WORLDWIDE MOTOR RACING COVERAGE, OPINION AND ANALYSIS

PLANES CRASH; MORE LOSS FOR KALITTA FAMILY, AND CALLS FOR FAA ACTION

(Doug Kalitta, cousin of Scott Kalitta, takes-on the traditional 1/4-mile-long race course in a Top Fuel NHRA race car, an 8,000-horsepower monster which can cover the 1,320 foot track at over 320 miles per hour and in less than 4.5 seconds).

Incredibly, bad news keeps coming for the Kalitta family. Drag racer Scott Kalitta died on June 22, killed when his Funny Car exploded and crashed into a retaining wall at an estimated speed of over 200-miles-per-hour during the National Hot Rod Association's annual event at Englishtown, New Jersey's Raceway Park. Almost a month before his death, one of the B747 freighters owned by his father's charter company, Kalitta Air, broke into pieces on a taxiway in Belgium. Now the news is worse for Kalitta Air, with another B747 crashing this past weekend in Colombia, killing two people on the ground. And another huge jet freighter, not one of Kalitta's, crashed in Mexico this past weekend, also, but all three planes have something in common, something which might lead to answers for all of these air accidents.

Three different airplanes owned by two different private companies. Two crash, one in Colombia, another in Mexico, and one falls apart, literally, on a European airport taxiway, all in the span of less than two months. These are huge jet freighters, B747s and a DC-9-15 which regularly fly the globe, carrying everything from flowers to car parts to soldiers, weaponry and secret diplomatic materiel and, possibly, more dangerous items, such as radioactive waste. In fact, the US announced just this past week that the moving of 550 metric tons of radioactive, enhanced yellow cake uranium from Iraq to Canada has been completed --- and on one leg of that trip, aircraft were used to fly this sinister payload, though officials say military, not privately-owned, planes were used. (Scott Kalitta in his Funny Car; these cars are often both faster and quicker than their Top Fuel relations).

Here's what all three privately-owned freighters had in common: They were all based at an  industrial airport just outside Detroit called Willow Run Airport. Located between Ypsilanti and Belleville, Michigan, the Willow Run Plant was built during World War II by Ford Motor Company for production of B-24 Liberator aircraft. The site of the plant was a farm owned by Henry Ford. Ford, like virtually all of the United States' industrial companies, directed its manufacturing output during World War II for Allied war production. The firm developed the Willow Run site to include an airfield and aircraft assembly facility. At its peak, in August 1944, Willow Run produced 428 B-24 aircraft, or almost 14 planes for each calendar day.

The airfield continues to operate as Willow Run Airport to this day. After the war, ownership of the assembly plant passed to Kaiser Motors and then to General Motors, which still owns and operates part of the facility. The airfield is primarily used by cargo, charter, private and corporate general aviation aircraft. When the government "gave" the plant to Henry Kaiser following WW II, he assumed ownership for a king's ransom price of $1.00. The area around the airport is dotted with car- and parts-making operations and other heavy equipment manufacturers, both in the US and nearby Canada (which is, interestingly, actually south of Detroit).

We think the Federal Aviation Administration has some very serious questions to ask about the maintenance facilities and the people working at them at Willow Run.

On June 22nd, the NHRA's Kalitta family suffered tragedy of the worst kind with the death of second-generation drag racer Scott Kalitta, The Kalitta family patriarch, Connie, was one of the sport's first champions who worked hard to help popularize professional drag racing nationally and worldwide. (One of Kalitta Air's 18 B747 freighters lies in pieces after breaking apart while awaiting take-off at a Brussels, Belgium Airport on May 25, 2008).

But there have been two other tragedies which befell the Kalitta family and others, just before and after Scott's death. And they involve sadly, unfortunate deaths.

The family business, Kalitta Air, is a Michigan Limited Liability Company owned 100% by Conrad "Connie" Kalitta. Kalitta Air began service in November 2000 with three Boeing 747 aircraft and the fleet has grown to a present total of eighteen B747 freighters. Capable of air express delivery of virtually any type of freight, the company provides scheduled or on-demand charter service for customers in the United States and around the world.

Click below for more on these events and what some think might possibly be a cause.

NHRA SHORTENS RACES TO 1,000' --- IS THE 1/4-MILE GONE?

Following the death of two Funny Car drivers and the near-crippling of the sport's most-popular figure in just over a one-year period, the National Hot Rod Association has determined that shortening the traditional length of drag racing's 1/4-mile track is one answer to these troubling problems.

