Kalitta Motorsports

Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan for over 60 Years!

Drivers

Doug Kalitta
Shawn Langdon
JR Todd

Racing Circuit

NHRA

Our Cars

MAC Tools Top Fuel
CMR Top Fuel
DHL Funny Car

WEBSITE

www.teamkalitta.com

Event Calendar 2023

Date	Name Of Event
3/10/2023 - 3/12/2023	NHRA: GATOR NATIONALS (GAINESVILLE, FL)
3/24/2023 - 3/26/2023	NHRA: ARIZONA NATIONALS (PHOENIX, AZ)
3/30/2023 - 4/2/2023	NHRA: WINTERNATIONALS (POMONA, CA)
4/14/2023 - 4/16/2023	NHRA: 4 WIDE NATIONALS (LAS VEGAS, NV)
4/28/2023 - 4/30/2023	NHRA: 4 WIDE NATIONALS (CHARLOTTE, NC)
5/19/2023 - 5/21/2023	NHRA: ROUTE 66 NATIONALS (JOLIET, IL)
6/2/2023 - 6/4/2023	NHRA: NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS (EPPING, NH)
6/9/2023 - 6/11/2023	NHRA: THUNDER VALLEY NATIONALS (BRISTOL, TN)
6/23/2023 - 6/25/2023	NHRA: SUMMIT NATIONALS (NORWALK, OH)
7/14/2023 - 7/16/2023	NHRA: MILE HIGH NATIONALS (DENVER, CO)
7/21/2023 - 7/23/2023	NHRA: NORTHWEST NATIONALS (SEATTLE, WA)
7/28/2023 - 7/30/2023	NHRA: SONOMA NATIONALS (SONOMA, CA)
8/11/2023 - 8/13/2023	NHRA: HEARTLAND NATIONALS (TOPEKA, KS)
8/18/2023 - 8/20/2023	NHRA: BRAINARD NATIONALS (BRAINARD, MN)
9/1/2023 - 9/4/2023	NHRA: US NATIONALS (INDIANAPOLIS, IN)
9/15/2023 - 9/17/2023	NHRA: NHRA PLAYOFFS: PEP BOYS NATIONALS (MAPLE GROVE, PA)
9/22/2023 - 9/24/2023	NHRA: NHRA PLAYOFFS: CAROLINA NATIONALS (CHARLOTTE, NC)
9/29/2023 - 10/1/2023	NHRA PLAYOFFS: MIDWEST NATIONALS (ST. LOUIS, MO)
10/13/2023 - 10/15/2023	NHRA PLAYOFFS: TEXAS NATIONALS (DALLAS, TX)
10/17/2023 - 10/29/2023	NHRA PLAYOFFS: NEVADA NATIONALS (LAS VEGAS, NV)
11/10/2023 - 11/12/2023	NHRA PLAYOFFS: NHRA FINALS (POMONA, CA)

SHAWN LANGDON

Shawn Langdon returns to the DHL / Kalitta Air Toyota Top Fuel dragster for the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. Langdon’s 11,000 horsepower dragster will be tuned by drag racing legend Connie Kalitta, Kurt Elliott and Jason McCulloch.

The 2013 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Top Fuel champion has 17 Top Fuel victories and two Funny Car wins to his credit in addition to 19 Top Fuel runner-up finishes. He has 19 No. 1 qualifiers and more than 300 round wins in his career. In 2022, Langdon finished ninth in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Fuel point standings finishing in the top 10 for the 14th consecutive season – every year since reaching NHRA’s premier series. Langdon advanced to the final round of eliminations at both Bristol, Tenn., and Denver, Colo., narrowly missing two victories in 2022.

A standout baseball player in high school, Langdon chose a career in drag racing turning down multiple college baseball scholarship offers to pursue his drag racing dreams. He had already made a Motorsports name for himself, winning the NHRA Jr. Dragster National title at age 14 in 1997. Ten years later, he captured back-to-back NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Comp national titles in 2007 and ‘08 in the highly competitive sportsman ranks. He made his NHRA professional debut in Top Fuel dragster in 2009 and was a finalist for the Auto Club’s Road to the Future NHRA Rookie of the Year Award. After joining Alan Johnson Racing in 2012, Langdon won his first Top Fuel national event at the fall Charlotte race that season.

The Mira Loma, California native enjoyed a historic run in 2013 winning seven races, including the historic NHRA U.S. Nationals, on the way to his first NHRA Top Fuel world championship. Langdon appeared in 10 final rounds and qualified No. 1 seven times that season. He also won the $100,000 Traxxas Shootout and became the first NHRA competitor to win at every level of the sport. After Alan Johnson Racing, Langdon drove for Schumacher Racing until joining Team Kalitta prior to the 2017 season.

