Archive for March, 2011

Show review!

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Wow, lots of trade show in the 4th quarter of last year. Goodson was at the Big-R Show in Las Vegas, the IMIS show in Indianapolis and of course the PRI show in Orlando. I want to first say thank you to for stopping at our booth and visiting with us at these shows. We exhibit at trade shows so we can see you….and to introduce you to new products that we have developed. We are at these shows to listen to you and learn about your business so we can better prepare our products and services to insure we are able to earn that business from you. There are companies that offer similar products that we offer, but the thing that keeps Goodson at the front of the pack is our ability to respond to your needs quickly. Programs such as same day shipping, free freight on back orders, full technical support and our Iron clad guarantee separate us from those other companies.

We get to earn your business the old fashion way. Great products serviced by great people for you our valued customers. Thank you for the opportunity to continue to earn your business today!

IMIS show was once again a great show in the fact we get to see a whole bunch of you engine builders that have not attended any of the recent PRI shows in Orlando. I like Indy as everything is close to the convention center. You park your car, attend the show and then you can walk around the whole downtown while still running into the same people you saw earlier at the show. I look forward to seeing you all again this year for another show on December 8-9-10

PRI Show has and always will be one of those “must-do” destinations for a trade show. Orlando attracts a huge international crowd, and this year was no different. Goodson has had the same booth location every year in Orlando right across the street from Sunnen. This year’s show was really well attended and we were very happy to see each of you once again in Florida.

New products we released at these shows consisted of expanding the sizes of our Hyper Finish Diamond Valve Guide Sizing System. We now offer from 4mm up to 14.40mm and yes it still only requires one drive tool. We also released a new Tapered Busing Press kit for Diesel connecting rods. Getting that pie or wedged shaped bushing into a diesel connecting rod has been a challenge to say the least. Now you can remove and install these bushing quickly and affordably with this new tool kit.

Dealer EXPO is a not a new show for us but we did take a few years off as we were at the V-Twin Expo for the last 6 years. At the V-Twin show we have worked with the AV&V high performance line of engine parts. These AV&V valve guides, valves, and spring kits are manufactured of the highest quality and are race proven to meet or exceed your requirements for these V-Twin applications. The Dealer Expo allowed Goodson to launch it new line of AV&V engine parts for Dirt Bikes and ATVs. We selected only ATV and dirt bikes as these engines are out there and they need re-building. I encourage each of you to look for these applications and take advantage of the opportunity when they need rebuilt. Let face it, you have the knowledge, you have the machinery, and you have the place ….all you need is the correct sized tooling and combine all of that and you get an new revenue stream and very happy customer in the process.

AERA will be sponsoring various mini shows through-out the country and Goodson will be at each and every one of these shows in 2011. I really like these smaller venues as I get to spend more one on one time with you as well as see a lot of you that I don’t get to see at other trade shows. The locations for AERA show are as follows:
Thursday, April 28th at School of Automotive Machinists, Houston, Texas
Friday, May 13th at Hendrick Motorsports/Sunnen/Mahle in Charlotte, NC
Saturday, October 15th at Rottler Manufacturing/ BG Machine in Seattle, WA
Thank you all for allowing Goodson to be a part of your business. We look forward to seeing at these or other shows as well as talking to you each and every day.

See ya on the web,

Dave

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Gainesville Update from Jim Oberhofer

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and started off this week on a good note. Team Kalitta didn’t have the weekend we were looking for in Gainesville, Florida but I can say that we did enjoy some of the nicest weather we have ever seen there.

With the near perfect weather conditions it made it very easy for our Team Kalitta Race-cars to make more than enough horsepower at the Gainesville track. Now when you already make over 8000 horsepower and then you add maybe around another 500 or so by accident, it tends to make a nitromethane powered race-car even more unpredictable.

