NHRA

Memphis: Kalitta Racing Saturday summary

Grubnic tops NHRA qualifying in Memphis; Teammates Doug Kalitta and Scott Kalitta qualify No. 2 and No. 4 respectively Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 21, 2004 -- By virtue of his faster speed, Red Line Oil Top Fuel dragster driver "Aussie Dave" Grubnic took ...

Published: Aug 22, 2004, 4:41 PM

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Grubnic tops NHRA qualifying in Memphis; Teammates Doug Kalitta and Scott Kalitta qualify No. 2 and No. 4 respectively

Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 21, 2004 -- By virtue of his faster speed, Red Line Oil Top Fuel dragster driver "Aussie Dave" Grubnic took the No. 1 qualifying position away from his Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta, driver of the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster, in the fourth and final qualifying session at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park, the 17th national event on the 23-event, $50 million NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series trail.

Grubnic and Doug Kalitta both ran identical 4.580-second laps down the quarter mile dragstrip, but Grubnic's blazing speed of 315.34 mph was faster than Doug's 309.63 mph. Doug established his mark early in the session, but was just barely slighted by Grubnic's Red Line Oil hot rod near the end of the session.

"This is such an awesome team," Grubnic said. "It's a tribute to all my guys and Connie (Kalitta, team owner and crew chief) and everyone on our whole Kalitta Motorsports team. We changed a lot of things on our Red Line Oil car before that last run and it obviously worked. Tim Kerrigan (Red Line Oil owner and president) is here with us this weekend, so it's great to have him here when we perform well."

This is Grubnic's fifth No. 1 qualifying spot of the 2004 NHRA season. The likable native Australian got his first career No. 1 qualifier in Memphis in 1999. He will face No. 16 qualifier Scott Palmer in the first round of Sunday's final eliminations. No. 2 qualifier Doug Kalitta will match up with No. 15 Scott Weis.

Scott Kalitta, driver of the Mac Tools/Jesse James Top Fuel dragster, qualified in the No. 4 position with a final qualifying session run of 4.582 sec., 317.94 mph. He will roll to the starting line in round one of eliminations against No. 13 qualifier Joe Hartley.

-www.kalittaracing.com.

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