Friday, June 27, 2008
Associated Press
Despite the death of teammate, family member and friend Scott Kalitta in a crash Saturday, Kalitta Motorsports drivers Doug Kalitta (a cousin), Dave Grubnic and Hillary Will have decided to compete this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.
“We’re a race team, and that’s what we do,” said Jim Oberhofer, the team’s general manager. “Scott was a drag racer to the core, and he would want us to compete in Norwalk, so we’re going to go racing this weekend. Our thoughts will of course be with his wife, Kathy, and his sons, Corey and Colin, and [father] Connie, but we feel it’s the right thing to do.”
The 46-year-old Scott Kalitta, driving a Top Fuel entry, died from multiple injuries suffered in an accident during the fourth round of qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J.
Fourteen-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, who led a move for safer cars after his own driver, Eric Medlen, was fatally injured last year in a crash during testing in Florida, said through a spokesman Tuesday that neither he nor any other members of his team would have any comment on the accident until after the completion of an investigation that will include evaluation of the data generated by the Ford-provided “blue box” installed on Kalitta’s Toyota Solara.
Force said he planned to talk with Connie Kalitta, Doug’s father, before making any comments that might be misconstrued or taken out of context, something he said occurred too frequently in the days after Medlen was killed.
“We grieve with the Kalitta family,” Force said. “We know the pain they’re going through right now and we want to be there to support them in any way we can. Other than that, I’m not going to speculate.”