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June 23, 2008
NHRA funny car driver Scott Kalitta died after his car explodes an engine during qualifying for the Super Nationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ.
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – On a day when winning is usually the only thing on the minds of teams and drivers in the NHRA, race day in Englishtown today was different, according to Bob Tasca III's publicist Alexis Kinch.
NHRA funny car driver Scott Kalitta in January.
Scott Kalitta died Saturday when his Funny Car burst into flames and crashed at the end of the track during the final round of qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, according to The Washington Post.
The NHRA said the 46-year-old Kalitta _ the 1994 and 1995 Top Fuel season champion who had 18 career victories, 17 in Top Fuel and one in Funny Car _ was taken to the Old Bridge division of Raritan Bay Medical Center, where he died a short time later.
Kalitta's Toyota Solara was traveling at about 300 mph when it burst into flames.
“It’s hard to be happy about racing when you’re sad,” said Tasca. “Not being out here as long as some of the other guys, I wasn’t fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with Scott. But, during the time that I did spend with him, he was always a gentleman. I’m just brokenhearted for him and his whole family. The unthinkable and the unspeakable happened yesterday. It’s just a very bad day in the NHRA world.”
Tasca competed at his hometown track for the first time in his professional career on Sunday. Tasca lost to point’s leader, Tim Wilkerson, in the first round of the NHRA Supernationals, but was able to hold on to his 10th position in the championship.
“We had a tune-up in the car to run a high 4.90,” said Tasca. “It probably would have run that, but I shut it off when I saw Tim go through the lights. That’s why our time was down a little bit.
“We qualified eighth, but we ran against the No. 1 guy in the points. That’s just the way the draw was. He’s No. 1 for a reason. Tim Wilkerson has run really, really well this season and you’ve got to give his team a lot of credit. They made an amazing run in the heat yesterday, which probably gave them some great data for today. Now, we just pick up and move on down the road, but it’s been a tough, tough weekend.”
The Motorcraft/Quick Lane/Custom Accessories Shelby Mustang team will leave right from Englishtown and head to Norwalk, Ohio for the 2nd annual NHRA Nationals June 26-29. The race marks the halfway point of the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 10:59 AM to Racing
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