I just got home from our test session in West Palm Beach. Towards the end of the race season last year once we knew that our DHL team was going to have a teammate in Alexis DeJoria and her Tequila Patron-sponsored car, the decision was made to build both cars as identical as possible. For us this meant a new chassis with a different design than we had run in the past. The new chassis was delivered to Kalitta Motorsports early in December and my DHL crew guys got to work on it right away. Since it was a bare chassis -- everything from brake lines to all the tabs to mount everything -- had to be fabricated and installed. Long story short, the boys thrashed away to get everything done and by the time I got to the shop a couple of weeks ago, the majority of the work was done.

Jon O and Nicky had some great plans for testing where we were going to try out everything from superchargers, to our spare ignitions and some different clutch stuff. Sometimes the best laid plans don't work out. With the data Del had learned from testing with Alexis's car last month, we thought we had a good baseline to start off with. Unfortunately our car didn't think the same thing and we ended up smoking the tires for the first day and a half long before we ever got to the tree. Eventually after making some big changes, the boys started to make some headway. On Wednesday we made a nice half-track run with numbers to run in the 4.15 range and then later in the day when the track was the hottest we laid down a great 4.16 run. Unfortunately, that's when we noticed that the flat black body we had borrowed from Alexis' team didn't work or fit quite the same way as it did on her car. Both front struts came through the body on that run and basically ended our day as the repair was going to take quite a few hours to fix properly. That was just the start and it took another day or two to get it right. I felt really bad for my guys Dan and Jared because I don't think they got out of the track until close to midnight for the next three days as they were constantly doing carbon fiber repairs on top of their normal duties. I want to thank Steve from Aerodyne Composites (who thought he was just going to hang out as a spectator) for coming over and getting his hands dirty helping my guys do some of the repairs and passing his knowledge along.

Enough about the body - We finally got it all figured out and all is good now. Jon O, Nicky, and Del got their heads together and we made a nice lap on Friday night running a 4.12 at over 306 mph, with the engine pretty backed down. On Saturday we finally got to test some new clutch stuff and it started to look pretty promising. We made an early shutoff 4.18 run and then on our last run, tried to run a 4.08. After a good launch, we ended up smoking the tires pretty early but the data on the computer still looked good, so I feel pretty good where we are at right now going into Pomona.

Alexis' car made some good runs as well and they got to test a lot of new things. The Kalitta Top Fuel cars were running really strong in testing with Connie and Grubby leading the pack for the first few days. Even though they weren't making full runs they had some of the best numbers to half-track out of anybody there.  Jim O and Doug's car was running good as well recording many runs in the low 3.80 range. Then on their last run of testing on Saturday night they ripped off a fantastic 3.78 which was good for low E.T. of the day. Great job guys!

All the rigs should be back at the shop by now and the boys will be hard at work for the next couple of weeks before they make the long drive out to Pomona for the Winternationals. We have a new paint scheme for our DHL Toyota Camry and I am looking forward to seeing it when it gets out here. It's going to be a tough year whether you are in Top Fuel or Funny Car but we have set new goals for all the Kalitta Motorsports cars and I am hoping for a great season for all of us.

See you at the races and thanks for reading!

 

Well the New Year is upon us and I can't wait for race season to get started! It's been a while since I last blogged so let’s get back up to speed. Back in mid-December, Alexis' new crew chief, Del Worsham, and the boys and girls went down to West Palm to do a little testing with Alexis' Tequila Patron Funny Car and the new Toyota Camry body. If you know Del, he is not a "status quo" guy and he had lots of new ideas and things to try out.

Long story short, things went really well and Alexis made her quickest and fastest lap down there running a 4.09 at 311 mph. I talked to Del after and he was pretty excited how everything went as well as the performance of the new Toyota body. He told me the 4.09 run was a really safe run and there is a lot left in it. Knowing Del he is not going to be happy until we are able to run low 4.0s when the conditions are right and as a driver nothing makes you happier than having a crew chief tell you that. He is already working on more safety items as well as a host of other goodies to try out when we get down to West Palm in a couple of weeks.
 
