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NORWALK, Ohio (July 7, 2013)— Sunday found the Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry Funny Car team packing up early after a first round loss at the 7th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.
The No. 13 qualified Patrón team faced No. 4 qualifier Johnny Gray during round one of eliminations. After Gray’s team decided on a last minute lane swap, the black and green Toyota Camry pulled up to the line ready to make a run with their newly implemented engine combination- a tamed down version of Doug Kalitta’s Top Fuel dragster setup. With just five runs under their belt with the adjusted tune-up, the Tommy DeLago led Patrón team made a solid 4.131-second at 313.29-mph pass. Although it was a good run, it wasn’t enough against Gray’s 4.047-sec pass, ending Team Patrón’s day.
“It was another first round loss today, but you know what, we made some good runs this weekend,” said Alexis DeJoria, driver of the Patrón hot rod. “We’re all confident in this new setup. Despite one hiccup on Saturday, we were able to make consistent passes all weekend, which is important. It’s all starting to come together, we just need some more runs to fine tune it and figure out how to lay down low e.t.’s [elapsed time] in all different types of conditions. But overall, we’re happy with how the car ran today. It was our fastest speed of the season so far, which is very promising.”
The team, which is coming off of a four week back-to-back string of races, will head back to the Kalitta Motorsports shop in Ypsilanti, Mich. on Sunday night where they will have a weekend off from racing and prepare for the upcoming three race ‘Western Swing.’ “We’ll all regroup and recharge with this break in the schedule and I’m confident that we’ll have a good weekend in Denver,” said DeJoria.
The team currently sits in the No. 12 spot on the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship points list with 534 points. Their next opportunity to gain more points will be at the 34th annual Mile High NHRA Nationals in Denver, Col., July 19-21. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoria.com. Follow us on Twitter: @ADR_Nitro771 and Like Us on Facebook: Alexis DeJoria.
TV Schedule
Eliminations
July 7, 7PM-10PM EST
ESPN2
About Alexis DeJoria
Alexis DeJoria, daughter of the famed John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and proud owner of Tequila Patrόn, is a professional NHRA race car driver, competing in the nitro Funny Car class on the Kalitta Motorsports team. Alexis drives a Tequila Patrόn-sponsored 2013 Toyota Camry. Alexis, who had all the opportunity in the world to pursue any type of career, felt strongly about following her passion, and her need for adrenaline drove her to pursue the unlikely profession of auto-racing. The determination to ‘blaze her own trail’ continues to drive her and push her to higher levels in male dominated sport of drag racing.
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) Mello Yello 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.