Greetings and salutations Team Kalitta fans! Have you heard? There is this little thing called the Winternationals going on this weekend in beautiful, sunny Pomona, Calif. Okay, sorry for the sarcasm…of course you know! I’m happy to be here in more ways than one. Obviously, it’s the start of a new season at the drags, but it’s also a nice escape to get out of Michigan for a few days where it seems like the last month and a half has been snow, sleet, freezing rain…melt…repeat in two days!

As I am also sure that you folks have been well informed by NHRA.com, you know that Scott Kalitta and the DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car team began the 2008 quarter-mile season with great news that was quickly, and I do mean quickly, followed by “uh-oh” news. On his first lap down the track in competition this year, Scott drove the DHL flopper through the timers at 4.818 seconds to take the provisional Funny Car pole, which at the time of this typing is still the mark to beat Saturday morning.

After Scott went through the lights, that’s when the cheering stopped and the wild ride began for the wily nitro veteran. There were problems with the parachute levers an, as I am sure you’re also very aware, Funny Cars are greatly aided by “hitting the silks” in the process of stopping their 320-mph mission. When one ‘chute finally did open, it was too late for Scott, who had been pulling the handbrake with all of his might, to get the DHL car slowed down enough to make the turn off of the race track and into the sand trap he went. We all kidded Scott that since he lives in Florida, he was simply accustomed to the “beach” and wanted to return there. He didn’t really think that was very funny, but I did, and I’m typing…sorry Scott. Since the team had a spare body already ready in the race rig, the search began for a spare for the spare. A back-up for the back-up was quickly secured from another team, but after a fitting attempt was made to see if Tab A would fit into Slot B, a new plan was hatched to breathe new life into what was thought to be a bright yellow carcass because the third-string body did not mount correctly.

What happened Friday night was another testament to the strength of having a four-car team. After the realization that the borrowed body was not quite the right fit, the decision was made to try to make rapid repairs to the beached body. After the executive verdict came down from Chief Nitro Justice Conrad, a flurry of activity began in the DHL pits to fix the sandy yellow shell and “Frankenbody” began its new life. After a healthy dose of cutting, grinding, sanding, drilling, screwing, cursing (hey, it happens), sweating, discussing, vacuuming, and a little more cutting and cursing by team members from all of the Kalitta Motorsports contingent, Frankenbody began to take shape Saturday morning. Now, Frankenbody does in some ways resemble Shelley’s fictional monster because neither will wear the crown and sash of any respectable beauty pageant, but it will hopefully “cut the mustard” (sorry, I been holding that yellow pun in for a long while) if it needs to be used as a spare body.

Just like Frankenbody, the Kalitta Motorsports web site has been resurrected in a new digital domain: www.teamkalitta.com. And now that I have made that very heavy-handed attempt to steer your mouse away from this wonderful web site to our new binary creation on the Information Superhighway, I will try to further entice you visit www.teamkalitta.com in the near future to see three new videos on the Home Page of our new site. We shot them Friday night during the destruction and subsequent construction to present the moving pictures (a RUSH reference for Wilbs) that took place in the creation of Frankenbody.

Thanks for reading and try not be frightened.

Todd has left the building.