Team Patrón Comes Up Short at the NHRA Texas Fall Nationals

ENNIS, Texas (September 22, 2013)— The Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry Funny Car team enjoyed clean, consistent passes throughout the 28th annual AAA NHRA Texas Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex this weekend, but despite the car’s solid performance, fell short to Jack Beckman in round one of eliminations on Sunday.

After losing two qualifying sessions due to persistent rains on Friday, the Patrón team qualified in the No. 11 spot with their 4.166-second run from Q2 on Saturday afternoon which pitted Alexis DeJoria, pilot of the black and green Patrón hot rod, against Jack Beckman in the opening elimination round Sunday morning. DeJoria was first off the line, but her 4.158-sec at 301.0-mph pass wasn’t enough to set off the win light against Beckman’s 4.107-sec run.

 

Although the team is disappointed to have not gone further during race day, they are pleased with the progress the car has made over the last month. According to world class tuner Tommy DeLago, “The car has come a long way since the start of the season. We were plagued with tire smoking runs for the better part of the year, but over these past few race weekends, we’ve been able to make nice full pulls and we’re certainly more consistent now. We’re progressing in the right direction and our time will come.”

Team Patrón will have another shot at going rounds on race day next weekend when they travel to St. Louis for the 21st event of the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, and DeJoria is eager to have another chance at advancing to the quarterfinals. “Although our run wasn’t fast enough to take that first round win today, we’re able to use these runs to build our information bank for next year and the remainder of this season,” said DeJoria, “We’re looking forward to getting back out there in a few days and keep working towards the goal of picking up our first Wally as a team.”

Alexis DeJoria and the Kalitta Motorsports Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry Funny Car team compete next at the 2nd annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals, September 27-29, at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., situated just outside of downtown St. Louis. For more information, please visit www.alexisdejoria.com. Follow us on Twitter: @ADR_Nitro771 and Like Us on Facebook: Alexis DeJoria

TV Schedule

Eliminations

September 22, 8:30PM-11:30PM 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.