RIP Scott Kalitta

[Madmiles442]

Drag racing lost one of the long time family members today.
Among the most horrific things I've ever seen.
Condolences to the Kalitta and NHRA family.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story...PHCP&GT1=39002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DziJdGwFQjU

[Kzof]

So sorry to hear.

[Powershift1038]

Wow, that is very sad news. The impact on the wall looked terrible.

[Ron61]

I normally watch the qualifying and was watching when this happened just as I was when John Force had his wreck last year. Any time something like that happens it really puts a damper on the whole community of drag racing or whatever other type racing is going on. I remember watching his Father while he was coming up and making a name for himself and Scott will be missed.

Ron

[Don]

Racing series
NHRA OBITUARIES
Date 2008-06-21
STATEMENT FROM NHRA:

On behalf of everyone at NHRA, we are deeply saddened and want to pass along our sincere condolences to the entire Kalitta family.

Scott shared the same passion for drag racing as his legendary father, Connie. He also shared the same desire to win, becoming a two-time series world champion. He left the sport for a period of time, to devote more time to his family, only to be driven to return to the drag strip to regain his championship form.

Scott was a terrific driver and perhaps more importantly a better person and a great father to his two kids. He will be truly missed by the entire NHRA community.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Kathy, sons Corey and Colin, his cousin Doug and his father Connie.

-credit: nhra

AutoWeek.com

Scott Kalitta, a two-time former NHRA Top Fuel champion and one of just 14 drivers to have won in both of the NHRA's nitro categories, died Saturday as the result of injuries suffered in a qualifying accident at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, during the running of the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals. He was 46.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...8/newsletter02

Paul Page & Mike Dunn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MgcKF2ZGSA&NR=1

[4RE KLR]

Sad day in Motorsports for sure

RIP Scott and our prayers are with the family.

[olddog]

A sad thing to see.

It looked to me like the shutdown area was a terrible design. NHRA pulled the spring nationals from National Trails Raceway recently for its poor shutdown area, after drivers compained for decades. I think National Trails Raceway is much better than that track. Now I have to wonder.

[Rare Iron]

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the film of the incident was that there should be a big gravel pit (slowdown area) way at the end of all dragstrips just in case something like this happens again. Scott might be with us today if this were the case. You get going anywhere near speed like this & your chute or brakes fail, or the driver is unconcious, this would happen. What a tragedy.

RIP Scott.

[macloft]

I dont know about the slowdown area I wounder what condition he was in after the the initial nitros explosion. It basically blew the front of the car apart. Those nitros funny cars are such handgrenades it would take huge gonades to drive one. One has to marvel at John Forces record. I think I saw 1002 funny car wins for him on the screen in the weekend. I take my hat off to them but I would hate to have a funny car racer as a Dad.

[blykins]

It's hard to stop anywhere if you don't have a parachute and you're running close to 300mph. I think the track had a shutdown area and even a net, but he plowed through them both and hit the concrete pillar on one side that holds up the net.

I've read a couple of accounts as to the cause of death...but I'd say it's the impact at the end that killed him.

[Silverback51]

Englishtown is one of the shortest tracks on the NHRA tour.

[Don]

Dave Despain on Speed's Wind Tunnel program mentioned they will have a segment on the incident and track within the next few weeks.

Source: MotorSports.com

Arrangements for Scott Kalitta
Racing series OBITUARIES NHRA
Date 2008-06-23
Arrangements for Scott Kalitta

A public memorial service to celebrate the life of Scott Kalitta will be held this Thursday, June 26th at 7:00 p.m. at:

Ernsthausen Performing Arts Center
350 Shady Lane Drive
Norwalk, OH 44857

The Kalitta family appreciates your desire to send flowers to express your sympathy and asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to these charities close to Scott's heart:

The school his sons attend-

Saint Stephen's Episcopal School
Attn: Development Office
315 41st Street West
Bradenton, FL 34209

B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe)
c/o Doug Herbert Performance Parts
1443 E. Gaston St.
Lincolnton, NC 28092

*All donations to BRAKES will be used for the expressed purpose of saving lives and keeping our children safe. Website -- www.putonthebrakes.com

A private funeral service for family members will be held at a later date.

Cards for Scott's family or Connie can be sent to:

Kalitta Air
818 Willow Run Airport
Ypsilanti, MI 48198

Email condolences can be sent to:
champion@kalittaracing.com

Kalitta, a two-time former NHRA Top Fuel champion and one of just 14 drivers to have won in both of NHRA's nitro categories, died June 21, 2008, as the result of multiple injuries suffered in a qualifying accident at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., during the running of the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals. He was 46.

Kalitta was the son of legendary Top Fuel and Funny Car racer and Kalitta Motorsports team owner Connie Kalitta. Scott is survived by his wife, Kathy; sons Corey, 14, and Colin, 8; and his father, Connie.

-credit: kalitta motorsports

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by Silverback51

Englishtown is one of the shortest tracks on the NHRA tour.

Some racers were interviewed shortly thereafter and I think it was Tolliver who said he'd be willing to shorten the race length to 1,000' right now. He discussed how even the slight difference in speed from 300 to 330 is a quantum leap at that level and adds a considerable level of risk on even the better built tracks.

So given the improvements in technology and how these cars keep getting faster, I wouldn't be surprised if NHRA starts to phase in some 1,000' races in '09 (with Englishtown being the first recipient).