He raced a Toyota Camry Funny Car for Kalitta Motorsports in 2018 and ’19 and collected two wins making him just the 17th NHRA racer to reach the winner’s circle in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories. In 2020, Langdon returned to Top Fuel.

“From the first round to the final, we’ve made some really strong runs.”

SHAWN LANGDON

CONNIE KALITTA

Connie Kalitta is recognized as one of the most successful professional drag racers and crew chiefs in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA. In fact, it was his winnings in drag racing that enabled him to purchase the Cessna 310 that started him in the airline business. Kalitta was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in June of 1992 for his tremendous contribution to the sport. He has won five world championships and has set the world’s speed record on more than one occasion. Although not currently in the driver’s seat, he is the team owner and crew chief of two NHRA Top Fuel dragster teams and an NHRA Funny Car team. In 2016 Kalitta was the recipient of the first-ever NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2017 Kalitta was presented with an award by the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame recognizing him for operating one of the most successful Top Fuel and Funny Car teams in NHRA history over a period of six decades.

All told, Connie Kalitta won 10 NHRA national events between 1967 and 1994 and appeared in 22 finals between 1963 and 1996. Kalitta drove as recently as 1999 and posted lifetime bests of 4.58 and 314 mph. Today he is 63 and still runs the Mac Tools Top Fuel program of nephew Doug Kalitta as an owner who races with corporate backing but has the personal resources to compete at the sport’s highest level without it.

” I guess you could say I always did things my way. “

CONNIE KALITTA

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DOUG KALITTA

Doug Kalitta is one of the most successful Top Fuel drivers in the history of the NHRA. Since 1998 he has finished No. 2 in the points five times and has finished in the Top Ten for 24 consecutive seasons. This season Kalitta will once again pilot the Mac Tools Top Fuel dragster with a new compliment of crew chiefs including world champion tuners Alan Johnson, Brian Husen and Ronnie Thompson. In 1998 he joined the NHRA, becoming a Top Fuel drag racer. Kalitta finished second in the Top Fuel points race in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2016 and most recently 2020 when he finished three points behind the eventual champion. He is fifth on the all-time Top Fuel wins list; the most recent of his 49 victories (Kalitta also has 107 career final round appearances) came in winning at the Midwest Nationals in St. Louis in Pomona in 2020. In 2019 he won the prestigious U.S. Nationals for the first time. He has recorded 50 No. 1 qualifiers in his career.

Kalitta formerly raced in USAC events. He was the 1991 USAC rookie of the year in the midget series and won the 1994 championship in the sprint car category. Kalitta won 21 USAC events: 14 in midget races and 7 in sprint competitions. Kalitta has a wife, Josie Kalitta, a son Mitchell, and a daughter Avery. He is the nephew of Connie Kalitta, a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He owns and operates the airline Kalitta Charters.

“It’s very competitive out here and I’m a tenacious guy,”

DOUG KALITTA

Doug-Kalitta-Wins

J.R. TODD

Heading into the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing season 2018 NHRA Funny Car world champion J.R. Todd will be looking to claim his second NHRA Funny Car world championship. Todd picked up his 19th career national event win at the 2021 season opening Gatornationals and raced to his eighth consecutive Top Ten finish last season. He will be behind the wheel of the Todd Smith and Jon Oberhofer tuned brand new DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car. Todd began his drag racing career at the age of 10 in the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League. From 1993-98 Todd competed against some of the toughest young drag racing talent across the country. Prior to Jr. Drag Racing he rode four-wheelers and dirt bikes following in the tire tracks of his father Mario. He eventually moved up to compete in Super Comp and attended Frank Hawley’s Top Alcohol Dragster school before earning his Top Fuel license at the age of 18 in 2000, one week after graduating from Lawrenceburg (IN) High School.

Todd picked up two wins in his first year driving the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car including the prestigious U.S. Nationals contested Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis. The following season Todd won the U.S. Nationals again as well as six total races on the way to his first NHRA Funny Car world championship. Todd raced to five final rounds in the six-race NHRA Countdown to secure the championship. Todd has nineteen career national event wins including nine Top Fuel titles and ten Funny Car wins. He has also qualified No. 1 fourteen times in his career. In his spare time he enjoys bowling, watching sprint car races and attending sporting events.

“We have a great team and we set the bar high for ourselves.”

J.R. Todd