Team DHL looking to cap season with Nitro wins
RICHMOND, Va., (Oct. 9, 2008) -- With only three events remaining in
the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, native Australian Dave
Grubnic, driver of the bright yellow, Nitro-fueled, 8,000-horsepower DHL
Top Fuel dragster, and his DHL/Kalitta Motorsports teammate and native
Canadian Jeff Arend, driver of the Nitro-fueled DHL Toyota Solara Funny
Car, are hoping for a strong finish to their respective straight-line
campaigns beginning at the annual running of the Virginia NHRA Nationals
this weekend, Oct. 10-12, at Virginia Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va.
"I'm really excited about these last three races," Grubnic, a
46-year old resident of Ennis, Mont., said. "We've accepted the
reality that we're not going to make a bid for the championship this
year, so now our focus has changed to making dominating laps and going
for the throat on every run. We have some very fast tracks coming up at
the end of the season and Connie (Kalitta, legendary team owner and crew
chief) has absolutely no problem 'turning up the wick'.
"We make as much or more horsepower than every other team out there,
so if our DHL car gets a good baseline run going here at the end we could
go out and get a couple of wins before we're done. I'm
pumped!"
Grubnic is in 10th place in POWERade points and in the NHRA Countdown to
1 postseason.
Arend, a 46-year old resident of San Dimas, Calif., echoed his
teammate's determination to get a couple check marks in the win
column before season's end in Pomona, Calif., in mid-November.
"The DHL Funny Car is making big strides at every event now, so
I'm very confident we can get in the winner's circle this year,
maybe a couple of times. We're finding our performance stride right
now -- combine that with all the hard work this DHL team puts in to
every lap we make down the track and the attitude in our pit area is
changing from hoping to win to expecting to win."
In early 2004, Grubnic was hired to drive for legendary team owner Connie
"the Bounty Hunter" Kalitta and Kalitta Motorsports. In the fall
of '04, Grubnic won the lucrative and coveted Budweiser Shootout in
Las Vegas, becoming only the fourth driver in the special event's history
to win its $100,000 prize in his first attempt. Grubnic picked up an
emotional first NHRA national event win in May, 2005 in Topeka, Kans., to
become the first non-native North American to win a Top Fuel trophy. He
has one other event victory to date, the 2006 running of the famed
Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.
Kalitta Motorsports team owner and drag racing legend Connie Kalitta
chose Arend to drive the DHL Toyota Solara mount in late July to help
preserve the legacy of his legendary son, Scott Kalitta, who died as
result of a high-speed Funny Car qualifying accident in Englishtown,
N.J., June 21. Arend is a 13-year Funny Car veteran with one NHRA Funny
Car national event win to his credit -- Reading, Pa., 1996.
Qualifying for the Virginia NHRA Nationals begins Friday for the
Nitro-fueled classes with two qualifying sessions at 2:00 p.m. (ET) and
4:30 p.m. Two more qualifying sessions take place Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
and 3:00 p.m. The top 16 qualified cars will race Sunday in final
eliminations beginning at 11:00 a.m.
-credit: km