Jeff Arend and the DHL Funny Car made a nice run right out of the box on Friday running a 4.12 which ended up being their best run of the weekend. That 4.12 run was good enough for the number 8 spot in qualifying which set up a first round race with Tim Wilkerson. On Sunday the track warmed up a little bit which made for some tricky conditions. The good news for the DHL Team in 2011 is it seems they are starting to have a little luck on their side which they haven’t had in the past. Tim smoked the tires early and Jeff was on a good run until about 500 feet when the DHL Car started spinning the tires, the good news was that Jeff was already far enough ahead that he was able to light the win light with some pretty wild driving! In the second round Jeff was up against Matt Hagan who has had Jeff and the DHL Team’s number the last year. Since the track warmed up another 10 degrees from first round, Jon O and Nicky backed up the clutch settings and hoped that they would slide on down the track and Matt would smoke the tires. They were right about Matt spinning the tires but they didn’t expect Jeff to do the same. Unfortunately, Matt spun a little further down track and got the win. The good news is that Jeff moved up one position to the number 7 spot in points.

The Kalitta Top Fuel cars struggled in Gainesville but I believe we figured out our problems with both Doug’s car and Grubbies as we get ready for our next race in Vegas. Doug qualified in the number 9 spot with a 3.87 at 320 mph and Grubby held onto the number 16 spot with a 3.92 at 306 mph.

Now when you end up 9th, that usually means you are the first pair out on race-day, which Doug was. Doug was matched up against Doug Foley who was number 8. After making some pretty big changes to Doug’s car for that matchup we really didn’t know what to expect. Of course the one thing we can always rely on is Doug as he did a great job cutting an .058 light against Foley’s .105. With .047 in the bank you would think we would have a good shot to win, but it wasn’t meant to be. Doug ran a nice 3.872 but Foley ran a 3.821, a difference of .004 once you figure in the reaction times. All in all we made a good run with Doug’s car and I am confident that we are moving in the right direction now!

Connie and Grubby made some pretty big changes to the fuel system on their race-car going into Gainesville and it finally paid off. In the first round Grubby was matched up against Tony Schumacher which is never an easy draw. At the start Grubbies car ran on all eight cylinders and gave Tony Shoe a run for his money by running a very nice 3.86 to Tony’s 3.83. I know Connie wanted that round win but I also know he is happy that his hot rod is running on all eight cylinders now which will allow him to actually tune the race car and be more competitive.

My thinking is that I would rather start the year a little slow and then become hot at the end of the year. It also would be nice if we were just hot all year, that would make us all very happy! Since Vegas is not until April 1st, we have a couple of weekends off which will give us an opportunity to re-engineer the wheel and overthink our tuneup which is always fun to do. Sometimes I wish that we could just go run the very next day and see what we can do but as I have learned, you have to just be patient.

Anyway, thanks as always for everything you do and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Jim O

Jim “O” Oberhofer
Kalitta Motorsports

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EXHALE… SATURDAY A MUCH BETTER DAY FOR WILK

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Tim Wilkerson was about at his wits’ end on Friday night, after his Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang simply refused to cooperate on either lap that day. Staring at computer data that not only looked faulty, but also seemed impossible, he was flummoxed in his desire to straighten out his car. After some consultation with trusted allies, the crazy picture finally began to edge into focus late in the evening, and by the time Wilk went to bed he at least felt the security of knowing he’d made progress. How much progress remained to be seen, but things at least looked to be on the right track.

As it turned out, Saturday’s first lap was a huge step in the right direction, despite the fact some nibbled valves slowed the LRS at the top end. The 4.165 safely moved him into the race field, and it gave him a baseline to tune from on the final pass. On that run, as the sun began to set in Gainesville, Wilk powered to a 4.131 and jumped up to the 9th spot, after having slipped as far as 13th by the time he fired the motor. It was his best pass of the season, and an even larger stride in the right direction.

“She’s getting there, that’s for sure,” Wilkerson said. “We finally unscrambled the riddle late last night, and got some electrical stuff sorted out. I figured the car would run more like it should, but you still have to be able to go from end to end if you want to qualify so it’s not like we were overconfident, by a long shot. On the first run, it just ate up those valves a little, but it was so much more predictable and so much faster than any run we’ve made this year. That was enough to almost make me smile.

