On Sunday at the NHRA Mission Foods Series season opener at Gainesville Raceway, Mitch Kalitta stood on the starting line in the final round in support of his father, reigning and two-time Top Fuel world champion Doug Kalitta. His dad was racing for the trophy there at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, but the younger Kalitta had already brought home the first trophy of the season for the family.

In February at the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod, 25-year-old Kalitta had penned his name in the legendary family’ s drag racing book of history with the first win of a career that is only just getting off the ground.

“ It was pretty sweet, but I didn’ t go into it expecting to win, to be honest. It was really kind of a shock,” says Kalitta, who proved steady and seemingly imperturbable as he clocked perfect reaction times in both time trials and eliminations at the World Series of Pro Mod, driving through the Super Pro competition to score the victory in the dragster owned by two-time national champion Bo Butner and his wife, 2021 division champ Randi Lyn Butner.

Kalitta’ s time at Frank Hawley’ s Drag Racing School, along with a collaboration with his father’ s Top Fuel teammate Shawn Langdon, had

left him well-prepared. He had made his drag racing debut at the 2025 Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U. S. Nationals and joined forces with the Butners soon after. They were more than happy to help the developing driver build experience, and at the NHRA North Central Division race in St. Louis the month after Indy, Kalitta showed immediate promise in their Super Comp dragster with a perfect. 000 reaction in time trials.

A few months later at the World Series of Pro Mod, he shifted from NHRA-style Sportsman competition to bracket racing. It was only his third drag race, but the foundation was in place, and Kalitta’ s lift-off was swift, even if he wasn’ t fully familiar yet with the format.

“ I didn’ t really understand how the bracket worked,” says Kalitta, who earned a solo late in eliminations.“ Bo told me I had a bye going into the semis, and at that point I was like, oh my gosh, I might actually have a shot at this. Then I really started to lock in, and all three of the last rounds happened pretty fast.”

A cool. 007 reaction time in the final got it done, along with a dead-on 4.404 that kept the Bo Butner Racing / Jim Butner Auto Group dragster just ahead of Corky Markwart’ s well-targeted 4.734 on a 4.73.

“ I knew Bo would have me dialed to the thousandth, and I knew I hit the tree pretty good, but after I saw the win light and gave a couple fist bumps, I was pretty shocked,” says Kalitta.“ I was just trying to comprehend what had happened. It was a big deal.”

The biggest challenge for the still-new driver throughout eliminations was maintaining consistency on the starting line. After early exits in both of the previous events he had attempted, he had to get used to having another driver in the other lane. He had also only run Super Comp before, and the Super Pro category runs with staggered starts based on each driver’ s chosen dial-in.

“ Everyone was different, but they were all leaving in front of me,” he says.“ I had some good reaction times, but the thing was really dialed in. Once I hit the gas, I didn’ t have to do much other than get to the finish line.”

Parents Doug and Josie, along with his cousin – Scott Kalitta’ s son, Corey – celebrated on the starting line as the final win light of the weekend come on, and the winner’ s circle was a joyous affair. It was some time before the newest winner in the family was able to let the magnitude of the moment sink in or consider what the future might hold.

“ I don’ t think people expected this because it’ s really my introduction to drag racing, but now people are going to expect big things, I’ m sure,” says Kalitta, whose great uncle is drag racing pioneer Connie Kalitta.“ I’ ve been watching this my whole life and seen my dad and our Kalitta Motorsports teams be successful, but I always put drag racing on a pedestal.

“ Connie is a pioneer with a lot of stories, and he’ s still sharp and remembers every detail of things that happened back in the day. [ I’ ve always ] thought it was awesome, but I didn’ t really know if I could do it. As the pressure was ramping up at this race, I kind of realized that I can actually do this, and it’ s really cool. My confidence has really come up, and I’ d like to see where this goes.” – KELLY WADE DI DI DI

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112 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 200