The holidays went great at the Arend household as my Mom flew up from Toronto, Canada to be with us. Jenna of course got spoiled and between Santa and Windy and I, she has enough stuff to keep her busy for quite a while. Windy got a few cool things like a nice red KitchenAid mixer to match the new washer and dryer we got a few months ago when we moved in. I even bought her some clothes from her favorite store "Buckle" and it actually appears that she liked them! I ended up doing pretty well myself with some new clothes and a new laser rangefinder for playing golf. Speaking of golf, it had been quite a while since I had played much but the weather here in SoCal has been unbelievable lately being over 80 degrees almost every day for the last couple of weeks. Since my Mom has gone back home and Jenna is back in school, I have been enjoying myself out at the links as often as possible lately knowing that racing season is right upon us now.
 
I did add a little excitement to our family right before New Year’s though with an unexpected check in to the Emergency Room at our local hospital. It all started at about 3:30 a.m. back on Dec 27. I woke up feeling a strange sensation in my lower abdomen, nothing crazy, just weird. Within a few hours it got a lot worse and I had about the worse stomach ache I had ever had combined with the worse back ache and well as it felt like some other part of my body was being squeezed in a vise, if you know what I mean. Soon, I couldn't walk or get in a position for the pain to go away. I actually ended up throwing up about four times just because of the pain.

Windy took me to the doctor around 10 a.m. and he checked me out and told me to get to the ER right away as it looked like I had kidney stones ... nice. Long story short, at about 12:30 after the physician checked me out, he gave me a shot of morphine to dull the pain which was about the worse I had ever felt. About a minute later, I didn't have a care in the world. A couple of hours later after a urine sample and a cat-scan, the doctor came back in to tell me that I had passed it. One IV bag worth of fluids and I was good to go. It was amazing because by the time I got home, I felt like nothing had ever happened. We even chowed down on some pizza and since then I have felt great. I guess I was pretty lucky in not having to get any more procedures done, but I would be very happy never to have to endure that kind of pain again. I will be drinking lots more fluids, that's for sure.
 
Now let's get back to racing. The plan right now is to test Jan. 16-21 in Florida with all the Kalitta cars. I will be giving you some updates on my next blog or you can always follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Next week, Del, Nicky, Grubby and I will all be at Kalitta Motorsports headquarters in Ypsilanti, Mich., to put the final touches on not only my new DHL/Toyota Funny Car but all the rest of the cars as well. Connie, Jim O, Nicky, Jon O, Grubby and Del will be coming up with a game plan for testing as well as trying lots of new things out on the blower dyno, clutch dyno and fuel flow bench. We have new equipment and personnel to get familiar with and to say that we are all excited would be a big understatement!
 
I hope all of you had a great Christmas and New Years and if you are at the races make sure to swing by the DHL pit to say hi.
Well, now that the whole world knows what my buddy, Del Worsham, is up to now by joining Kalitta Motorsports, and I can tell you that I’m very excited for 2012. I have known Del for a long time and even had the opportunity to drive for him in 2007 in the CSK "blue" car. Del is going to be the crew chief on the Tequila Patron race car, but I feel this is only going to make our DHL team, as well as Doug's and Grubby's teams even better as well. Del is a very smart guy and has tuned his own cars with his dad, Chuck, for over 20 years. Add to that the experience he learned working with "The Man", Alan Johnson, and you can see why we are all excited. Connie and his Kalitta Motorsports organization are going to give Del everything he needs to try out new combinations and this coupled with the great staff and equipment that he has put together over the years is going to be a recipe for success.
 
We will be starting off the year with new chassis's and the brand new Toyota Camry bodies. The boys are busy back in Ypsilanti getting the first body mounted and getting ready to test Alexis's car next week. After that test session, the guys back at the shop will get a much deserved vacation for a couple of weeks before returning back to the shop right after the New Year. After that, it is only a couple of weeks before they leave again to test in mid-January so things are going to be going "Full Throttle" back at the shop.
 
