It started off with 3 day trips to the racetrack, but as my kid brothers (there’s 4 of them) got older and we all started to have to balance work and school it turned into what we called “hit and run” events. We would drive in, catch some sleep, hit the track for the day and rush home to get to various places. They were fun, better than not getting to the track. But always very pressure filled with jobs to keep and school work to get done. This in some ways is the story of the last one.

I first remember seeing him in 83 or 84 at Pomona. I have a vague recollection of his Dad playing a joke on him about long distance call and it involved Buster Couch shoving a phone into his ready to be staged dragster. But I can’t find any evidence this happened so my memory may be faulty, but I do remember him there. He was 8 years older than me and I thought he was way cool. I remember he seemed grumpy. But as the years passed and my Dad and myself started to bring my brothers as they got older, he always had time for them, a quick word, an autograph and maybe a picture together.

After we left L.A. in the late 80’s and relocated to Montreal it didn’t take long to become acquainted with Sanair and the Grandnationals and reconnect as fans with some of our favs. Later we would venture to Raceway Park and Maple Grove as time would allow. We watched him switch from Funny cars to Top Fuel and back, although I could swear he started in a Top Fuel car. It was awesome to see him win a Championship in 94 and again in 95 and come oh so close in 96. I always felt Funny cars were where his passion was, and it was no surprise to see him climb back into one in 2006. Always a fun but serious guy, it was understandable he was gruff when not running well, but in my experience always cordial when kids were around.

We headed out on a Friday night, arrived at Raceway Park at around 5:00am, slept in the car until around 9 and headed into the track for breakfast. I remember the day being great, no great commotion, grabbed a few T Shirts; one of which ironically was a Del Worsham CSK shirt (Because of our California connections a Fav) and hit the stands for Q4, knowing that at the end we had to get right out of there. Why? I have no memory of anymore, but we were pressed for time. Knowing what I know now, maybe we would have stayed longer.

We all see crashes, it is a part of racing. An ugly part to be sure and no one wants anyone to get hurt, but crashes can become routine. Another body launched high into the air, or another Top Fuel blowover; but of course each and every one of these incidents has the potential to hurt or maim if not worse and when we get complacent we lose focus of the dangers right in front of us, which leads to…

That day was June 21st 2008, and if you haven’t guessed it yet I’m speaking about Scott Kalitta. I remember thinking “Scott blew it up bad”, and outside being aware of the Johnny West crash a few years before, my thoughts were “Ok. this is going to take a while to clean up and we are never going to have time to see the end of the session, lets get out of here now” and we did.

I had no idea what happened to Scott until around noon on Sunday. I woke up, thinking I needed to check the results of the rest of the session, and sat in shock as I read the news. I don’t know when or how long it took to get the news at the track, I have no idea if staying would have lessened that shock, but I felt immense sadness at leaving when we did. We had lost a great racer and, even though I didn’t know it at the time, it was right in front of my eyes. To this day there are Three undeveloped rolls of film from that date,I haven’t wanted to see them, in the event there’s some horrific image of Scotts last run.

I was in Reading the race after we lost Blaine, I remember losing Darrell Russell and Eric Medlen. But I had not witnessed it, and it cast a shadow on my whole racing outlook. To be frank, I have not been to Raceway Park since and only lately (2013) did I venture out to Maple Grove, my kids deserved it, they have grown up on Drag racing just as much as I did and to deny them a National event experience was unfair. But, it’s time. I feel it does a disservice to Scott and Connie to stay away from Raceway Park, I don’t think they would want that. So in 2016 I’ll be there.

Why do I write this? Maybe to vent, maybe somehow putting it on the page will lesson the sadness, no, I write this to encourage. You see, we as Drag Racing fans are lucky. we have unprecedented access to our drivers, no where else in Motorsports does this exist. We can go up at any time (within reason) and speak too our favorites. To grab an autograph or a “Selfie”, have a quick word and shake a hand. But when you’re doing so, make sure you say a “Thank You’, let them know you appreciate the dangers they expose themselves to, because while they would say “without the fans we have nothing” I say “without them we have nothing to be fans of”. So, on this day, The anniversary of losing Scott, look around at your favorites and appreciate them a little extra.

Thanks to Connie, Doug and all at Team Kalitta, Scott lives on, and I think every time Del suits up to drive Scotts car he knows the legacy he continues. I’ll never know if I could have done anything meaningful on that Saturday. But you all can for sure, every time you get the chance.

Be Safe Have Fun. Say Thank You.

Update November 15 2015.

Well, When I first wrote this in June, The DHL team had been to a couple finals and run decent. I never would have imagined what was to come. As the Countdown started the team really started to hit their stride. History will show that they won 4 of the 6 Countdown races, But more importantly they won the Championship. They brought home the big prize with Scott’s name above the door, and each and every crew member interviewed pointed out “This is Scott’s car”. It feels like a prophecy fulfilled. It was what could have been brought to fruition. Congratulations to Del, Jon and the whole DHL team. Next season not only will the car have Scott’s name on it, it will carry the big number 1 as well. Special thanks again to Connie who enabled all this to happen. Here’s to many more.