Having drag raced when I was younger, I can understand the need to keep things at 1,320 (the quarter mile). Baseball hasn't changed 90' between the bases for 100+ years, despite better athletes and equipment. I suppose NHRA doesn't want to change the primary dimension of their sport either. But it's either a shorter sprint, ban certain tracks, back to watered-down nitro percentages (to keep the terminal velocities down), or a little of all-of-the-above. Heck, even the 90% nitro requirements earlier this decade didn't really slow the cars down...tuners found a way to make them just as quick.

Kalitta will be missed and my prayers go out to his family.

-Dean

[Don]

USA Today June 24 Motor Sports:

Shutdown areas a concern after Kalitta's death in crash
By Gary Graves and Travis Braun, USA TODAY

After inspecting where fellow Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta died Saturday, Tony Pedregon knows what he first must do at this weekend's Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

"My next step is to inspect the track" for shutdown areas, Pedregon said, after the NHRA couldn't answer his questions about whether Kalitta had adequate room to stop before hitting the retaining wall and exploding during qualifying at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.

"I didn't realize that I'd have to be the one to go to the end of the track to see what was there. My goal is to compose an e-mail for (NHRA president) Tom Compton, because I'd like to get his thoughts and maybe because I should be more proactive in getting" answers.

Kalitta, 46, was a two-time Top Fuel champion who returned to racing Funny Cars in 2006.

The New Jersey State Police's Fatal Accident Unit, which includes a segment that oversees racing, and the NHRA are investigating. The NHRA has hired an outside group to reconstruct the accident scene.

Pedregon said he was bothered to find rocks or gravel instead of sand at the end of the drag strip, which might or might not have been able to stop Kalitta's momentum at more than 300 mph.

Pedregon had his own fiery wreck in February at Pomona, Calif. The defending Funny Car champion, whose Chevy caught fire at nearly the same distance as Kalitta, had only minor burns to his hands because he was able to flee his car.

He wonders if longer shutdown lanes and sand pits or water-filled barrels might slow the nitro-fueled cars in an emergency.

[RedBarchetta]

Possible suggestions (not to take away from the thread on Kalitta):

1. Better "laundry" (the chutes are attached to a brace that is attached to the body). With an explosion it makes no sense to have the chutes attached there...Should be on its own frame, attached to the car frame, and extending a foot or two beyond the back of the car (possibly?).

2. Better brakes. Why can't a dragster have ABS? When you panic stop a fueler/funny car, you are pulling on a hand brake and you can cause the car to skip violently. Not suggesting to add a foot brake w/ABS, but there are technologies that would be worth the added weight. Increase the minimum weight of the class to compensate for it.

DOWNSIDE: How do you shield all that brake tubing from a violent explosion?

3. Shorter race distances for some events/tracks (not all). See my previous post.

4. Better designed shut-down areas.

The NHRA is really going to take a LOT of flack on this one from the entire community (racers, fans, sponsors). Not good.

[Bob In Ct]

Let's go to 1,000 feet at ETown for the big guys ASAP. They should also "soften-up" the end of the strip with at least a series of tire walls. The sand trap they currently have is really of no value to a car traveling at speed.

Bob

[Rare Iron]

1,250 feet of deep pea gravel would probably do the trick. Look at how they do the runaway truck pulloffs down steep grades out west. That would slow anything down.

[Silverback51]

There have been a number of cars that when they hit the sand trap, the front end digs in and then they do an end over end flip.

The only real safe fix is longer tracks with more shut down area.

[vettestr]

My prayers go out to the Kalitta family and all those they have touched.

The chutes on these cars are attached to the chassis with the pac only mounted on the body and up in the air stream. Fire resistant coverings are also required but simply can not survive the fire/heat at speed. Today's tech. can not overcome the blowtorch like heat of these fires and still be light enough to be a parachute.

Brakes on these cars are only for lower speeds, stopping the tire from rotating (brakes) is a no no at speed because the car has more forward force than the tires contact force to the pavement. Grabbing a handful of brake with slicks on the rear and a skinny tire on front locks the brake very easy. The sidewalls of the rear slick wad up and start to pogo up and down on rear sending car off the ground for many yards at a time only to touch down and pogo again.

Sand traps work at lower speed but car skips like a rock on a pond until slow enough to start resisting the car and then not ideal to say the least.

With that much fire and smoke a driver can not see a darn thing and feels chutes are gone and not working, you will try to keep car against the wall to scrub speed if you are on it but everything happens soooooo fast. RIP my brother.

[Don]

Source: MotorSports.com

Force declines comment on accident
Racing series NHRA
Date 2008-06-24
FORCE DECLINES COMMENT ON SCOTT KALITTA ACCIDENT
14-Time Champ Grieves for Family; Will Wait for Data from Investigation

YORBA LINDA, Calif. -- In the aftermath of the crash that claimed the life of two-time NHRA World Champion Scott Kalitta Saturday in Englishtown, N.J., one of the voices noticeably silent has been that of John Force.

The usually accommodating 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion said through a spokesperson Tuesday that neither he nor any other members of his team would have any comment on the accident until after the completion of an investigation that will include evaluation of the data generated by the Ford-provided "blue box" installed on Kalitta's Toyota Solara.

Furthermore, he said he wanted to talk personally with Scott's father, drag racing veteran Connie Kalitta, before making any comments that might be misconstrued or taken out of context, something he said occurred too frequently in the days after his own driver, Eric Medlen, was fatally injured last year in a testing accident in Florida.

"We grieve with the Kalitta family," Force said from his team's headquarters here. "We know the pain they're going through right now and we want to be there to support them in any way we can. Other than that, I'm not going to speculate."

-credit: jfr