Is racing made safer by making the race track shorter?

If most of the serious crashes in the Indy 500 are found, after study, to occur in the final 10% of the race, or the last 50 miles, does that mean running the Indy 450 every Memorial Day weekend would result in fewer serious, injurious and even deadly wrecks? Or maybe changing the length of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the world's first-ever purpose-built auto racing track, from 2.5 to, say, 1.5-miles would make for safer events and a better show for the fans. (Scott Kalitta's Funny Car leaves the line for a 1/4-mile drag race; Below, Scott's cousin Doug Kalitta in his Top Fuel racer).

These are just some of the questions, both serious and foolish, which the National Hot Rod Association, NHRA, is going to have to publicly answer as they have, in one fell swoop, changed the sport in a way some thought improbable, if not impossible.

Between March, 2007 and today, NHRA saw an over $120 million purchase offer for much of the organization fall through at the last minute, a driver on John Force's Funny Car race team, Eric Medlen, was killed in a testing session and Force himself, drag racing's best-known and most popular driver, was nearly killed in a racing wreck which has left him with injuries he'll carry through his lifetime. And Scott Kalitta, a member of one of the founding families of the sport, died in yet another Funny Car accident. The popular sport now finds itself in a bind: NASCAR, following the death on live television of its most important driver, Dale Earnhardt, in a crash during the 2001 Daytona 500, went on a crusade to develop safer cars and equipment for its drivers, so, must NHRA go a similar route?

In the wake of the death of long-time NHRA star racer Scott Kalitta at Englishtown, New Jersey on June 22, NHRA has made a surprising decision which on one hand seems reasonable enough, but on the other --- is going to stir-up strong emotions on every side of the issue. And there are at least two sides to every issue in auto racing.

The 57-year old sanctioning body has unilaterally decided to shorten the races in the sport's two fastest professional classes, Top Fuel and Funny Car, from the traditional 1/4-mile, or 1,320', to 1,000' even. The reasoning can be found below in NHRA's official notification and statement on this change, what most fans, racers and observers would probably call the single biggest change in the history of professional drag racing. (Ashley Force's Funny Car seen from above; Below, Angie McBride pilots a Pro Stock motorcycle).

Only those two classes of NHRA race cars use nitromethane and other toxic, highly-explosive chemicals as fuel, producing incredible speed from the cars and an in-person experience as visceral as, some say, being on-scene for the 1960s-era Saturn 5 rocket launch of an Apollo moon rocket. Top Fuel cars are known to some as rail dragsters; a long, low body with small bicycle-like tires up front, the driver to the rear and the massive engine behind. Funny Cars are basically the same as Top Fuel racers, but with fiberglass and carbon fiber bodies on top of them to give something of an appearance of a road-going car. NHRA's fans love the Top Fuel cars; NHRA sponsors love the Funny Cars (because they have more space for their corporate logos and names).

Their engines make somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 horsepower, and that's only an estimate because there's no way of measuring such high horsepower figures from a V8 engine, no engine or chassis dynomometer built for the job. Seeing an NHRA event in person is something not easily forgotten; the chemicals used in the fuels sting the eyes, nose and throat and the engines, when fired, suck the breath right out of your lungs. A visit to the races creates either a lifelong fan or a person feeling as if they're witnessing the end of the world. And Top Fuel and Funny Car races are over barely 5 seconds after they've begun with the cars now regularly hitting speeds over 300 miles per hour.

Will changing the length of the races, in reality adding another 320' to the run-off, or slow down, area  allowed the cars in both lanes, solve whatever NHRA perceives to be the "problem?" With the investigation into the Kalitta crash and his death still near its beginning, with very few hard facts known and at least two organizations, the NHRA itself and the New Jersey State Police conducting their own inquiries, why make drastic changes to the sport before the facts are in hand? But, on the other hand, if those in the NHRA hierarchy have considered tracks with too-short run-off areas as being a systemic problem throughout the sport, why have they waited until the death of a favorite driver to make the change?

For the NHRA's statement on the topic and other opinions on these sudden and surprising changes to the sport, click below.

