stuck to our) game plan," Kalitta said. "Obviously with Rahn and my team, we just go to each of these races hoping that we're going to get the win. What Melanie did at the beginning of the year, it was awesome. Obviously I think all of us had kind of hoped she would quit going to the final there every race. But it was quite an accomplishment. Every once in a while you hope you get your turn at some kind of run like that."

Kalitta got his turn.

He was able to get back in the points chase with a strong run near the end of the spring stretch. Kalitta won three of four events during May and June and sliced Troxel's lead down to 71 points. He then advanced to the semifinals in back-to-back events at St. Louis and Denver to assume the top spot, which he has yet to relinquish.

Kalitta credits most of the success this season to Tobler, who was part of Muldowney's three championship seasons in '77, '80 and '82.

"Rahn's been in the championship hunt with Shirley winning championships," Kalitta said. "I think it's just his technique of trying not to over do what you're trying to do when you're going rounds; just race as smart as you can. I think he's getting real good at that.

"He's as solid as they come. He understands what's going on with his cars, and wants to make sure we don't beat ourselves. And it's that not trying to beat yourself that succeeds throughout the year. It's really hats off to him, because he's the reason were running for the championship."

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Now Kalitta will try to close the door on the title this weekend. The quest for his first title appears to be right in front of him. Barring a national record being set by Schumacher's U.S. Army team, Kalitta can score his first POWERAde Series title by adding up the numbers, which in this case would be to qualify sixth or better in the 16-car field and advance two rounds on Sunday.

But Kalitta also knows that he can't treat the event any differently than the previous 22 races.

"You just got to stick with what you've been doing," he said. "You have to just do your normal deal up there, trying not to get too worked up about the points, the championship, just trying to be consistent with what you're doing.

"We're out here trying to win a championship, and everyone's trying to give it their best, and I'm no different. That's really our desire, and obviously if you get the wins, you get the points and hopefully the opportunity at the end to get the championship."

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