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However, things weren’t hopeless, and in fact, said
“things” came to life in the fashion that had
hooked me on the sport so many years ago. On that previous
April of 2004, the NHRA Summitnationals were hosted at the
Strip at Las Vegas. A year earlier at the Vegas plant, Larry
Dixon Jr. had pushed Prudhomme’s Miller Lite car to
a 332.75-mph charge, and that wasn’t far away from the
333 topper of the time. I figured that if I was ever to see
one of those cage-rattling life changing passes, it just might
happen in Sin City.
It was October of 1997 that I saw my last best-in-the-sport
charge, the first 320 by Cory McClenathan at the Texas Motorplex
and that was it. Almost seven years since my last sojourn
in the Twilight Zone.
“Venus if you will” … for God’s sake
let me experience one more throat-gripping all world pass.
Let a new zenith mark my drag racing experiences and one that
crosses over one more time into the netherworld. And I’ll
be damned, if I didn’t get my wish.
Unlike most of my stuff, this race obviously wasn’t
so long ago. The headhunters now were the headhunters then.
Doug Kalitta, Brandon Bernstein, Scott Kalitta, Dixon Jr.,
and Tony Schumacher in the skinny cars and Teams Force, Schumacher
and CSK in the “floppers.”
It was a standard Top Fuel deal. Scott Kalitta jumped to
the lead in qualifying with a 4.473 with Dixon the other 4.4
car and the rest of the hitters in the low 4.5s…well,
all except one, Doug Kalitta. For some vexing reason, Kalitta
was not even qualified for the 16-car show, and if things
stayed that way, it guaranteed a frantic clacking of the word
processors.
Well, the word processors went off like taps in a Fred Astaire
movie, and it wasn’t on account of any bellyflop by
Mr. Kalitta.
Towards the final session of the show, I had resigned myself
to the likelihood that Kalitta’s ’47 would probably
hold as low ET, mainly because in eliminations, if there is
going to be a super run, it’ll happen (it as in one
run) happen in the first round or the final. Don’t know
why that is: That’s just been my experience. And if
you look at the agate type on the back of the sports section,
18 of 23 NHRA national events will have low ET and usually
speed happen in qualifying.
That’s what happened in Las Vegas much to my eternal
satisfaction. Doug Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster and
Brandon Bernstein in dad Kenny’s Budweiser King were
the second to the last pair in the final session of Saturday
qualifying. My figuring was that Bernstein might crank the
number, likely a 4.50, 4.51, because he was already in the
show.
Doug Kalitta
Kalitta, on the other hand, had to get in. A DNQ would be
a nutcracker and put him in a catch-up mode, at least, for
the first half of the season. I figured that he would be aiming
for an ET somewhere between a 4.59 or 4.63, a let’s-keep-our-sanity-here
lap that guaranteed a spot in the field.
I was on the pitside fence at roughly half track and had
a good view, as with any heat that I have an interest in,
I held my breath as the two rocketed from the line. Kalitta’s
red mount made a move at half track, and if I remember correctly,
stretched Bernstein on the top end. A second or so transpired
and a 4.483, 335.57 appeared on Kalitta’s scoreboard
and a 4.479, 333.66 on Bernstein’s … a perfect
battle, a super race.
Son of a bitch, I just got rich. I hadn’t cheered like
that since I saw Eddie Hill’s 4.99 at the Texas Motorplex.
Godalmighty, I am contemporary, I’m back in the loop.
I’ve seen the best speed in history. And as things turned
out it held up until June of 2005 when Tony Schumacher turned
water into wine by running 336 mph at, of all places, National
Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio.
That’s good enough. I did miss both the 336 and a later
337 by Schumacher, but let’s face it, the speeds aren’t
coming up much anymore. Maybe a 338? If things got real hinky
and the script came apart, a 340? However, NHRA doesn’t
want 340 miles per hour on what in many cases are 1975 tracks.
The trend is a slower move on the top end, a testing toe in
the water, a wounded animal wide-eyed and cautious at circling
buzzards.
Which, for me makes Doug Kalitta’s 335.57 a run for
life. 
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