Sidelined Top Fuel pilot Brady Kalivoda snaked his way though the large Saturday crowd at Firebird Raceway. He’s optimistic that he’ll return to competition this season with Tim and Renee Coglan.

“It almost sounds like a cliché to say we're working on it and we've got irons in the fire,” Kalivoda admitted. “All that stuff that us out of work drivers say that all the time.  It's true though.”

Kalivoda and the Coglans ran four races in 2007 before the loss of their crew chief curtailed their efforts. Despite being forced out of competition when crew chief Keith Adams joined Don Schumacher Racing, the Coglans kept all of their equipment.

“We’re actively seeking sponsorship,” Kalivoda added. “In fact, we have a visit in two weeks from right now.  We're going down to do a Celebrity/Charity golf tournament and a Blackjack tournament at Pearl River Resort which was our sponsor in Atlanta last year.  We're also going to take that time to hopefully iron out a partial package for the remainder of 2008 while we're working on 2009.  All those things are still in play it's just that I don't have anything to show for it yet.” Sidelined Top Fuel pilot Brady Kalivoda snaked his way though the large Saturday crowd at Firebird Raceway. He’s optimistic that he’ll return to competition this season with Tim and Renee Coglan.

“It almost sounds like a cliché to say we're working on it and we've got irons in the fire,” Kalivoda admitted. “All that stuff that us out of work drivers say that all the time.  It's true though.”

Kalivoda and the Coglans ran four races in 2007 before the loss of their crew chief curtailed their efforts. Despite being forced out of competition when crew chief Keith Adams joined Don Schumacher Racing, the Coglans kept all of their equipment.

“We’re actively seeking sponsorship,” Kalivoda added. “In fact, we have a visit in two weeks from right now.  We're going down to do a Celebrity/Charity golf tournament and a Blackjack tournament at Pearl River Resort which was our sponsor in Atlanta last year.  We're also going to take that time to hopefully iron out a partial package for the remainder of 2008 while we're working on 2009.  All those things are still in play it's just that I don't have anything to show for it yet.”

Working all the angles – this is something Kalivoda and the Coglans are relentless in doing. They also realize their limitations. 

“Tim and Renee are just the nicest people in the world,” said Kalivoda. “When Keith got hired away by Schumacher, that kind of stalled our plans to do at least 2 more races at the end of last year.  Tim and Renee are smart enough to know that without somebody to tune it there was nothing out there for us, so we parked it.”

Adams is no longer a part of the DSR program. Could a return to the Coglins be imminent?

“I'm not saying he's employed by us but the reality is, is that if we get the team together, we'd be ready to roll,” said Kalivoda. “The toughest part remains -- as it always is, the toughest thing is finding the money.”

Finding the funds to race nitro cars, as Kalivoda puts it, remains more than a challenge.
 
“The state of today’s sponsorships just forces us to be that much more creative is all,” Kalivoda admitted. “It went from probably difficult to more difficult in this past year because of the economy or recession of the economy.  The reality is that the state of the sport still represents tremendous value, we know it does.  It just forces us as sponsorship seekers to get more creative in how we relate that to Corporate America on how we make this make sense to them.

“It forces us to get more out of the box and it forces us to get more creative at how we relate that to people who don't necessarily know what a value this is yet.  We've just got to work a little harder, that's it.”