“It was actually a little slower early on the last one, but it picked it up pretty hard at the top end and kept all eight lit. To go from being so lost last night to having a pretty good handle on it right now is a big leap, trust me. I’m not going to bother kicking myself for not figuring it out until last night, because the whole picture just didn’t come into focus until then. Now we have it the way it should be, and we have a race car again.”
From the No. 9 spot, Wilk will race Jeff Arend in the first round. That’s a replay of the first round here last year, which Wilk used to start a trip all the way to the Winner’s Circle.

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POST-EVENT REPORT

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Tire Kingdom Gatornationals
Gainesville Raceway
Gainesville, Fla.

QUALIFYING
Tim Wilkerson – No. 9 (4.131 sec)

ELIMINATIONS
Tim Wilkerson

 Lost to Jeff Arend in round one

FIRST-ROUND OUSTER NOT WHAT WILK WAS AFTER

It’s a cruel sport, this drag racing. The clocks don’t care if you’re making progress, they are immune to momentum, and they ignore your best intentions. Their only mission is to declare a winner based on who gets to the stripe first, and on this sunny Sunday in Gainesville it was Jeff Arend fishtailing across the finish line for the win light after a wild and wacky pedaling job against Tim Wilkerson. Day over.

As the No. 8 and 9 qualifiers, one might have anticipated that Wilk vs. Arend would be the closest race of the day, but they were also the final pair to venture down the Gainesville Raceway surface in the opening round and both of their cars spun the tires on a track that was heating up rapidly after a cool morning. That heat, combined with the bright sun, created conditions quite a bit looser than most team were looking for.

For Wilk, it was a two-day qualifying effort in the Jekyll and Hyde style, with the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang going 0-for-2 on Friday and 2-for-2 on Saturday, although it was not a case of intentionally leaving the best for last. On Friday, the LRS Ford made two aborted runs and it appeared to be nowhere near a successful set-up. After many hours of dissection and analysis, Wilk and his team finally found the culprit in the car’s electrical and ignition systems, and prospects for running better on Saturday improved dramatically. Those prospects became reality when Wilk put a pair of solid runs together in Q3 and Q4, running 4.165 on the early pass and 4.131 on the late one, to land 9th on the ladder.

That upward trend gave the driver and his crew a great deal of confidence heading into Sunday’s eliminations, but the rapidly changing track conditions made a dramatic side-by-side race pretty much improbable. Such is the curse of having to take the final pairing, a fate that often attaches itself to the 8th and 9th cars on the grid. From the time the team arrived at the track at the crack of dawn until the national anthem was sung, the air temperature rose nearly 30 degrees, and from the time the first Top Fuel cars ran until the Funny Car session began, the track temp jumped up 12 degrees. It was hotter still when Arend and Wilkerson wrapped up the session.

“You know what, the weather is part of the challenge of drag racing,” Wilkerson said. “We knew the track was getting hotter by the minute, but we still thought it would go down there. Instead, it went about 60 feet. I got off and back on once, but it was also clearly eating itself up and not going anywhere, so that was it. Jeff did a good job handling a wild ride, and I had pretty good view of it as he fishtailed all over the place with the smoke pouring off like it was 1968. Our only chance was him crossing the center line, but he kept it off the stripe until he got across the finish line and we got what we deserved.

“It’s too bad because we made some huge strides on Saturday. Once we found the problems, I felt like we had our race car back and it really did just what I wanted it to do on those two Saturday laps. Unfortunately, Friday put us in a huge hole and two really good laps on Saturday were still only good enough to get us up to ninth. If we would’ve had a better start to this deal, we might have been able to inch our way up a little higher on the ladder, and then who knows what would’ve happened. I would’ve loved to have gone out there as the first pair, but we didn’t have a choice in the matter because as eight and nine you get whatever is left.”

With seven out of the eight Funny Car winners coming out of the left lane, Wilk was asked if lane choice was a make-or-break deal. He pointed to the one winner who did run on the right side, Robert Hight, for the answer.

