Diana Harker made history at the Lucas Oil Super Nationals this past
weekend by claiming her first NHRA National Event win in the Top
Alcohol Dragster Class and by doing so became the first Australian
Female to win an NHRA National Event.

In only her sixth National Event career start, Harker began her dream
weekend by qualifying in the number 5 spot after smoking the tires in
the first session then making passes of 5.39 and 5.50 to secure the
Lend America A/Fuel team a solid start for eliminations.

After Saturday’s tragic loss of Scott Kalitta and all racing
rescheduled till Sunday, the Top Alcohol classes never saw round one of
eliminations till late Sunday Afternoon. Harker paired against 12th
qualifier, Jackie Fricke and in one of the closest races of the
weekend, Harker took the win by 0.0053 with a 5.55et to Fricke’s 5.57et.

After the tragic death of their teammate and family member, NHRA Funny Car
driver Scott Kalitta, last Saturday, the remaining Kalitta Motorsports drivers,
Doug Kalitta, Dave Grubnic, and Hillary Will, and their teams will compete this
weekend, June 26-29, at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit
Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

"We're a race team, and that's what we do," Jim Oberhofer, Kalitta
Motorsports general manager, said. "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 Connie, but we feel it’s the right thing to do.”

A public memorial service to celebrate the life of Scott Kalitta will be held this Thursday, June 26th at 7:00 p.m. at:

Ernsthausen Performing Arts Center
350 Shady Lane Drive
Norwalk, OH  44857

The Kalitta family appreciates your desire to send flowers to express
your sympathy and asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to
these charities close to Scott's heart:

In an emotional tribute to World Champion and friend Scott Kalitta,
Robert Hight took the green light as Kalitta’s entire team stood in the
lane beside him during the first round of eliminations at the NHRA
Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J.

Hight covered the
quarter-mile barely above an idle to pay tribute to Kalitta who just
the day before succumbed to injuries sustained during the final
qualifying session. Fans stood and clapped as the Auto Club Ford
Mustang crossed the finish line twenty-three seconds after taking the
Christmas Tree.

“My motor was idling and I could see my car on the Motel 6 Vision and
it showed the Kalitta team and family. That really chokes you up. Then
they showed the stands and everyone clapping. I could see out the sides
of my Mustang at all the people clapping. The whole time down the race
track it was a twenty three second run I couldn’t even tell my motor
was running it was so quiet,” said Hight.

Mike Ashley remembers a day when a promoter told him he couldn’t race.
The promoter, Ashley recalled, was Duane Nichols and his United States
Super Circuit presented one of the earliest exhibitions of the Pro
Modified division.

“I called and asked if I could run with them, and he asked, 'Who are
you?'” Ashley recalled. “He told me he had enough cars and didn’t need
me. I told him that even though he wouldn’t let me run I was coming
anyway and I’d just enter the sportsman classes and make his cars look
foolish.”

Ashley's motive for his desire to race with the USSC was simple, he
wanted to race at Old Bridge Raceway Park when the tour came to town.
The opening weekend for the USSC featured an event at Budds Creek, Md.,
on Saturday and Englishtown, N.J., on Sunday.

Pro Modified racer Paul Athey’s racing season came to an
abrupt end on last Wednesday when he was struck by a garbage truck while riding
his 2008 Harley Davidson Cross Bones. Athey was recently discharged from the
hospital where he’d been since the accident. The driver of the truck did not
stop at the scene.

Athey was riding to his job at the Mohegan Sun casino when the incident
occurred and amazingly kept his bike upright and never hit the ground. The
incident left Athey with numerous broken bones in his left leg and foot, a
dislocated ankle, his foot was crushed in two places and other injuries.

There were no driver introductions and quite simply, no one was offended – racers or fans.

Replacing the yellow DHL-sponsored Toyota Solara the left lane
during the first round race with Robert Hight was nearly three-dozen
members of the Team Kalitta operation. Hight idled down the track at
the green light. (Roger Richards Photos)

A dark cloud of emotions permeated the entire Old Bridge Raceway Park a
day after the tragic loss of Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta, killed in
a top-end accident during Saturday’s final qualifying session.

Many race fans and racers filed into the Sunday morning Racers for
Christ chapel service and the large congregation listened to Pastor
Larry Smiley deliver a message on how to cope with the tragedy.

Father’s Day was last week but Tim Wilkerson felt a special need this weekend to be a dad.

Saturday's tragedy inspired Tim Wilkerson to view the incident from a father's standpoint. (Roger Richards)

After watching Scott Kalitta lose his life in a racing accident on Saturday afternoon, he felt the need to call his son Daniel.

The 20-year old, second-generation Wilkerson has aspirations to become
a nitro Funny Car driver and has piloted his dad’s car on occasion.

Wilkerson just wanted to remind his son how dangerous the sport can be.
He tried his best to understand how Connie Kalitta was feeling. Such a
thought was too painful for him to imagine.

Rookie Mike Neff continued to make a case for his anointment as NHRA
Rookie of the Year racing to his third final round as a driver in the
last five races. Neff was tripped up for the second time in a final
round by veteran and POWERade points leader Tim Wilkerson. Before he
reached Wilkerson the 41 year-old had to race his way through a “Who’s
Who” of veterans and world champions at the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA
SuperNationals.

In the first round Neff defeated perennial championship contender Ron
Capps. In the process he made the quickest run of the session covering
the historic Old Bridge Township Raceway Park quarter mile in 4.874
seconds setting up another tough race.

In the second round he had to dispatch reigning POWERade World Champion
Tony Pedregon before squaring off against 14-time World Champion and
boss John Force in the semi-finals. Force had lane choice but in a
classic side-by-side race Neff edged the winningest driver in NHRA
history, 4.971 to 4.977. Neff also evened his head-to-head record with
Force at 1-1 avenging a first round loss in Atlanta.

Cory McClenathan has experienced easier weekends at the drags.

During the weekend of the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J.,
McClenathan found himself grieving the loss of a fellow racer and
recovering from eye surgery in the days leading up to the event.

He reached the semi-finals only to lose on a holeshot to teammate Tony Schumacher. On this day racing seemed unimportant.

Expecting to face Doug Kalitta in the opening round, McClenathan was
first up in eliminations and made a solo pass after Kalitta's team made
the decision to withdraw its teams (Doug Kalitta, Hillary Will and Dave
Grubnic) after Doug's cousin Scott was fatally injured. The FRAM
dragster recorded a run of 4.586/322.50, which gave him lane choice
over Larry Dixon in the second round. After a rain delay, he defeated
Dixon with a 4.671/304.74 to Dixon's 4.701/282.19 and advanced to the
semifinals.