Del is going to be a great fit for our team since my crew chiefs, Nicky and Jon O, are already great friends with Del and respect him very much. Our DHL team is coming off our best year ever and with what Jon and Nicky learned this year, I am sure that will greatly accelerate Del's learning process. Having two cars will also be a dream come true for all involved as this will enable us to gain data twice as fast as before and should relate to better performance for both the DHL and Patron teams. The plan is right now to get Del, Jon O, and Nicky to come up with a plan and then build and set up both cars as close as possible so that's it is easier for us to share information.
 
On Friday I am flying back to the shop for the annual Kalitta Christmas party. I am looking forward to seeing all my guys and everybody else that makes the Kalitta organization so great. It's going to be a fun couple of days and a great way to get the Holiday Season started. I want to thank Connie, my DHL crew, all our sponsors, my family and all the people back at the shop for their hard work this year that enabled us to do so well. I know that everybody is excited for the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle season to get underway and before you know it, we will be at Pomona again.
 
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year if I don't talk to you before then and thanks for all your support!

Well, our DHL/Kalitta Motorsports team achieved a lot of the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year and I am really proud of our entire team for that. We won a race and got one of those cool "pewter Wally's", made the Countdown, ended up finishing solidly in the top ten for the first time, and also ended up with a better than 50 percent round-win record. We also really "gelled" as a team and generally had a lot of fun, whether we were on the track, doing displays or just hanging out. Now with the addition of Alexis and her Patron team, I feel we are setting ourselves up for an even better year in 2012. A top five finish is now in our sights and with some of the changes we have coming up for next year, I feel confident that we are going to have our best year ever with our Kalitta Funny Cars.

Our DHL team had a good finish to the season at the World Finals in Pomona. Nicky and Jon O made some great calls and we made some solid qualifying runs that put us in the No. 7 spot with a great 4.11 when all was said and done. We had a first round match up with Ron Capps on Sunday and made another nice run. After leaving with identical reaction times, Ron and I gave the fans a good race with Ron getting to the finish line just a few hundredths ahead of us to take the win. While we wanted to go some more rounds on Sunday, we knew that we gave it our best effort and if not for a couple of dropped cylinders after half track, it could have gone either way.

On Monday night, Windy, Jenna and I got all dressed up for the NHRA Banquet. We met up with the rest of the Kalitta gang and enjoyed a great night. I was very proud to finally be able to represent DHL, Kalitta Motorsports and Scott's legacy by getting up on stage with the other top ten drivers and I enjoyed every second of it. It was something that we had dreamed about for the last few years and it was nice to see all the hard work and perseverance pay off.

On Tuesday, I drove up to Santa Maria to play in the Blaine Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament. For the last few years, I always join AJ and a few of his buddies for a little practice round in the afternoon and this year was no exception. We all get along well and enjoy a little trash talk on the course and have a good time in doing it. Later on AJ hosts a team and friends party at his place and then we all go out for a great dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, "The Hitching Post" in Casmalia. One of AJ's buddies, Billy owns the restaurant and if you like steak, artichokes and mushrooms, you are in for quite a treat. If you are ever in the area, you have to drop by there for some food. You won't be disappointed.

On Wednesday, it was time to play some golf. I have played with Jim O and Jon O for the last two years and this year, they had their cousin Rich Massey come to join us. They had always said he was a good golfer, but man, could this guy play. After talking to Rich for a while, I then realized that he had played on the PGA tour for a few years! It was also kind of funny, because as he talked about some of the tours he had played on, I asked him if he knew a friend of mine that had played on the same tours and it turned out that they were really good friends! What a small world! Anyways, thanks to Rich and some contributions by Jim O , Jon O, and myself, we shot our best score ever but it wasn't quite good enough to finish in the money. We did have a great time though and that's what’s important to me. Later on that night at the Auction and Awards Banquet, a lot of money was raised for the Blaine Johnson Foundation. The money goes to local schools to buy equipment so that the students there are learning on machines that they will use in the future. It is a great thing that AJ and his family put on and I am sure that Blaine is proud.

I would also like to congratulate, AJ, Del and everybody on the Al-Anabi team for winning the Top Fuel championship. Del and I have known each other for a long time and it couldn't have gone to a more deserving guy.  Enjoy it, Del!

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and that you are looking forward to a great 2012 NHRA season. I know that all of us at Kalitta Motorsports are, and we will see you at the races next year!