HOW NHRA's $120-MILLION SALE FELL THROUGH

In mid-2007, things were looking up for the National Hot Rod Association, the NHRA, for over 50 years the nation's premier promoter and sanctioning body for amateur and professional drag racing. HD Acquisition Partners seemed a money-flush suitor, and described themselves thusly on their website: "HD Partners Acquisition Corporation is a special purpose acquisition company formed in 2005 for the purpose of effecting merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition or other similar business combination, with one or more domestic or international operating businesses, in the media, entertainment or telecommunications industries." HD Partners Chairman Eddy Hartenstein, founder of DirecTV, led the charge on buying NHRA. (Angie McBride leaves the line on a Pro Stock Motorcycle, below, Ashley Force is a top Funny Car driver; NHRA has always welcomed women in the sport as fans, team members, owners, sponsors and racers, well-ahead of all other motorsports in the US).

And this group was offering around $120 million for the NHRA, lock, stock and Wally Trophies. Though there was a lot of snickering by long-time NHRA followers and some of the sport's more savvy businesspeople, feeling that HD was getting away with buying NHRA for much less than it was worth, as things worked out, everyone, in a sense, became a loser.

In January, 2008, months after HD's purchase of NHRA had been trumpeted worldwide while fans and participants hoped for the best, HD Partners decided against the deal, and in fact, in April of this year, HD Acquisition Partners was itself dissolved, liquidated, they were, as Mel Brooks might have said, ka-put.

Bruton Smith, a wealthy and successful drag racing strip and NASCAR track owner and promoter, might be waiting in the wings to make a new attempt to take over NHRA.

The episode left NHRA and its top officers looking foolish, to say the least, with the final drama happening just days before the running of NHRA's annual season-opener, the Winternationals, at Pomona, CA. Quietly, though, many of the sports' biggest promoters and sponsors and racers were happy with the outcome, glad with NHRA continuing as the sport's biggest sanctioning body. And all involved knew that if another buyer was to be found, $120 million would be the minimum, the starting bid, as it were.

Here's how Jim Peltz in the LOS ANGELES TIMES wrote about it in February of this year:

“I felt like someone punched me in the stomach,” NHRA driver Ron Capps said shortly after shareholders  of HD Partners Acquisition Corp. rejected the deal. HD Partners executives did not comment on the failed deal. The Santa Monica company would have paid $121 million for NHRA’s Glendora headquarters building, four race tracks and its Powerade Drag Racing Series. NHRA planned to use the money to finance its popular amateur racing program, and HD Partners hoped to run the Powerade series as a for-profit business.

Some drag racing industry insiders believe that the deal fell apart because of the troubled financial markets. Others suspect that savvy investors were leery of investing in a lesser-known racing circuit that lagged far behind the popular NASCAR series.

“I think the real bean counters on Wall Street looked at [HD Partners] and said, ‘What are you thinking?’ ” said Jeff Burk, publisher of DragRacingOnline.com. “I think they started to wonder, ‘Where’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?’ ”

Longtime drivers and team owners were stunned last May (2007) when NHRA announced plans to sell most of its assets, including its pro racing circuit. “In years past, the NHRA said that selling anything was pretty much a closed issue,” said longtime racer and team owner Don Prudhomme. “Then, lo and behold, someone figured out how to sell it.” (End of TIMES story excerpt). (NHRA's top personality, John Force, drives a classic Mustang while Carroll Shelby waves at a Ford Motor Company event; Force has suffered through the death of a team member and his own near-death crash in the past year, and he now says he is committed to leaving a legacy of safety in the sport).

Another factor which might have affected how the NHRA looked to HD was the non-profit status of NHRA. Formed in 1951 as a group dedicated to traffic safety, taking drag racing hot rods off the streets of America and putting it on professionally-run race tracks, the group has remained a non-profit to this day. This status affected how NHRA could handle their own money made from TV rights and other ventures.

When I interviewed several Top Fuel an Funny Car drivers in the 1990s for a British TV show, all of them said that NHRA had, for lack of a better term, put its claws into each of them, trying to control every aspect of the products each driver could sell at their own souvenir trailers at the races or by mail or internet sales. One of them told me that NHRA "allowed" the drivers to "keep" just 10% of monies they made selling items with their own image or name on them, giving 90% to NHRA. "And we signed those contracts if we wanted to race," she said. (Wally Parks, in suit on right, and his wife Barbara, seated, talk to young racing fans about the NHRA at a Los Angeles event in the 1950s).

Many teams and drivers feel that the non-profit status might have made sense when NHRA began, but as  time has gone on, more and more of the organization should have been made a for-profit business. This way, even while its non-profit status could have been sustained, but relegated to a separate foundation, such as the NHRA Museum in Pomona, CA, and other appropriate uses, it would free-up other cash for needed track repairs and other high-cost maintenance jobs. Such a plan might have been able to achieve everything NHRA was trying to do, remaining a sort-of home-town safety-oriented group, but allowing whatever growth the market would bear as far as its four best-known and professional classes (Pro Stock Motorcycle, Pro Stock, Funny Car and Top Fuel).

