BROWSE THE GATORNATIONALS PHOTO GALLERY BY STEVE FURHMAN

The National Hot Rod Association officially has crisscrossed the country, and the Pro Stock Motorcycles and Pro Modified classes have debuted at the Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.’s Auto-Plus Raceway.

TOOL WARS – Funny Car’s Alexis DeJoria triggered the Kalitta Motorsports starting-line mosh pit at Phoenix, and Sunday was Doug Kalitta’s turn to do it. In a rematch of their Top Fuel semifinal round three weeks before, points leader Kalitta, in the Mac Tools Dragster, got even with Matco Tools Dragster driver Antron Brown. With his winning 3.830-second elapsed time at 323.74 mph, Kalitta denied Brown a second straight victory, as well as back-to-back victories at the Gatornationals. Brown’s runner-up effort of 5.106, 147.50 moved him from third to second in the standings.

Photos by Steve Fuhrman

Kalitta, the Pomona runner-up, said, “We’ve been trying to get a win all year, and we’ve been right on the cusp. We have great support amongst all four of our teams. It’s great that they can all get in there and celebrate on the starting line.” Kalitta, who qualified No. 1 at the year’s first two races and started No. 4 in the order Sunday, said, “The ‘tool car’ rounds are important. We knew there are a lot of distributors out there who are watching and paying attention. I feel very fortunate to get by those guys any time that we can. It seems like it goes back and forth.

“Winning the Gatornationals is one of the big ones on the list that every driver wants to win. I’ve been lucky enough to win it three times now. It’s amazing for me and my team,” he said. Kalitta also won in 2000 and 2005, and his team owner uncle, Connie Kalitta, won this race 20 years ago. Doug Kalitta is tied with Cory McClenathan for sixth place on the all-time Top Fuel victories list, one behind legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits.

UNLIKELY FINALISTS – With all three John Force Racing entries in the semifinals, it was no surprise that Robert Hight emerged with his first victory of the season. More surprising was that he, as the No. 10 qualifier, beat boss and father-in-law Force, who advanced from the No. 16 spot to win at Gainesville for the second time in three visits. “If you would have told me this morning that John and I would be in the final I don’t know if I would have taken that bet. I know our teams work really hard and work well together but we were struggling. For both of us to get to the final round and do it on performance was awesome,” Hight said after his 4.074-second, 314.46-mph pass in the Auto Club Ford Mustang ran away with Force’s tire-smoking Castrol Mustang that clocked a 6.435, 118.29. It was the 40^th all-JFR Funny Car final and the victory the 227th for the organization.

He remembered teammate Eric Medlen, who died at Gainesville in 2007, following a testing accident. “We always carry Eric Medlen with us,” Hight said. The winner said his crew chief, Mike Neff, “always comes up and says, ‘No pressure let’s have some fun.’ I can’t wait to be with him for a full season. I think we are going to hurt some feelings.”

MAIDEN VOYAGE A SUCCESS – Allen Johnson christened the newly unveiled Dodge Dart with a final-round victory against national-speed-record-setting Erica Enders-Stevens and her Elite Sports Chevy Camaro. In scoring back-to-back 2014 and Gatornationals victories and his 22^nd overall, Johnson credited “the Mopar engineers, everybody at Chrysler Group, Dodge and SRT. I just can’t say enough. For the last two weeks since the Phoenix win, it’s been nonstop. My guys haven’t had a day off. It says a tremendous amount about our crew and the engineering efforts behind it.” He said the engineers welcomed his team’s input “and really came up with a great car.” Moreover, he said winning in its first race “is a huge accomplishment.” Johnson’s 6.566-second run at 211.73 mph in the “Magneti Marelli offered by Mopar Dodge Dart” topped Enders-Stevens’ 6.551, 211.96.

FAST FEMALE – Although she fell just seven-thousandths of a second short of qualifying leader Dave Connolly, her former crew chief, Erica Enders-Stevens set the Pro Stock class’ national speed record with a 214.69-mph quarter-mile run Friday. She did it in the first competitive pass in her new in her Elite Motorsports Camaro and backed it up in the second qualifying session with a 213.94.

