It's Official - AJ at Kalitta (1 Viewer)

[Ramjet]

About time! Lol. My prediction,doug kalitta 2022 world champion

IT'S OFFICIAL: ALAN JOHNSON NOW WITH KALITTA MOTORSPORTS | Competition Plus

Kalitta Motorsports today announced their crew chief and driver line-ups for the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series which kicks off with the 62nd NHRA Winternationals, February 18-20 in Pomona, California. World champion crew chiefs Alan Johnson, Brian Husen and Jason McCulloch will all...

competitionplus.com

To say that this season this far has been a disapointment for Doug and the Kallita team is pretty much an understatement. Yes they have the best of everything on paper but the fixes for the main problem are probably in the wrong area. 1. Doug has not forgotten how to drive. 2. Not counting A.J. and Brian the last several quality C.C.'s have not forgotten how to tune. 3. The motor and clutch parts haven't gone BAD. 4. Goodyear is not giveing them bad tires. 5. The #2 car is in the same boat (so to speak). SO - what is consistent here with all these changes and what is still inconsistent - The PIPE. No matter how many Gurus you get and how many parts you change if the cars won't repeat you might want to look at the cars (Chassis). Having your own in house chassis is a good thing if it works, but sometimes when it isn't working maybe trying someone elses chassis is worth a try. Who knows - It could be a seemingly minor thing, but a couple of upright placements - motor angle - jig preload points or even welding proceedure could make a difference.

 

[mgty3whlr]

Prior to Kalitta, Alan and team were with Britt. then Salinas. Did you see a night and day result first race out??? Well, hell no! Same with Grubby. **** don't change over night. Alan has been massaging the chassis for Doug considering, They are an "In House" deal. It's gonna take a handful of races before you see results. Alan could plug a hardcore tune-up in the engine but, if the chassis isn't to top-shelf, **** ain't gonna work.

 

[Dragracer]

Could be. Every tuner has their own chassis setup, motor placement, angle, car balance. Knowing how particular and meticulous Alan is I would think that was something he looked at. They are both in house chassis built in 2021 and the cars are only running a little better than last year. I admit I am far from a expert in running these cars and Alan is, am sure whatever the issue is he will get it fixed. I do remember Connie saying a few years ago that he absolutely hates buying new cars.

 

[z28]

to me their 2nd car (Langdon) is more of a mystery. Not much improvement at all from last year. I thought they built new pipes for Doug this year to AJ specs. Material and welding technique can have a lot to do with it. Hope they get it figured out. I would love to see Doug get one.

 

[LasVegas87]

It's a long season and it's more about who finishes well. It may take time but those cars will turn around sooner than later. Doug's will most likely be first, the other will soon follow. Just my $0.02

 

[Ramjet]

Prior to Kalitta, Alan and team were with Britt. then Salinas. Did you see a night and day result first race out??? Well, hell no! Same with Grubby. **** don't change over night. Alan has been massaging the chassis for Doug considering, They are an "In House" deal. It's gonna take a handful of races before you see results. Alan could plug a hardcore tune-up in the engine but, if the chassis isn't to top-shelf, **** ain't gonna work.

Exactly - The next race is #7 for the season and they are 215 points down at this point. Also - starting out with Doug in the seat AIN'T exactly the same as it was when Alan & company started with Brittney or Salinas. Even though Brittney had a championship when Grubnic came her and Salinas were (at that time) not exactly on the same level as a driver as Doug. The problem seems to be the cars don't repeat and it doesn't seem to be Driver or CC as much as not responding the same to condition changes like other cars do.

 

[mick]

IMO there are 4 CC's rite now in first part of season that have a great tune-up. (the top 4 in pts.). i would have included clay in this group up till CC swap, now i put
him with the others. hit and miss performance. lot of great talent that is struggling rite now........AJ leaves salinas. gives baseline to flynn. flynn tunes around baseline. 2 wins so far.
flynn struggled at kalitta's, after oberhoffer also struggled, now AJ and crew struggle. go figure........the funny thing is, there are 11 or 12 well funded TF'rs rite now, but 7 races in,
it's odd to see how many are struggling for round wins........seems like the top teams are now able to run in 60's and the rest are mired in the 70's.......which is amazing when you look at a
Q sheet and notice most races require a low 80 something to qualify.

 

[Jack]

Anyone who thinks this crew chief, driver znd supporting cast won't be highly successful as this season goes on is not much of a student of history. They will be just fine.

 

[BaldyLochs]

Right now for this season Doug’s dragster is 2 for 9 in rounds (including the Traxx shootout). They need to get to the semi’s and beyond to really start accumulating points. However Doug has the team’s best speed and ET so far this season. So the numbers are there. I am not the least bit concerned this far. They’ll be alright in the fall…….

 

[mick]

if you think kalittas will be fine, then you should think the same about prock, ant, clay, leah, hart, and schu. IMO they will not all find their way to consistent 60's.
there may be a fluke win, and fluke runs, and lucky rounds, but IMO the season will finish just about like it is now......if anyone should be stepping up it should be ant and prock,
as their team/partner cars have it figured out rite now..........hope i eat my words on this post. we'll see.

 

[Butch]

If anyone can afford to hot lap a car on Mondays, it's Kalitta. I would think by now some improvement should be showing, and I've not seen any.
I say buy or borrow a chassis and see what if anything changes.

 

[I was NITRO BREATH]

Hard to believe that AJ wont figure it out pretty soon. With the countdown they have the time to play with the car and not worry about points. Also, with so many good cars in the class they gotta be really good to win a race. If they are tweaking the set up they are not going to win races. But look out, I think we all know they will get it together soon and then they will be a championship contender