“Hight ran 4.07 right in front of us, in the right lane. There was plenty of lane out there, but we just had the tune-up wrong to handle what there was. We needed to get it off the line without spinning the tires and we couldn’t do that. The good news is we still feel we have a better handle on the race car, and we just need to keep making laps to really nail it down. We’re going to stay here and test on Monday, making as many laps as we can, and hopefully we’ll make up some of the ground we lost before we found the problems. I think it will help us a lot down the road.”

That road, down which Wilk is going, allows the team two weeks off before the NHRA Full Throttle tour reconvenes on the other side of America on April 1, in Las Vegas.

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Team Kalitta Qualifying Report for NHRA Gatornationals

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Jeff Arend, driver of the DHL Funny Car –

Qualifying Session One: 4.127 seconds, 303.78 mph
Session Two: 7.335 sec., 84.04 mph
Session Three: 5.133 sec., 142.97 mph
Session Four: 4.211 sec., 302.08 mph

Arend qualified in the No. 8 position for eliminations. He will race against No. 9 qualifier Tim Wilkerson (4.131) in round one.

Doug Kalitta, driver of the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster –

Session One: 7.773 sec., 82.64 mph
Session Two: 3.871 sec., 320.13 mph
Session Three: 6.814 sec., 91.92 mph
Session Four: 6.414 sec., 100.07 mph

Kalitta qualified in the No. 9 position for eliminations. He will race against No. 8 qualifier Doug Foley (3.869) in round one.

David Grubnic, driver of the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster –

Session One: 5.545 seconds, 117.17 mph
Session Two: 6.776 sec., 88.10 mph
Session Three: 3.926 sec., 306.19 mph
Session Four: 5.701 sec., 110.41 mph

Grubnic qualified in the No. 16 position for eliminations. He will race against No. 1 qualifier Tony Schumacher (3.814) in round one.

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Team Kalitta Event Summary for NHRA Gatornationals

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Jeff Arend, driver of the DHL Funny Car –

Arend qualified in the No. 8 (4.127 sec., 303.78 mph) position for eliminations. He defeated No. 9 (4.131) qualifier Tim Wilkerson in round one, 4.646,  198.90 to 6.329,  104.04.
In round two, Arend was defeated by Matt Hagan, 5.586, 130.35 to 4.441, 254.14.

Doug Kalitta, driver of the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster –

Kalitta qualified in the No. 9 (3.871 sec., 320.13 mph) position for eliminations. He was defeated by No. 8 (3.869) qualifier Doug Foley in round one, 3.872 316.82 to 3.821 312.50.

David Grubnic, driver of the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster –

Grubnic qualified in the No. 16 (3.926 sec., 306.19 mph) position for eliminations. He was defeated by No. 1 (3.814) qualifier Tony Schumacher in round one, 3.863 314.39 to 3.836 322.19.

About Kalitta Motorsports

Based in Ypsilanti, Mich., Kalitta Motorsports is a Top Fuel and Funny Car drag racing team in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The team was founded and is owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. For more than 50 years, Connie has been involved in the sport as a driver, tuner, and an owner. Kalitta Motorsports is one of the most successful teams in the history of auto racing with five world championships and over 50 national event titles in five different professional drag racing sanctioning bodies since it was established by Connie in 1959.

Jeff Arend drives the DHL Funny Car for the team. Connie’s nephew, Doug Kalitta, drives the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster entry while Dave Grubnic drives the team’s second Top Fueler under the banner of Kalitta Air as well. Connie serves as head tuner for all Team Kalitta entries. He is assisted by crew chief Jim Oberhofer and assistant crew chief Troy Fasching on Doug’s Top Fueler and by co-crew chiefs Jon Oberhofer and Nick Boninfante on the DHL Funny Car. Connie serves as crew chief on the Grubnic-driven racer with help from assistant crew chief James Riola.

Associate sponsors on Kalitta Motorsports’ race cars include Candlewood Suites, ROCKY Boots, Red Line Oil, Technicoat Companies, OPTIMA Batteries, JEGS, and Mac Tools.