JOHNSON, SUZUKI REIGN – Pro Stock Motorcycle owner-racer Steve Johnson is highly animated on an average day. But he was supercharged Sunday with his final-round triumph – his first since the zMAX Dragway inaugural in September 2008 – over Scotty Pollacheck. The fact a pair of unsponsored riders reached the final round highlighted the bike class’ season debut. Johnson was proud that he recorded the first Suzuki triumph since May 1, 2011. That came when LE Tonglet earned consecutive victories at Charlotte and Houston. Johnson said he’s thrilled to slow down what he called “a Buell epidemic, actually a V-Twin epidemic.” But he personally was pleased to gain his sixth overall victory and second at this event (he also won in 2005), especially since he lost to Hector Arana Jr. in the final last season. “I felt like I should have won it. We’ve been close a few times, but we finally broke through,” he said. “This time, Scotty was next to me, and then I saw him disappear.” Johnson pulled away with a 6.912-second, 191.32-mph pass, and Pollacheck, on his Matt Smith-owned Buell, struggled to a 7.093, 190.81.

NEW BIKE BATTLE – Sonoma Raceway will host the NHRA Pro Bike Battle during its July 25-27 national event that’s part of the Western Swing. MiraMonte Records, the official record label of country music song writer and entertainer Danny Griego, has signed a multi-year agreement to be the title sponsor for this bonus program for NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racers. This year’s race-with-in-a-race date is Saturday, July 26, and it will feature a total purse of $68,000. Riders began earning points for this year’s event at the Gatornationals. The bulk of it, $61,000, will be paid out at the Battle, and $7,000 will be awarded to the quickest PSM qualifiers at each Mello Yello Drag Racing Series race throughout the Battle series.

CASTELLANA TOPS CHAMPION – The Pro Modified final round featured a couple of Camaro-driving veterans, with Mike Castellana, of Al-Anabi Racing, outrunning current champion Rickie Smith in his nitrous-injected IDG entry. Castellana won for the fifth time overall and first at Auto-Plus Raceway with a 5.865-second E.T. at 244.52 mph. Smith countered with a 5.890, 245.72. Smith beat Castellana in the final here two years ago. The Pro Mods will rejoin the series April 25-27 at Houston.

SPORTSMAN WINNERS – Duane Shields (Top Alcohol Dragster) and Dan Pomponio (Top Alcohol Funny Car) capped the Lucas Oil sportsman-level action Sunday. Other sportsman winners were Steve Ambrose (Comp Eliminator), Brad Zaskowski (Super Stock), Gene Jordan (Stock), Gary Williams (Super Comp), John Taylor (Super Gas), and Steve Cohen (Top Dragster).

CHANCE AT 100-GRAND – With their victories, Kalitta and Hight earned a berth in their respective Traxxas Shootout bonus races that are scheduled to take place at Indianapolis during Labor Day weekend. Hight said, “I got up for the final because I started to think about last year and not making the Traxxas Shootout. That was no fun to get to the U.S. Nationals and not be running for the $100,000 prize at the Traxxas Shootout. We got two finals in a row and now a win. This could not be a better start.”

LUCAS HAPPY TO COMPETE – Driving a spartan-looking GEICO-Lucas Oil tribute dragster he called a “great white shark,” Morgan Lucas returned to Top Fuel action to post a semifinal finish aided by a red light by his team’s primary driver, Richie Crampton. “It’s kind of cool, because I’ve been daydreaming about coming down here and racing since the start of the season. I’m not used to not testing and not racing fulltime, so it’s just different,” Lucas, who has stepped from the cockpit to devote time to his growing family and to learn the family business, said.

“To come down here and make four out of seven runs down the track and have the chutes out, for a group that hasn’t tested and never even worked together, it’s kind of a cool thing. It’s something to be proud of.” He’s part of a so-called “tuning committee” that includes longtime NHRA mechanic Jeff Edwards and former Funny Car journeyman driver Jack Wyatt. He said he’ll be at Englishtown, N.J.; Brainerd, Minn.; Indianapolis (for both the test session and the U.S. Nationals); Charlotte (fall race); and Reading, Pa. He’s said it’s possible he’ll compete at Sonoma, Calif., as well. “We’re just spreading it out so that we can get a little peanut butter all over the piece of toast.”

BACK FOR MORE – Brazilian business tycoon Sidnei Frigo made his second scheduled NHRA appearance and first since a spectacular supercharger explosion in the first round at Pomona that sheared off his right rear tire. Frigo was unhurt in that crash. Crew chief Mike Kloeber said the trouble was a supercharger backfire.

ON DECK – The next stop on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour is The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the March 28-30 SummitRacing.com Nationals.