OPTIMA Sponsored Driver David Grubnic Makes a Run at the Countdown
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Native Australian David Grubnic, driver of the OPTIMA Batteries/Advance Auto Parts Top Fuel dragster for Kalitta Motorsports, has a hot 10,000-horsepower hot rod. He is confident that he and his team will continue to build on their winning momentum this weekend at the annual running of the NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in scenic Brainerd, Minnesota.
Grubnic and the OPTIMA Batteries/Advance Auto Parts team are coming of a runner-up finish, their first final round of the season, at the previous event in Seattle. The team was the No. 2 qualifier in Seattle, and they were the No. 1 qualifier at the event prior to Seattle in Sonoma, California.
“We have a really quick race car right now,” Grubnic, a 51-year old resident of Bozeman, Montana, said. “My team has been busting their guts all year and their hard work is paying off. It’s very important that we continue our recent success this weekend in Brainerd. We are fighting tooth and nail to get a spot in the Countdown and every point counts. Hopefully we’ll keep our momentum going in the next two races and go into the Countdown on a hot streak.”
Top Fuel drivers now have only two events remaining to qualify for NHRA’s six-event “playoff”, the Countdown to the Championship, by being in the top ten in Mello Yello championship points when racing concludes at the famed U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, August 28th to September 2nd. Grubnic is currently in 11th place, 78 points away from the top ten. He entered Seattle 126 points behind 10th place.
Grubnic was a runner-up finisher in Brained in 2004. Team owner, Grubnic’s crew chief and drag racing legend Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta took home the Top Fuel title trophy from Brainerd in 1985.
Grubnic is an 18-year Top Fuel veteran and earned his first career Top Fuel victory in Topeka, Kan. in 2005, becoming the first racer born outside North America to win an NHRA Top Fuel event. He has garnered three NHRA Top Fuel national event victories so far. The always-affable Grubnic is known affectionately by his peers and fans as “Grubby”. During his week off, Grubnic competed in the Sandhills Open Road Challenge in Arnold, Nebraska, where he finished second in the One-Mile Shootout in a Camaro from the Lingenfelter Performance Engineering stables.
Grubnic and the OPTIMA Batteries/Advance Auto Parts team are coming of a runner-up finish, their first final round of the season, at the previous event in Seattle. The team was the No. 2 qualifier in Seattle, and they were the No. 1 qualifier at the event prior to Seattle in Sonoma, California.
“We have a really quick race car right now,” Grubnic, a 51-year old resident of Bozeman, Montana, said. “My team has been busting their guts all year and their hard work is paying off. It’s very important that we continue our recent success this weekend in Brainerd. We are fighting tooth and nail to get a spot in the Countdown and every point counts. Hopefully we’ll keep our momentum going in the next two races and go into the Countdown on a hot streak.”
Top Fuel drivers now have only two events remaining to qualify for NHRA’s six-event “playoff”, the Countdown to the Championship, by being in the top ten in Mello Yello championship points when racing concludes at the famed U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, August 28th to September 2nd. Grubnic is currently in 11th place, 78 points away from the top ten. He entered Seattle 126 points behind 10th place.
Grubnic was a runner-up finisher in Brained in 2004. Team owner, Grubnic’s crew chief and drag racing legend Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta took home the Top Fuel title trophy from Brainerd in 1985.
Grubnic is an 18-year Top Fuel veteran and earned his first career Top Fuel victory in Topeka, Kan. in 2005, becoming the first racer born outside North America to win an NHRA Top Fuel event. He has garnered three NHRA Top Fuel national event victories so far. The always-affable Grubnic is known affectionately by his peers and fans as “Grubby”. During his week off, Grubnic competed in the Sandhills Open Road Challenge in Arnold, Nebraska, where he finished second in the One-Mile Shootout in a Camaro from the Lingenfelter Performance Engineering stables.