In the meantime, though, while some in the NHRA's executive suites might be looking out their Glendora, CA, office windows, looking for Bruton Smith bringing baskets of cash down the smoggy 210 Freeway to lay at their feet, unfortunately NHRA has been going through one of the most tumultuous periods in its 57-year existence, none of it doing with the HD acquisition. With founder Wally Parks having passed away in September, 2007 at age 94 and many of its early personalities long gone from the scene, a fourth generation of well-financed teams and racers are taking the sport into the 21st century, having to deal with serious questions of safety which need to be handled realistically, professionally and transparently.

The fans, racers and sponsors demand and, more importantly, deserve, no less than that.

SCOTT KALITTA, 46, CHAMPION DRAG RACER, DIES IN FUNNY CAR WRECK

In yet another powerful and sickening reminder of the dangers of motor racing in all its many forms, Scott Kalitta, a two-time former National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Top Fuel champion and one of just 14 drivers to have won in both of the NHRA's nitro categories, Top Fuel and Funny Car, died today, Saturday, June 21, as the result of injuries suffered in a horrendous Funny Car qualifying accident at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, during the running of the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals. He was 46. His drag racing career began at the same track in 1982.

The Palmetto, Florida, resident's engine exploded short of the finish line and his car continued at high speed, eventually striking a wall at the end of the track and launching into the air in a huge explosion of flame and debris. NHRA emergency services officials removed Kalitta from the car and transported him to Old Bridge Township Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

In this posting, we'll present the facts as they are currently known, and, as always, our own opinion and experience where it applies.

Kalitta and his DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car were in a qualifying run against Tony Bartone's Canidae Pet Foods Chevrolet Monte Carlo when the accident happened.

Kalitta was far in the lead as his car approached the end of the measured 1/4-mile when it exploded and was engulfed in a great ball of flame. The car's entire fiberglass body blew up and into the air and pieces of it lay scattered on the track behind the race car as the fiery missile of the car's frame and engine, with Kalitta firmly belted inside, continued through the slow-down and shut-off areas then ran through a catch-net and sand trap meant as "last ditch" catchers for out-of-control cars, and finally into a concrete barrier when it seemed to literally vaporize in yet another gigantic explosion of flame. There seemed no question that anyone could have survived such an accident.

The explosion and fire were so sudden and destructive that Kalitta didn't appear to be able to slow the car at all; it was going at least 300 miles per hour when it went through the end of the 1/4-mile timing lights. Kalitta wasn't able, apparently, to hit the brakes, possibly because he was unconscious from the force of the initial explosion. (Kalitta's car exploded in a gigantic ball of flame).

Whether there will ever be a definitive "final word" on what happened on Kalitta's car to cause the wreck can not be known. Certainly the car's parts will be put together by investigators; with liability insurance and claims being what they are, the scene was probably (we hope) cordoned-off as a possible "crime scene".

Bill Stephens of ESPN.com opined in a phone conversation with a studio host that his sources at the track told him they thought the car was going at least 200 miles per hour when it hit that final wall. The car's parachute did deploy and perhaps that, combined with the sand trap, net and other slowing devices did slow the car somewhat. Stephens said Kalitta was "just a great ambassador for for the sport ... he raced for all the right reasons ... just a great guy". The best question the studio guy could come up with was along the lines of, "So, do they think he was already dead when they got to him?" (Kalitta's cousin Doug is one of drag racing's best Top Fuel drivers).

Funny Car and Top Fuel cars in NHRA drag racing run on a hellish devil's brew of nitromethane and other  volatile chemicals. The ferocity of these cars can not be appreciated ... or properly feared ... unless seen ... and felt ... in person. Whether they really produce the 8,000-horsepower it's claimed they do doesn't matter; on the track, for those of us able to get close to them when they compete, they literally suck the air out of your chest, the odor of the fuel mixture burns not only eyes but lungs, too.

People often ask where "Funny Cars" got their name. It's a simple story: When the Detroit car-makers entered NHRA racing in the 1960s with more money than any other sponsors could muster, they were more than welcome, and built special "production" cars for drag racing with many changes from "stock," including "adding lightness" whenever possible, such as drilling holes in the frames to take off weight (the so-called "Swiss cheese cars"), and lengthening the wheelbase. Many people said the cars looked "funny" and the name just stuck. Today's Funny Cars are basically the same underneath their fiberglass body shells as Top Fuel dragsters, the traditional stars of the sport, and often run faster times than the traditional "rail jobs". Only 14 people in NHRA history have won in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, and Scott Kalitta was one of that very small dual-fuel group.

