{"id":95173,"date":"2024-03-11T08:43:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=95173"},"modified":"2024-03-11T08:43:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:43:42","slug":"team-kalitta-double-up-highlights-nhra-season-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/team-kalitta-double-up-highlights-nhra-season-starter\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Kalitta Double-up Highlights NHRA Season Starter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shawn Langdon, Connie Kalitta, J.R. Todd celebrate Team Kalitta’s first-ever double-up – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NHRA began its 2024 season with the 55th annual Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, held at Gainesville Raceway in the Florida city of the same name the weekend of March 8-10. It\u2019s the second year in a row that the season has begun at this track and the action was heavy from start to finish.<\/p>\n

Of course the weather played a large part in the proceedings, as it usually does at this track, with rain upsetting the second day of qualifying on Saturday and not allowing for Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle\u2019s fourth and final qualifying session. Only Top Fuel would get in its four sessions on Friday and Saturday, together with the Pep Boys Top Fuel All-Star Callout, won by Antron Brown. Far cooler temps, under mostly sunny skies, showed which crew chiefs had the right tune-ups for the condition changes.<\/p>\n

At the close of four rounds of eliminations, the winners celebrating in Top Fuel and Funny Car both came from Kalitta Motorsports, as team owner Connie Kalitta earned his first double-up result in his many years of competing at this high level. Team Kalitta has had 17 opportunities to earn a double victory over the years and did it Sunday in commanding fashion, with both J.R. Todd, the 2018 Funny Car champion and Shawn Langdon, who earned his Top Fuel title in 2013, bringing home the hardware. It was also a double-up for Toyota, starting off the season in the win column in both nitro categories.<\/p>\n

Langdon, who hasn\u2019t visited the Winner\u2019s Circle since the pandemic-era U.S. Nationals in 2020, took over Top Fuel, showing the kind of speed and consistency that crew chief Brian Husen, who has been an assistant crew chief with Alan Johnson, for many years, are known for. Husen took on crew chief duties for Langdon this year and this was his first NHRA race at the helm. The dragster qualified No. 1 and defeated rookie Cody Krohn, always tough Justin Ashley, three-time champ Antron Brown and, finally, Billy Torrence to win his 17th\u00a0 <\/span>race. In nearly every round he looked confident, from Friday through Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Only Shawn Langdon won from the right lane – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWeekends like this just really make you appreciate the life you have. Being able to race for a legend like Connie Kalitta is something I don\u2019t take lightly,\u201d Langdon admitted, \u201cand he gave me the keys to his race car. To come here, go to Scott\u2019s Hall of Fame induction (Scott Kalitta, who died in 2008 was inducted to the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame on Thursday night) and then you take a step back and realize you\u2019re just so lucky to be a part of this, really! Win, lose or draw, we\u2019re very fortunate to be able to race for Team Kalitta and be a part of a great team. To be a part of the first double-up, you just kind of pinch yourself and say, \u2018I don\u2019t really know what I\u2019m doing here, but it\u2019s great, man.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Langdon gave full credit to Brian Husen. \u201cThis is my first Gatornationals win, and we\u2019re doubled up, but I\u2019m just so happy for Brian,\u201d he added. \u201cHe puts in so much time and effort behind the scenes, and he deserves every ounce of credit and success he gets. I\u2019m so thankful to be his driver and I feel like it\u2019s a long, overdue opportunity for him, doing back to when we worked together years ago at the Al-Anabi team,\u201d where Langdon, Johnson and Husen earned the dragster title together. \u201cHe\u2019s learned from the best and for him to have an opportunity to come and qualify No. 1 with a really good race car and then win his first race is just a credit to Brian and this Kalitta Air Careers Toyota team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funny Car winner J.R. Todd\u2019s most recent victory came in Sonoma last July in his Toyota GR Supra, a far more recent win than Langdon\u2019s. The No. 6 qualifier took out Blake Alexander in Jim Head\u2019s Mustang, three-time champ Ron Capps\u2019 Supra after that driver fouled by leaving early, and Bob Tasca III\u2019s quick Mustang en route to a match-up with No. 1 qualifier Austin Prock, subbing for Robert Hight in the John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS. \u201cYou can\u2019t take anybody lightly in Funny Car,\u201d Todd admitted.<\/p>\n

