With the Kalittas, It’s All in the Family

For as long as there has been drag racing on the old Fairgrounds track at Pomona, there has been a Kalitta there.

Connie Kalitta, racing’s original “Bounty Hunter,” chased Don “Big Daddy” Garlits across the finish line in the 1963 Winternationals when races were won in 8.26 seconds at 186.32 mph. Four years later, his one good eye focused on the blinking lights of the Christmas tree they used back then to start races, Kalitta drove his Ford dragster to victory in 7.17 seconds at 218.43 mph.

For years, he kept coming back, sometimes as a driver and for five years as crew chief for three-time world champion Shirley Muldowney. After he and Muldowney split up, Kalitta returned to the cockpit and at the 1989 Winternationals became the first driver to exceed 290 mph with a pass of 291.54.

Before Kalitta was through, along came his son, Scott, who wasted no time in making his mark. Although he never won at Pomona, Scott Kalitta won two world championships in top fuel, in 1994 and 1995. He did reach the finals at Pomona twice, losing to Eddie Hill in the 1995 Winternationals and to Joe Amato in the 1996 Winston Finals.

Last year, after Scott announced his retirement and Connie said he was going to sit out the 1998 season to concentrate on the merger of his American International Airways and Kitty Hawk, the torch was handed to Doug Kalitta, Scott’s cousin and Connie’s nephew.

Doug, 33, has never been in a drag race. He has been an oval track driver, winning the U.S. Auto Club sprint car championship in 1994 and racing last year in sprint cars and midgets. In 1991, when he was USAC rookie of the year in midgets, he drove in the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Saugus Speedway.

During his USAC career, Doug won 14 midget and seven sprint car races.

“Getting the opportunity to drive the family car when Scott retired was something I couldn’t pass up,” Doug said as he prepared to qualify Thursday in the Chief Auto Parts Winternationals at the Pomona Raceway. “I worked on my Uncle Connie’s crew for seven years [1982-1989] and got a taste for drag racing, but then I went off and raced on ovals. Even then, I always hoped the day would come when I could get into a dragster.

“I’m really lucky to take over Scott’s car and pretty much his whole crew, even [crew chief] Ed McCulloch. They know how to win, and Connie’s helping me too, so I don’t know why we shouldn’t be going for the championship.”

After taking the course at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School last December, Doug was impressive in getting his license, running 315 mph in 4.69 seconds at Firebird Raceway two weekends ago.

Like Connie and Scott, Doug Kalitta earns his living in the air cargo business. He is vice president of AIA’s Central and South American operations. Connie is president. Scott is president and owner of Trans Continental Airlines.

RICKY GRAHAM, 1958-1998

If ever an athlete’s career was star-crossed, it was Ricky Graham’s.

One of the finest dirt-track riders to twist the throttle of a high-spirited, 750cc motorcycle, the three-time AMA Grand National champion was found dead after a fire had swept his home on Jan. 22. He was 39.

A career marked by promise, success, alcoholic despair and then success again ended in the living room of his rural home in the village of Spreckles, south of Salinas. Investigators from the Salinas Rural Fire Department estimated the fire started at 10 p.m., possibly from a pot left on a stove. Graham died of burns and smoke inhalation.

He burst onto the motorcycle scene in 1978 as a rookie from Salinas riding in a half-mile national at Ascot Park. He won his first race in 1980, the Indy mile, and then won the national championship on a Harley-Davidson after a tense battle with veteran Jay Springsteen in 1982.

He moved to Honda for a factory ride and won a second championship in 1984 by a single point over Bubba Shobert. That was followed by five years of failure, caused in part by arrests for drinking. Honda also dropped him.

“I lost more than my ride, I lost my zest for racing,” he said at the time. “I partied a lot and I gained a lot of weight. I was fat, so fat that when I tried on a pair of my No. 1 leathers I couldn’t zip them up.”

In 1993, free of the alcohol problem and reunited with tuner Johnny Goad, Graham made one of racing’s most remarkable comebacks. He won a third championship and set records for most Grand National wins in a single season, 12; most consecutive wins, six; most single-season half-mile wins, seven; and the longest time span between championships, nine years.

Then came another disaster. On Feb. 21, 1995, he was riding his cycle on a road near his home when he slid on some gravel, fell and cracked his skull. Doctors said he would never ride again.

