Kalitta, Langdon Advance To Semis In NHRA At Texas Motorplex

ENNIS, TX – Top Fuel drivers Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon each advanced to the semifinals to lead Toyota at the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex, Sunday.

In the opening round, Kalitta was matched up against fellow Toyota Top Fuel driver Antron Brown. Brown had an advantage on the tree, but Kalitta ran him down by the 330’ mark, registering a 3.713-second run at 328.38 mph. In round two, he ran the quickest pass of the session with a 3.723 in defeating Justin Ashley, which set-up a semifinal showdown with Billy Torrence. Kalitta had the better reaction time, but would smoke the tires early, giving Torrence the win, 3.746-4.180.

After qualifying fourth on Saturday, Langdon opened his day with an easy win over Kebin Kinsley, 3.742-4.217. With the victory, he would face Leah Pruett in round two. Langdon had a commanding lead at the tree and never trailed to advance to the semifinals where he would take on series point leader Steve Torrence. Langdon registered a .020 reaction time advantage, but Torrence had caught him by 60’ feet and led the rest of the way, winning by .040 seconds. Torrence would go on to win Sunday’s event.

In Funny Car, both Alexis De Joria and J.R. Todd advanced to the second round. DeJoria qualified fifth and took the lead early in her first-round match-up with Gary Densham, but the car began to struggle, resulting in her shutting it down just before the finish line. She would go on to claim the victory, but the car erupted into fire after the shutdown. DeJoria was able to get out of the vehicle safely, but the car was destroyed. Her DC Motorsports team was able to get the back-up ROKiT Camry ready for round two, but it smoked the tires on the hit in a loss to Ron Capps.

Todd ran both the quickest and fastest Funny Car pass of the day in round one with a 3.881-second run at 331.36 mph in defeating Paul Lee. He put together another impressive pass in round two against Matt Hagan but fell short of the victory.

The Camping World Drag Racing Series heads south to Baytown, Texas for the NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park, Oct. 24-25.