By The 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.”
SUPERCROSS SLATE: The 2009 Monster Energy AMA Supercross series will include a couple of new venues and the return to some olds after long absences.
The 17-event schedule begins Jan. 3 with the first of three races at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., and concludes May 2 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
The annual event in Indianapolis will move from the RCA Dome to the new Lucas Oil Stadium, the Indianapolis Colts’ new home, on Feb. 28. The series will also return to the New Orleans Superdome, March 14, after six-year absence, return to Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, April 24, for the first time since 2004, and appear for the first time at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., April 4.
NEW GIG: Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon’s crew chief, will join ESPN’s NASCAR team coverage of Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
It will be the TV debut for Letarte, a native of Maine and Gordon’s crew chief since September 2005.
Letarte, who will be back on the No. 24 Chevrolet’s pit box for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at NHIS, will report from the ESPN Tech Center as a fill-in for ESPN analyst and two-time Cup champion crew chief Tim Brewer, who has the weekend off. During the race, Letarte will work with the ESPN Chevy Cutaway Car and other parts, pieces and visuals in the Tech Center to illustrate and explain technical aspects of the event.
The broadcast is scheduled to air at 11:30 a.m. on ABC.
GETTING BETTER: American driver Ronn Bailey finished fourth Tuesday in the 12th stage of the Transorientale Rally, moving up to 20th overall in the event that began June 12 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and will end June 28 in Beijing, China, covering 6,214 miles.
Bailey, an amateur racer who has competed in numerous long distance rallys, including the annual Paris-Dakar race, drives a Chevrolet L7. He passed about 70 other competitors in the 319-mile 12th stage after starting last. That stage went from Turfan to Hami in China, traversing gravel tracks below sea level and sandy desert dunes near gigantic cliffs. Daytime temperatures reached about 114 degrees.
“I experienced less misfortune than the other competitors who had difficulties with the traps, the sand dunes, and getting stuck,” said Bailey, CEO of Vanguard Integrity Professionals. “Many competitors crashed, broke down or got stuck in the sand. I had a clean run from start to the end without being stuck once.”
It was a particularly impressive comeback after a series of setbacks in the early stages, including electrical problems and hitting a race organization vehicle that was improperly parked on the race course during stage nine.
After a rest on Wednesday, the race will be concluded with seven stages along the Sino-Kazakh border in China, ending at the foot of the Great Wall.
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