For more info about Kalitta Motorsports including exclusive content such as videos, photos and more, please visit www.teamkalitta.com <http://www.teamkalitta.com> . Follow Us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TeamKalitta <http://www.twitter.com/TeamKalitta> . Like Us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/KalittaMotorsports <http://www.facebook.com/KalittaMotorsports> . Check out videos about Team Kalitta on our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/TeamKalitta <http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamKalitta>

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Grubnic Ready to Rebound and Reclaim Gatornationals Glory

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

kalitta_lgGAINESVILLE, Fla., (March 9, 2011) – Native Australian David Grubnic, driver of the 8,000-horsepower Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster, is looking for redemption this weekend, Feb. 11-13, at the NHRA Gatornationals at historic Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla.

Grubnic’s Kalitta Air team, led by team patriarch and drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta, failed to qualify for eliminations at the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. two weeks ago, but Grubnic is confident that he and his team will post a much better performance this weekend and hopefully revisit the Gatornationals winner’s circle like he did when he won the Top Fuel title trophy in Gainesville in 2006.

“What happened in Pomona was heartbreaking, but you have to move on,” Grubnic, a 48-year old resident of Ennis, Mont., said. “After Connie and the team got back to the race shop in [Ypsilanti] Michigan, they found some problems in the fuel system that was making our car drop cylinders. They got everything fixed so we should be ready to race in Gainesville.

“Winning the Gators in ’06 is one of my fondest memories. It’s one of the oldest tracks we race on, and it’s one race that every driver wants to win because of all of the great history. Hopefully we can take our Kalitta Air dragster there again this year.”

Kalitta also won the famed Gatornationals as a driver in 1994. Kalitta defeated his late son Scott, who died in a racing accident in 2008, in the only ever father vs. son NHRA Top Fuel final round (4.79 seconds to 4.95 sec.).

Event Schedule

The NHRA Gatornationals begin Friday for the nitro-fueled classes with two qualifying sessions at 12:45 p.m. (ET) and 3:30 p.m. Two more qualifying attempts will take place on Saturday at 11:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. The top 16 qualified cars in each pro class will race Sunday in final eliminations beginning at 11:00 a.m.

Times and dates subject to change.

TV Schedule

3/13/2011 Qualifying – 12:00 AM-1:30 AM (ET) ESPN2
3/13/2011 Eliminations – 6:00 PM-9:00 PM (ET) ESPN2

Times and dates subject to change.

About Kalitta Motorsports

Based in Ypsilanti, Mich., Kalitta Motorsports is a Top Fuel and Funny Car drag racing team in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The team was founded and is owned by drag racing icon Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta. For more than 50 years, Connie has been involved in the sport as a driver, tuner, and an owner. Kalitta Motorsports is one of the most successful teams in the history of auto racing with five world championships and over 50 national event titles in five different professional drag racing sanctioning bodies since it was established by Connie in 1959.

Jeff Arend drives the DHL Funny Car for the team. Connie’s nephew, Doug Kalitta, drives the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster entry while Dave Grubnic drives the team’s second Top Fueler under the banner of Kalitta Air as well. Connie serves as head tuner for all Team Kalitta entries. He is assisted by crew chief Jim Oberhofer and assistant crew chief Troy Fasching on Doug’s Top Fueler and by co-crew chiefs Jon Oberhofer and Nick Boninfante on the DHL Funny Car. Connie serves as crew chief on the Grubnic-driven racer with help from assistant crew chief James Riola.

Associate sponsors on Kalitta Motorsports’ race cars include Candlewood Suites, ROCKY Boots, Red Line Oil, Technicoat Companies, OPTIMA Batteries, JEGS, and Mac Tools.

For more info about Kalitta Motorsports including exclusive content such as videos, photos and more, please visit www.teamkalitta.com . Follow Us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TeamKalitta . Like Us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/KalittaMotorsports . Check out videos about Team Kalitta on our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/TeamKalitta

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