Catching up with the Kalittas
Hey everyone, long time no type! The super crazy part of our season has finally come to a close, and I've gotta tell ya, I'm pretty excited about it! We went from a four-race "Eastern Swing," to a quick stop in Chicago, to the infamous Western Swing in the past few months, and I'm excited to only have one "swing" left for this season. I love being at the track as much as any nitro junkie, but man, it gets exhausting to travel that much! Now that I've had a little time to recover from all the madness, let me catch you up on what's been happening in the Kalitta camps...
The "Eastern Swing" (which consists of Epping, Englishtown, Bristol, and Norwalk) probably had more lows than highs for us this year. Epping was rather uneventful for us on the racing side of things this year, as was Englishtown. As has become tradition, we had Eddie's Annual Lobsterfest on Saturday night to celebrate the life of our buddy, Scott Kalitta. We started a new tradition at this year's Lobsterfest with the "Kare to Glare" event that benefited the Tammy O Foundation. The goal was to raise $5,000 so that we could shave Gypsy's head, and not only did we achieve our goal and give Gypsy a fabulous new hairdo, but we nearly DOUBLED the goal! It was really great to see how many people were willing to contribute to help us achieve this goal, and it proved to me once again that the racing community is just one giant family. From Kay Torrence to Jeg Coughlin to Austin Prock to Rahn and Ellen Tobler, thank you all so much for your support!
Bristol was a relatively uneventful weekend for us aside from Shawn's huge explosion in Q4, so we'll just move on to Norwalk. Doug and the Mac Tools team scored their first number one qualifying position and green hats of the season with a stout 3.709 at 327 miles per hour during Q2, and then they made it all the way to the final round! Even though Steve Torrence was the eventual Top Fuel winner in Norwalk, it was still a pretty solid weekend for us and it was nice to end that four race swing on a good note.
After Norwalk came Chicago, which once again was pretty uneventful for us on the racing side of things, but then we had excitement overload when we held Oscoda Appreciation Day for some of Connie's Kalitta Air employees up north. Connie's day-to-day business operations for Kalitta Air take place in Ypsilanti at Willow Run Airport, but Oscoda is where the magic happens. He has multiple hangars that fit 747s inside, machine shops for all of the airplane parts, and even a dyno room to test the airplane motors!
The Old Wurtsmith Air Force Base is now basically entirely dedicated to Kalitta Air maintenance operations, and it was pretty incredible to look around and know that nearly everything in sight was owned by the Rad Man. There are thousands of employees that work up in Oscoda, and our marketing team decided that we wanted to show how much the motorsports side appreciates what the Aviation side does, so we hauled all five of our racecars north and put on one heck of a cacklefest right outside the hangars! Not only were all five of our Toyota Racing cars in attendance, but Allen Bridge's replica of Connie's Bounty Hunter dragster was there, too! There was literally over 55,000 horsepower going off at once, and it was insanely cool. All of our guys had a great time checking out the airplane stuff, and I think the Kalitta Air employees enjoyed seeing our nitro-fueled hot rods up close and personal! In a nutshell, Oscoda Appreciation Day was a MAJOR success. We couldn't do what we do at Kalitta Motorsports without the hard work of everyone at Kalitta Air, so it was nice to show our appreciation in the only way we know how.
Once that was all finished, we had a weekend off, and then came the Western Swing. I love all of the tracks we go to during this swing, and I love the areas that surround the tracks. Denver has been my favorite track since 2005 when I got to be there to see Scott win in Top Fuel. That was one of the first wins I remember being in attendance for, and it definitely left an impression. I already liked the track because it was pretty, but winning the race put it at the top of my list! Throughout the years we've had a decent amount of success there, so it has held its rank as my favorite. Aside from the beauty of the facility, I like the challenge that comes with racing in the Mile-High City. It's a total crapshoot when you go to Denver, and that makes it anyone's race! It wasn't our race this year, but I'm confident that there will be more Kalitta wins on the mountain in the future.
Before we got the Toyota Sonoma Nationals started, I got to do a little wine tasting with some of the lovely ladies of Kalitta Motorsports. It's not very often that we're able to all get together and do something outside of the track, so I was extremely appreciative of being able to spend that day with such a fun group. I'm hoping this can become an annual event for us before we start race weekend in Sonoma!
The highlight of our season so far has to be the Toyota Sonoma Nationals when J.R. drove the wheels off his DHL/WIX Filters Camry to get our team's first win of 2017! The saying "it's better to be lucky than good" is commonly heard in the sport of drag racing, and that saying rang true for the DHL team on Sunday. J.R. just barely got past Alexis in the first round, then was able to get past John Force in the second round to move on to the most incredible round (in my opinion) of the day: his semi-final race against Jack Beckman. I hope that you've watched this race by now, and if you haven't, what are you waiting for?! I'm not sure if there has ever been such a spectacular comeback in racing history! J.R. went up in smoke pretty much at the hit of the throttle, and we all thought it was over right then and there. I couldn't really see past the people and the smoke on the line, but I heard the track go quiet for a second and get loud again, and then we saw the win light come on in our lane! It was completely unbelievable even after we watched the replay. Anyone that had doubts about whether J.R. would be able to handle a Funny Car should be eating their words, because that round showed that he's a master behind the wheel!
After that incredible round, it was on to the final to race Tim Wilkerson. We saw Timmy go up in smoke, and J.R. made a clean pass to score his first Funny Car win! I'm just so proud of J.R., my Uncle Jon O, and all of the yella fellas for making it happen. It's been a trying year for everyone, so seeing all of their hard work finally pay off was fantastic!
After the excitement in Sonoma, I rode along in the truck with Isaac to Seattle for the Northwest Nationals. Riding in the truck isn't a bad way to travel because I get to hang out in the sleeper and be a co-pilot, but there are definitely some downfalls that can come along with riding in the truck. We experienced one of those downfalls on our trip: a blown tire. We were on the side of the road for two hours waiting to get the thing fixed, but once we (finally) got to Seattle we had a good time.
We went out on the town in Seattle with a group of people on Tuesday night, then headed to Pike Place Market and the gum wall in the morning before heading back to the track. If you've considered seeing the gum wall in person, I'll warn you that it has a very distinctive smell and it kind of grossed me out.
Unfortunately, Seattle wasn't nearly as exciting as Sonoma, but our Funny Cars showed some major consistency and it seems like things are making progress in the right direction! This is the time to get the consistency started as the Countdown to the Championship is fast approaching. It's a bit nerve-racking going into Brainerd and Indy to look at our point standings, but it ain't over 'til it's over! We're going to give it all we've got during the next two events and hope for the best.
As always, stay up to date with all things #KalittaStrong by following us @teamkalitta on Twitter and Instagram and "liking" Kalitta Motorsports on Facebook. I'll blog at you guys soon, take care!