Notes & photos from Sonoma

Photos by James Drew and Darr Hawthorne
8/2/05

Doug Kalitta regained the Top Fuel points lead July 31 by winning the FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. Gary Scelzi, Greg Anderson and Andrew Hines also were winners.

TOP FUEL

Kalitta earned his fourth victory of the season and 23rd of his career, and in the process moved 16 points ahead of series rival Tony Schumacher. Kalitta used a quick reaction and drove his Mac Tools dragster to a 4.665 second run at 319.90 mph to hold off the quicker Snap-on Tools dragster of Doug Herbert, which clocked a 4.603 at 319.98.

It was a category-leading fifth victory for Kalitta. In earlier rounds he defeated Bobby Lagana Jr., teammate and cousin Scott Kalitta and Larry Dixon before topping Herbert in the final.

"I don't know what it is about this place, but for some reason we just seem to be real fortunate here," Kalitta said. "I hope we can keep it going for a long time. Larry Dixon has his Father's Day streak and I have my streak here at Infineon. In my opinion this is the best track on the circuit."

Points rival Schumacher lost in the second round, which opened the door for Kalitta to regain the series lead.

"Rahn (Tobler, crew chief) and the team are really working well right now," Kalitta said. "It's nice to be back in the points lead because your sponsors get a big kick out of it."

David Grubnic and John Force had James Dean themed cars at the event. Here, the Aussie takes on Doug Herbert. (James Drew photo)