Scott Kalitta

Scott D. Kalitta (February 18, 1962 – June 21, 2008) was an American drag racer who competed in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

He had 17 career Top Fuel wins and one career Funny Car win.

At the time of his death, due to an accident during race qualifying, he was one of 14 drivers to win in both divisions.

He was the son of veteran NHRA driver and crew chief Connie Kalitta.

Scott Kalitta's career began in 1982 at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.

His first career number-one qualifier happened at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, event in 1988.

He got his first win in 1989 in Funny Car at the event in Houston, Texas.

Kalitta made his home in Snead Island, Florida, with wife, Kathy (married November, 1990) and two sons, Colin and Corey.

He was a native of Ypsilanti, Michigan.

He moved to Top Fuel during the 1990s.

The next two years were big for Kalitta, as he won the Top Fuel championship both years.

In 1994, he became the first Top Fuel driver to have four straight event wins (Columbus, Topeka, Denver, and Sonoma), and he won five events that season.

He won six events and 45 rounds of competition in 1995 to win the championship.

His 1996 season had him win the $100,000 Budweiser Shootout at Sonoma en route to a second-place points finish.

He had the top speed at a series-best eight races that season.

Kalitta won the Topeka event for a fourth straight year in 1997.

He retired in October of that season.

Kalitta came back in 1999, making one final round in 10 starts.

Kalitta returned to Top Fuel in 2003 after a three-year layoff.

He made two final rounds and set a speed record at 333.95 mph, but did not certify the speed with a fast enough backup run to claim the national record.

In 2004, he recorded one win in two final-round appearances.

He was the top qualified at both Las Vegas events, and finished in the top five in season points.

His 2005 season had him win two events.

For 2006, Kalitta returned to Funny Car in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, but did not have as much success as he had in Top Fuel the previous two years.

Kalitta's 2007 Funny Car season was rather uneventful, as he qualified for 16 of 23 events in his DHL-sponsored Solara, and missed the inaugural NHRA Countdown to the Championship.

His best finish of the season was a semifinals appearance at Denver in July.

In 2008, he made his 36th and last final-round appearance at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, losing to Tony Pedregon in the final, two weeks before his death.

On June 21, 2008, Kalitta was fatally injured during the final round of qualifying for the 2008 Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey.

Kalitta's Funny Car was traveling about 300 mph when the engine exploded in flames near the finish line.

The parachutes were damaged and failed to slow the vehicle.

According to the New Jersey State Police official news release, evidence discovered in Kalitta's lane revealed that he had applied mechanical braking and maintained steering control of the vehicle throughout the 2235 ft "shutdown" portion of the racetrack.

Postcrash examination of the vehicle further revealed the clutch system to be locked, maintaining engine power to the rear wheels.

Witnesses and audio recordings reveal the vehicle's engine was firing throughout the shutdown portion of the racetrack, which further reinforced the fact that the vehicle's engine was still providing power for some time.

Kalitta's vehicle reached the end of the paved race track and went through a sand trap at around 125 mph. The vehicle went over the concrete retaining wall.

The vehicle continued forward and hit a piece of heavy equipment (JLG model 600S telescopic boom lift vehicle), which was positioned outside the "run-off" area by the ESPN television crew.

This impact caused catastrophic damage to the vehicle and additional separation of chassis components and the vehicle's engine.

The largest portion of the race vehicle came to rest in a grassy area 250 ft south of the shutdown area.

Kalitta was contained in this portion of the race vehicle and had sustained fatal blunt-force injuries.

In the season, Kalitta drove his Kalitta Air-sponsored Funny Car to a 13th-place points finish, well behind eventual champion John Force.

Toward the end of the year, Kalitta switched from the Monte Carlo to the Toyota Solara, which he ran for the remainder of his career.