Championship Drag Racing

Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals
Chicago, Ill.
(June 5-8)

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Driver Profile

Doug Kalitta Mac Tools dragster

Chicago, pre-race: This weekend, June 5-8, Doug Kalitta, driver of the “Big Red” 8,000-horsepower Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, returns to race at one of his favorite quarter-miles and the scene of his team’s historic quickest lap in the history of NHRA drag racing at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., just a few miles south of Chicago, for the annual running of the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

In May, 2004, Kalitta and the Mac Tools team made drag racing’s equivalent of “the shot heard ‘round the world” when they posted a jaw-dropping 4.420-second elapsed time on the scoreboard at Route 66 Raceway in a final-round victory over Brandon Bernstein to become the quickest auto racing team ever. Kalitta also visited the winner’s circle in Joliet in 2006 and 2002.

“Route 66 is an awesome race track,” Kalitta, a 43-year old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., said. “Obviously, we’ve had some successes there with our Mac Tools dragster, but it’s known by racers and fans alike for being one of the best places we go to race. When the weather conditions are right, Route 66 is a drag racer’s dream.

“We struggled a bit at the race in Topeka (Kan., previous event), so we’re really eager to get back on the track in Joliet. Hopefully our success at Route 66 will continue this weekend, and we can pick up the first win of the season for the Mac Tools team.”

Last weekend in Topeka, Kalitta qualified the Mac Tools dragster in the No. 5 position (4.590 sec., 324.83 mph). He was defeated in round one of eliminations by Joe Hartley after a mechanical malfunction slowed his red rail, 5.327 sec., 208.84 mph to 4.727 sec., 311.85 mph.

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