After 30 Years, Connie Kalitta Finally No. 1

Look who’s leading the National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel standings--Connie Kalitta, the old Bounty Hunter from Ypsilanti, Mich.

Kalitta has been racing dragsters, off and on, for more than 30 years, and this is the first time he has ever been No. 1.

Actually, he was in drag racing before the NHRA became a reality, a throwback to the days when kids took their hot-rodders out into the sticks and raced for the pink slip.

What makes Kalitta’s feat--after five events of the NHRA season--more remarkable is that he had been out of the sport for more than a year and when he returned, he didn’t even qualify for the season-opening Winternationals at Pomona.

But in the next four races, he won at Gainesville, Fla., and Atlanta and reached the semifinals the other two times out.

His final-round victory at Atlanta, which gave him the lead, was a battle of the ages as Kalitta, 56, defeated defending champion Eddie Hill, 58.

Kalitta’s son, Scott, is second in the top fuel standings. Until 1993, when Connie dropped out to concentrate on expanding his air cargo business, he had been Scott’s crew chief.

Last year, too busy to crew for Scott, he hired 1987 top fuel champion Dick LaHaie as Scott’s crew chief.

“What happened last year was a real eye-opener for me,” Kalitta said. “The way Scott came into his own with Dick doing the tuning told me that I needed to get off my ego trip and not try and do the tuning on my own car, either, when I decided to come back.”

Kalitta hired Tim Richards, one of top fuel’s most accomplished crew chiefs, to run his team. Richards was twice named crew chief of the year while helping Joe Amato win four championships between 1984 and 1991.

And Richards’ crew includes Kim LaHaie, who was her father’s crew chief when he won the championship in 1987.

“Experience-wise, no one can match our team,” Kalitta said. “I hadn’t realized how much computerization had changed the sport. I had always taken the crap shooter’s approach. I won some and lost a lot.

“Richards is more businesslike. He approaches it with the meticulousness of an accountant. We’ve had some luck along the way, but you can’t beat our results.

“Both crew chiefs use qualifying to learn the track so when the eliminations start on Sunday, they know how to approach each round.

“I used to focus on winning the final round, but they’ve taught me you need to focus on the next round, whether it’s the first or the final. Consistency, not sudden streaks of brilliance, wins drag races.”

The next round, the Mid-South Nationals, will be at Memphis on May 14-15.

The Kalittas made drag racing history at Houston when they ran the quickest side-by-side race ever--Scott’s 4.748 seconds beating his father’s 4.789.

They met again in the Gatornationals finals at Gainesville where Connie won in the first-ever top fuel father-son final.

When Connie started, racing was his business and flying his hobby.

The reverse is now true. Kalitta took his winnings from the 1967 Pomona Winternationals and several other races to buy a 310 Cessna.

He still has the Cessna, but his air cargo fleet of 65 aircraft also includes Boeing 727s, DC-9s, DC-8s, Boeing 747s, Lear jets, Turbine Beechs and a King Air 100.

Transporting thoroughbred racehorses is one of the company’s major projects, but Kalitta has also moved whales from Tokyo to Honolulu, reindeer from New Zealand to Canada and once carried a 3-foot cube of ice from a glacier in Greenland to the United States as part of a geologic study.

“That had to be the most expensive ice cube in the world,” Kalitta said.

Motor Racing Notes

STOCK CARS--Saugus Speedway will hold the first round of the Frontier Toyota sportsman championship series with a 75-lap main event Saturday night. . . . Also scheduled: Coors street stock series Friday night at Ventura Raceway, Winston Racing Series at Cajon Speedway on Saturday night, Kragen series Saturday night at Santa Maria Speedway and modifieds Sunday at Kern County Raceway.

SPRINT CARS--Corey Kruseman, a rookie driver from Ventura, had a busy April. First, he went to France with Glenn Harris’ California Gold troupe of three-quarter midget drivers and won four heat races after being fast qualifier both nights at the Paris Palais Omnisports. When he returned home, Kruseman, 23, won a 30-lap Sprint Car Racing Assn. main event on Imperial Raceway’s dusty three-eights-mile clay oval last Saturday night. He is the first rookie driver to win a West Coast non-winged sprint car race since Bobby George won at Ascot Park in 1985. It was also the first sprint car victory for car owner Harlan Willis.

“I dedicate this win to my dad,” Kruseman said in an emotional victory ceremony at the El Centro track after holding off veteran Ron Shuman on the final lap. His father, Ron Kruseman, died in a TQ midget race on the same track 10 years ago.

Kruseman will be the hometown favorite Saturday night when the SCRA takes on the quarter-mile oval at Ventura Raceway. Former California Racing Assn. champions Shuman, Brad Noffsinger and Mike Kirby are also entered. . . . The CRA has apparently folded its tent. Last week’s program at Canyon Raceway in Arizona was canceled, as is the annual nine-race CRA tour of Midwestern and East Coast tracks scheduled this month.

MOTORCYCLES--Costa Mesa Speedway will be host of its first Coors Light Challenge for speedway bikes on Friday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Five riders--Charlie Venegas, Bobby Schwartz, Josh Larsen, Mike Faria and Gary Hicks--will compete in a series of one-lap elimination heats. . . . Speedway season openers are scheduled tonight at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino and Saturday night at Speedway USA in Victorville.

MISCELLANY--A United States Auto Club western regional double-header of full and TQ midgets is scheduled Saturday night at Hanford. . . . National champion John Force will be in the field Saturday night when Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., holds its annual Coors 32 Funny Car eliminations. . . . Bill Tempero became the American Racing Series’ all-time winner when he won back-to-back 50-lap races last week at Willow Springs Raceway. He has 15 victories to 14 for Johnny Unser.