Things are different now for Doug Kalitta . He ’ s no longer “ 52-time Top Fuel winner Doug Kalitta ” or “ Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta .” He ’ s 2023 NHRA Top Fuel world champion Doug Kalitta . By winning the ultimate prize last November in a winner-take-all final round against Leah Pruett at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals , Kalitta put an end to the discussions about when one of Top Fuel ’ s most accomplished drivers would finally secure an NHRA world championship .

“ It was a big relief ,” Kalitta said in an interview leading up to the PRO Superstar Shootout . “ For all the people that have helped me over the years , hopefully it ’ s brought some satisfaction to them as well . It ’ s cool to think back on occasion and know that you checked that one off the list of accomplishments . I ’ m looking forward to getting back out there and seeing what we can accomplish .”

Kalitta and his Mac Tools Toyota team , led by 14-time NHRA Top Fuel championship tuner Alan Johnson , rolled into Bradenton Motorsports Park for the PRO Superstar Shootout with a quiet swagger that came from winning the championship . With a special Applied Innovation livery on the Kalitta Motorsports dragster , Kalitta looked like an immediate contender in the two and a half days of testing leading up to Thursday ’ s first qualifying session .

Surprisingly , Kalitta ’ s name was No . 11 of 11 on the qualifying order after that first session , where he coasted to a 6.179 at 108.91 . He bounced back in the second session on Friday by laying down a 3.678 at 333.25 that took him straight to the top of the qualifying sheet , passing Thursday provisional No . 1 qualifier Clay Millican and his 3.688 . No one went around Kalitta in the hot third session .

In the final session , all eyes were on many-time No . 1 qualifiers and multi-time world champions Steve Torrence and Brittany Force , who both went into the session not qualified . Neither driver improved . Meanwhile , in the final pair , both Kalitta and Millican made their best runs of the weekend . Kalitta made a consistent but slightly quicker 3.672 at 333.49 , but Millican made a bigger jump with his 3.669 at 335.57 to reclaim the No . 1 spot .

“ We went into the last round of qualifying in a pretty safe position ,” Alan Johnson said . “ At that point we were No . 1 . Slipped to No . 2 , but

that ’ s OK . We were solidly in the show . It was a really exciting round of qualifying when you have four guys [ not qualified ] that you know can go out there and run 3.60s and get in the show .”

While the random chip draw meant Kalitta could ’ ve paired up with anyone from Millican in the No . 1 spot to Pruett in the No . 8 spot , he ended up drawing No . 7 qualifier Justin Ashley , who he would ’ ve raced if the event used a traditional eight-car ladder .

In the final pair of the first round of eliminations on Saturday afternoon , the consistently quick-reacting Ashley got a slight starting line advantage over Kalitta before both drivers drove into tire smoke . The veteran Kalitta recovered quicker and pedaled his way to a 4.163 at 240.00 over Ashley ’ s 5.264 at 140.90 . “ Justin is super good on the tree , so I was really thankful to get by him because he ’ s always super tough ,” Kalitta remarked at the end of the day .

The semifinals saw a rematch of the pressure-packed , championship-deciding final round between Kalitta and Pruett at the NHRA Finals . This one went Kalitta ’ s way again , as he got an . 010-second starting line advantage and laid down a 3.709 at 330.63 to finish ahead of Pruett and her 3.741 at 328.38 .

On the other side of the imaginary ladder ,

March / April 2024 DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 111

Drag Illustrated Issue 187, March / April 2024 | Page 111