NHRA's fan-pleasing "open pits" strategy allows everyone attending the races to troop through the pit area, watch as the cars are prepped and/or repaired and meet and talk with drivers, crew chiefs and everyone else associated with the sport. For this reason, and because many of the fans are racers themselves, legally or otherwise, these fans feel a special kinship with their favorite drivers.

At the same time, NHRA has been severely criticized over the years for losing its connection to the "true spirit" of the sport. Amateur racers, called the Sportsman Class in NHRA parlance, can compete at many local tracks across the nation, and NHRA claims 80,000 members and more than 35,000 licensed competitors. (John Force, arguably the most popular driver in NHRA history, has started a much-needed safety crusade within the sport since the death of a team member and his own horrific, near-crippling crash, both within the past year).

The group still stresses its roots, but the reality is that the sport's four professional series, Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock (called "door slammers" because the racer cars' doors must be able to be opened and closed, somehow making them closer to "stock") and Pro Stock Motorcycle, are populated by teams with multi-million dollar sponsorship deals and huge annual budgets. A good friend of mine who won some of the first awards in NHRA through racing the then-new 1964 Pontiac GTO, now calls the big NHRA events "the parade of the painted elephants," referring to the brightly painted professional class race cars, which are out of the reach, financial and otherwise, of the average fan.

Click below for more on the death of Scott Kalitta at Englishtown, NJ's Raceway Park ...

JOHN FORCE, KENNY BERNSTEIN CRASH; FORCE SUFFERS TWO BROKEN LEGS AND BROKEN ARM

UPDATE - September 25, 2007 --- John Force, the 58-year-old drag racing champion, sustained a broken left ankle and left wrist as well as several abrasions, including what was described as a large, serious cut to his right knee, following the crash with rival Kenny Bernstein. Force underwent six hours of surgery at Dallas' University Medical Center soon after he arrived there by rescue helicopter. Force spoke with James Peltz, an LA Times reporter, by phone after the surgery, and said that he was not considering ending his racing career. Force also told him that this was the worst crash of his long career and the injuries he sustained were the most serious of his life.

September 23, 2007 (Dallas, TX) --- Drag racing's best-known competitor and a 14-time Funny Car series champion, John Force, 58, was alert and conscious after suffering two broken legs and a broken arm in a collision Sunday with fellow legend Kenny Bernstein in the second round of eliminations at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex outside of Dallas. Force was airlifted to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas for further treatment. Their Funny Cars got together just as they crossed the finish line with Bernstein drifting over into Force's lane after clipping the final timing cone. The numbers, although unofficial, showed Force crossing with a 4.863 at 315.34 mph to Bernstein's 4.904 at 312.06 mph. Both drivers live in Southern California.

Bernstein (Photo) quickly made his way out of his Monster Energy Drink Dodge Charger R/T and was shown walking around and talking to medical and safety personnel on the large television screens at the racetrack, which brought a huge cheer from the crowd. But the mood quickly turned quiet as everyone waited for word on Force's condition. Minutes later, track announcers reported that Force was talking to EMTs but would be transported by LifeFlight Helicopter for further evaluation. Team spokesman Dave Densmore reported Force's injuries to the media.

Force and his family have been featured on an A&E cable network reality TV show called "Driving Force"; Force's entire family is intimately involved with the sport and the team, and two of his three daughters compete in the driver's seat.  His Ford/Castrol Funny Car team is one of the best-funded in drag racing.

Kenny Bernstein's professional drag racing career began in the late 1960's. His team has been sponsored by Budweiser for 26 years, one of the longest sponsor/race team combinations in the worldwide motor racing industry, if not the longest. Best-known most of his career as a Top Fuel (rail dragster) driver, Bernstein only recently started competing in Funny Cars. Traditionally considered a bit slower and safer than their Top Fuel cousins, Funny Cars have become at least as fast on average in recent years as the Fuelers, thanks in no small part to John Force's driving efforts and the expertise of the technical people on his team.

Force Racing NHRA Funny Car driver Eric Medlen, 33, died March 23 of this year following four days of treatment for severe head injuries suffered in a testing accident on March 19 in Gainesville, Florida.

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