Well, unless you live in a cave, you know that we have had a great couple of weeks here at Kalitta Motorsports, but let's take a minute to see how we got there. It all started Thursday, Oct. 1, when I arrived in Memphis. I met the “O” Bros and Nicky at the airport and Jim “O” took us over to one of his favorite places for some lunch, Leonard's BBQ.
After a great lunch, we went over to the track to see how the boys were doing. We hung out there for a while and then the infamous Technicoat Cowboys called wanting to go out for dinner later. We went back to the hotel, got cleaned up and then met Bob and Glen at one of my favorite restaurants, Ruth's Chris. One big steak, some crème brulee, and a few frosty beverages later we were on the way to Beale St. for a little fun. If you have never been to Beale St, it is like a few blocks of lights, bars and Blues clubs. You can hear some great music there and see some great sights ... you can even carry your drink from bar to bar out on the street, legally!
Friday didn't go all that well for us as far as racing went. On the first run, our DHL Toyota dropped a cylinder and only ran a 4.28. On our night run we were a little too aggressive and it smoked the tires at about 150'. Mike Neff ended up running a 4.13 and that wasn't even good enough to get in to the Top 12! It just goes to show you how tough the Funny Car class is right now. That didn't stop us from going out with the Cowboys again and for the second time in a row, we were back to the hotel early...early in the morning that is!
Saturday morning came a little too fast, for me anyway and we had a tough task at hand trying to break into the field. On our first run, our DHL Toyota did something it usually doesn't do, it smoked the tires almost at the hit of the throttle. Now, we were going into the final session not qualified yet, and without a good baseline run to look at. Jon “O,” Nicky, and Connie came up with a game plan for the last qualifier but until you get to the finish line under power, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Luckily for all of us, our car made a nice, straight as a string conservative 4.25 run to get us into the 15 spot. This earned us the unenviable task of running the No. 2 qualifier Jack Beckman who had run a 4.10. I figured that I had better be on my game so I left the track pretty early and was back in my room and asleep by 10 p.m.
Sunday, we got to the track by 8 a.m., but Mother Nature wasn't cooperating very much. There was a light drizzle that just wouldn't go away. By noon it was raining and things weren't looking good. The crew guys and I were up in the lounge playing the NHRA Drag Racing game on our PS2. I actually had got Doug Kalitta's Top Fuel Car to run a 4.46 @ 330mph with my tune up so everybody was trying to beat my low ET. Now for some reason, I totally forget what happened between 1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning at 8 a.m., but there are reports of me playing golf in Kansas before the race was called on Sunday ... really?? How would that be possible?? Anyway, that's another story all together.
So, fast forward to Monday morning at 8 a.m. when I show up at the track. The weather is still not looking great and there is a really light drizzle. It is cloudy and dark and the sun is nowhere in sight. They are telling us that the race is going to start at 10 a.m. but it doesn't look very good. Nothing is worse for a driver than sitting around and thinking about what might happen later. It's harder to stay focused because you can't go through your normal race day ritual. Then of course when you think you are going to be sitting around for a while, they call you to the lanes and now everybody is in a hurry.
The conditions were so good as far as air quality and track temp goes that we figured we had nothing to lose, so the boys tuned it up to try and run a low teen or high 4.0. It made it about 300 feet or so and the started to spin. I got off the throttle and then back on and it made a right hand turn for the wall. I didn't see Jack so I drove it about as far as I could go without crashing and then lifted. I saw our win light come on and a split second later Jack went flying by. Cool, round one out of the way! Next we had to race John Force. I had a great record against him, if you call 0-10 great. That's right, in over 14 years of racing on and off I had never beat John Force at a NHRA National Event and to tell you the truth it kind of pissed me off. Let's face it, you want to be able to tell the grandkids one day that you actually beat him ... at least once!
So here we are, round 2. Jon “O” and Nicky have been working with Aaron Brooks pretty closely lately (Thanks A.J.!), and they tell me that it should run a 4.10. I am thinking to myself these two things. 1.) If I had a dollar for every time a crew chief told me we were going to run way faster than we had before I would be rich, and 2.) If you know how to run a 4.10, why didn't we do it in qualifying or for that matter all this year? Anyway, I hit the throttle and it feels strong, at about 300 feet it just plants me in the seat right to the finish line. I see our win light come on and Andy yells at me over the radio that we just ran a 4.10...no @*%!, I say to myself … we beat John Force and ran a 4.10…things are looking pretty good! Did I mention that our 4.10 was low ET of the second round?