They didn’t know what a fighter Graham was. After sitting out the 1995 season, he was back in 1996, strong enough to finish third in the Pomona half-mile, and he raced a full season last year.

“We were all looking forward to seeing him at Daytona for the first race this year,” said Scott Parker, a longtime rival and eight-time national champion from Swartz Creek, Mich. “Ricky had things lined up to make a serious run at the championship. What a shame. He’ll be missed.”

COPPER WORLD CLASSIC

One of the busiest oval track weekends in racing starts today and runs through Sunday on the mile at Phoenix International Raceway. The Copper World Classic, in its 21st renewal, features USAC midgets and Silver Crown cars, NASCAR Featherlite Southwest stock cars and super modifieds from the Western Super Modified Racing Assn.

Davey Hamilton, whose regular job is driving an Indy Racing League car, is entered in all four races on what is called “the world’s fastest mile.” The 34-year-old Las Vegas driver has been racing in the Copper World since 1984 and has won four super modified races. He is the only driver to sit on two poles on the same weekend twice, in 1993 in super modified and Silver Crown and in 1996 in super modified and a midget.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Hamilton said of his four-race effort. “I’ve driven in three divisions on the same weekend before. It’s a question of time management and good equipment, but the cars we’ve got are fast.

“It shouldn’t be too taxing. An IRL race at Phoenix is 200 laps, and if I finish all four on Sunday, it will add up to only 150, with rests in between. It could be a cakewalk.”

Hamilton’s four-race effort has been tried before, by Gary Bettenhausen in 1986 and the late Rich Vogler in 1990. Neither won a race, although Vogler ran second to Stan Fox in the midget feature. Chuck Gurney entered all four in 1993, but failed to qualify for the stock car race. He also failed to win.

All finals are set for Sunday.

LAST LAPS

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will open its season with consecutive races tonight and Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. The SCRA will start its Perris Auto Speedway season Feb. 21. . . . Also starting this weekend will be the SCORE desert series. More than 150 racers are expected for the Laughlin Desert Challenge, first of six off-road events. Damen Jefferies of Big Bear City, driving a Jimco desert car, is defending series champion.

Rick Mears, Jack Brabham and former riding mechanic Chickie Hirashima are the latest inductees into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. Hirashima, who died in 1980, rode with Rex Mays in 1935 and 1936, when Mays was the pole-sitter, and also built the engine Rodger Ward won with in 1959. . . . Danny Grill of Acton has been named director of NASCAR’s Featherlite Southwest Tour.

Two Indy Racing League drivers, Tony Stewart and Arie Luyendyk, and two CART drivers, Al Unser Jr. and Jimmy Vasser, have been named to drive in the four-race International Race of Champions, starting Feb. 13 at Daytona International Speedway. Previously named were Winston Cup regulars Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Jeff Burton. Four more will be named later.

Most of the world’s best sports car drivers will be in the field Saturday for the 36th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona Beach, Fla., a twice-around-the-clock race on Daytona International Speedway’s 3.56-mile road course. Defending champion Dyson Racing has entered two Ford Riley & Scott MK IIIs for James Weaver, Elliott Forbes-Robinson, Rob Dyson, Perry McCarthy, Butch Leitzinger, John Paul Jr. and Dorsey Schroeder.

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Winternationals Records Watch

National records that could be broken at this weekend’s Winternationals at Pomona:

* TOP FUEL--4.564 seconds by Joe Amato, February 1997; 321.77 mph by Cory McClenathan, October 1997.

* FUNNY CAR--4.889 seconds by John Force, July 1996; 314.46 mph by John Force, October 1997.

* PRO STOCK--6.883 seconds by Warren Johnson, April 1997; 200.53 mph by Warren Johnson, April 1997.

WINTERNATIONALS RECORDS

* TOP FUEL--4.564 seconds by Joe Amato, February 1997; 319.71 mph by Cory McClenathan, January 1998.

* FUNNY CAR--4.907 seconds by Al Hofmann, February 1997; 311.85 mph by Al Hofmann, February 1997.

* PRO STOCK--6.927 seconds by Warren Johnson, February 1997; 198.67 mph by Warren Johnson, February 1995.