Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Kalitta’s hot and so is the Top Fuel championship race

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 | 8:56 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Doug Kalitta notched his third NHRA Top Fuel victory of the season last weekend in Sonoma, Calif., and kept the Top Fuel category one of the most hotly contested of the 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season.

Kalitta, who entered Sunday's race trailing Tony Schumacher by 110 points, cut the deficit to 66 points when he defeated Kalitta Motorsports teammate David Grubnic in the final.

"What a great win for our Mac Tools team," Kalitta said. "We really needed this one. We have struggled in the past couple of races and it was great to get back on track and back in the winner's circle.

"The points deal just keeps getting tougher and tougher. We're at the point in the season that every round is important because the competition in our class is so strong. We closed up on Schumacher some ... so that will help."

The race, which capped NHRA's traditional "Western Swing," marked the second time this season that Kalitta beat Grubnic in a final; he earned his second victory of the season when he defeated his teammate at Gateway International Raceway in June.

"It's great for our whole team that it was two Kalitta cars in the final," Kalitta said. "I wish we could do this every time."

The points battles in Pro Stock and Funny Car are less dramatic than in Top Fuel. Greg Anderson has a comfortable 568-point advantage over teammate Jason Line in Pro Stock a while John Force has a 146-point lead over Whit Bazemore after 15 of 23 races.

"Driver error -- pure and simple," Force said. "I wish I could blame it on someone, but we'll just take the whipping and move on. The good guys like Wilkerson are the toughest for me to get up for. I tried to amp myself up, to get ready mentally, and I just screwed it up.

"My guys gave me the best car and I delivered a runner-up (finish); that's not what they're paying me for."

"Thirteen wins is the next big hurdle to clear," said Anderson, who drives for team owner Ken Black of Las Vegas. "We want that record because it's the next thing to do. The other big records are years away: Warren (Johnson) has six championships and 90-something wins, Force has 12 championships and a hundred-plus wins, Bob Glidden has 10 championships.

"Even if I race like I have been, we're a long way off from all of that. We're aiming to win half of the remaining races; that's probably a good number to shoot for and it should be attainable. Of course, we could get totally lost tomorrow and I could fall off this big wave we've been riding, but for now I'm enjoying the ride."

Anderson has won 12 of 15 races this season and 24 of the past 37.

Pulde was competing for the first time since the 1999 season finale in Pomona, Calif. Per NHRA rules, an inactive driver must update his or her NHRA competition license by clocking a time and speed within 10 percent of the current NHRA national record for that category.

Non-qualifier Bob Bode was inserted into the No. 16 position for Sunday's eliminations.

The test-and-tune begins at 6 p.m., drifting starts at 7 and "Midnight Mayhem" runs from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.