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Todd bested No. 1 qualifier Austin Prock in the Funny Car finals – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying to double up for a long time,\u201d Todd continued. \u201cthere were times when I was driving Shawn\u2019s car that Del (Worsham, now crew chief for Alexis DeJoria) and I were in the finals together. Then I\u2019d be in the final with Shawn or Doug (Kalitta), but for wherever reason it just never worked out. You\u2019re definitely not rolling up to the starting line thinking about doubling up, but leading up to it, you know there\u2019s an opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stars lined up for us here in Gainesville. Scott\u2019s sons were here, Scott\u2019s wife Kathy was here, and I think it was her first time at the race track since 2008 so it was pretty awesome.\u201d With Scott Kalitta\u2019s name emblazoned on the side of the bright yellow Supra, Todd knows he\u2019s driving Kalitta\u2019s car. \u201cI\u2019m just the lucky one who gets to drive Scott\u2019s car and that\u2019s forever his car. I\u2019m just happy we were able to redeem ourselves and get the trophy for everyone that supports us,\u201d Todd concluded.<\/p>\n

In Pro Stock, six-time champion Erica Enders finally got her first Gatornationals victory with Elite Motorsports, leaving only two tracks where she\u2019s not had a win: Richmond and Denver. She earned her 35th No. 1 on Saturday and her 49th career victory (48 in Pro Stock) on Sunday and set plenty of 6.49-second passes en route to this historic win, including her Saturday No. 1. Racing her Chevy Camaro in the final round against teammate Cristian Cuadra\u2019s Mustang, she posted a solid 6.494-second pass any 211.93 mph against Cuadra\u2019s tire-shaking run. \u201cTwo Elite Motorsports cars in the final round – that\u2019s pretty awesome,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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This weekend marked Erica Enders’ first Gatornationals No. 1 and victory – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enders had to go through three rounds against teammates, starting with Kelley Murphy, who works full-time as an Elite crew member and was making his driving debut, then Aaron Stanfiekd before facing familiar foe Greg Anderson\u2019s Camaro from KB Titan Racing in the semifinals. Driving against Cuadra from the preferred left lane, Enders realized the right lane was tricky. \u201cWe\u2019ve been chomping at the bit to get this done. I\u2019ve been to three final rounds here and we finally got it done!\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cThere\u2019s certain tracks that have special trophies, and to get the Golden Gator and the 55th win, it\u2019s awesome. It will sit proudly on our shelf and seeing a packed house at the Gators, it\u2019s so special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently, nobody in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class has anything – yet – for 2023 champion Gaige Herrera, who continued his class domination this weekend on the Vance and Hines Motorsports Suzuki Hayabusa3. Herrera, as he has since his first win here last year, dominated the two-wheeled class and his final round run of 6.636 at 204.39 against six-time champ Matt Smith, back riding a Buell, was the culmination of four 200-mph-plus drives down the quarter-mile on Sunday. Herrera led the class throughout the weekend and, in the second round of eliminations set a track record of 6.629 at 204.54 for the second-quickest run in class history, behind only his record-setting run at Dallas last year.<\/p>\n

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Herrera beat six-time champ Matt Smith in the final round – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In earning his 12th win and sixth in a row, Herrera noted, \u201cThe weather was really close to Dallas\u2019 (last year), where I set the national record. Everyone kind of picked up in the class and we expected to, as well. Overall, I had a very consistent motorcycle. We actually hurt the motor in the semifinals,\u201d he admitted, \u201cso we had to swap motors for the finals. Overall I had a very consistent, smooth motorcycle all day. As long as I didn\u2019t miss a beat, the bike didn\u2019t miss a beat. Even though I didn\u2019t do any testing during the off-season,, it felt like I didn\u2019t even have an off-season. I\u2019m glad to come home with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second of 21 races in the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series takes place at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, the acknowledged home for the series and the former season starter, March 21-24, with the 64th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals.<\/p>\n

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Enders, Kalitta get ecstatic wins at NHRA Gatornationals season opener!<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":95178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[10226,82,1336,9502,719,4730,7,10228,10229,81],"class_list":["post-95173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-55th-amalie-motor-oil-gatornationals","tag-antron-brown","tag-connie-kalitta","tag-gainesville-raceway","tag-j-r-todd","tag-kalitta-motorsports","tag-nhra","tag-nhra-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-pep-boys-top-fuel-all-star-callout","tag-shawn-langdon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Langdon-Kalitta-Todd-celebrate-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-oL3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95183,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95173\/revisions\/95183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}