St. Louis: Scott Kalitta preview

NHRA Nitro Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta and DHL team building momentum headed to St. Louis

MADISON, Ill., (May 2, 2007) -- Scott Kalitta, driver of the bright yellow and red DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car, sees a bright future for his 8,000-horsepower fuel flopper beginning at this weekend's, May 4-6, running of the annual O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Int'l Raceway in Madison, Ill., within sight of the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

After a very successful test session after the previous event in Atlanta last weekend, Scott and the DHL team may use this weekend's event as a gateway to getting their race car to the top of the competition in the ultra-competitive Funny Car class.

"The testing went great," Scott, a 45-year old resident of Palmetto, Fla., said. "We've got a new race car, and we really like what it's showing us right now. Our numbers have been getting better and we've certainly been running more consistently lately. We're hoping this new car will help us continue that momentum in St. Louis and beyond."

Kalitta returned to the Funny Car class last season after many successful years at the helm of a Top Fuel dragster. He won the NHRA Top Fuel World Championship in 1994 and 1995 as well as 17 NHRA national event trophies, but got his first professional NHRA national event win under the carbon fiber canopy of a Funny Car in Houston in 1989.

The O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals begins Friday, May 4, for the Funny Car class with one qualifying session at 5:00 p.m. (CT), and then another qualifying session at 7:30 p.m. Two more qualifying sessions follow on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The top sixteen qualified cars will race Sunday in final eliminations beginning at 11:00 a.m.

-credit: km