Next we have to race Ashley Force Hood. The boys are looking at the computer and like what they see. They tell me to hang on again against Ashley. Now the last two times I have raced her I have had great lights, like a mid .070 and a high .060 and she has left on me both times! What happened to the Ashley that was a .110-.130 leaver? So I decide to steal a bit on the starting line so I don't get embarrassed again! I have a .064 to her .080 and run a 4.109 to her 4.119, what a great race, but in reality we probably leave at the same time and our car actually runs a high 4.08! Now we are going to the final against Tony Pedregon.
Tony is one of those guys you really don't like to race because he is a great leaver and driver and his car runs well to boot! My crew guys, Andy Cetwinski, James Riola, Rob Pierce, Chris "Caveman" Butler, Rick Ducusin, Jared Graibel, Jason Hurd and Randy Shatzer (in spirit) get our DHL Toyota turned around in 27 minutes! Unbelievable! As a matter of fact, for almost every round we were one of the first cars up in the staging lanes. It really gives you a lot of confidence as a driver to know that you have the best crew out there! Alright, on to the final. We ended up waiting for almost 20 minutes for Tony to make it to the lanes. He does a real short burnout and then tried to make me red light by deep staging, but it was futile as I was on my game on the starting line and Nicky and Jon “O” sent me to a stunning 4.09 at the 5th fastest speed ever at the 1000 foot. Again in reality we probably ran a high 4.06, low 4.07 but we won!!
The outpouring of emotions from everybody involved with Kalitta Motorsports was evident. I didn't know whether to celebrate, throw up or cry. It was really strange and I think we all felt like that. After the finish line interview we towed up through the pits on the way to the Winner's Circle. We stopped at our pit and I saw Connie standing there. He went to shake my hand but I gave him a big hug instead! I told him, this is for you and Scott and I handed him the Wally. He looked at it and said thanks, then he told me that I should have it. In the end we are going to bring it to Scott's grave site and party with Scott for a while! So our teammate Doug Kalitta, who also had a great weekend going to the semis, convinced Connie to stay for the Winner's Circle pictures. Looking at the pics, I know that both my team and I, and Connie were glad he stayed. There were lots of smiles, hi fives and great pictures that capture the emotion of that great win. I know that I will remember it forever! Our team hung out at the track until 11 p.m. that night and many members from other race teams came by to congratulate us. Phones were ringing, texts were coming in and we were smoking Swisher Sweets and drinking Coors Light, just like Scott would have done! It was an unbelievable night.
The next day we had to go to the track to get all our stuff loaded up because we had a DHL display to do at the Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia. We were at the track by 8 a.m. (all of us a little wounded from the night before) and on the road by about 10:30 a.m. We drove all day and most of the night and got to Norfolk 15 hours driving time later at 3:30 a.m. local time. We got a few hours sleep and then went to do our display. We got to meet a lot of people there including some of the "Top Gun"-type fighter pilots and a Captain.
After our display, they took us on a tour of their fighter jets. We even got to fly an F-18 simulator. That was really cool, but they weren't ready to turn the keys over to me for a real one...hey I didn't even crash it? We got a tour of the hanger and got up close and personal with some F-14 Tomcats painted in Russian colors that they use for dog fighting. After that we watched a few of the pilots practice some acrobatics right off the deck...and we were standing close! They are loud when they go full afterburner and over 600 mph just a 1000 feet or so from where you are standing. It was nice that my whole crew got to go as well and somehow it made the 15-hour drive seem not as bad! We ended up going to the Outback for a real team dinner (not that our winner's dinner at the Waffle House at 12.30 a.m. after the race doesn't count), but this one was a little nicer!
I am going to end this blog now with a pic of the great thing my wife and daughter did for me when I finally got home after Richmond. They did a great job coloring our driveway with chalk and it made me feel extra special. It's nice to have a family that supports you when you are off racing. I know it's a tough thing to do when your husband/dad is gone all the time!
I still can't believe that we did it! We got "The Wally!"