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MADISON, Ill. --
"The St. Louis Carpenters Union has been supporting NHRA drag racing for many years, and it's an honor for me and our Kalitta Motorsports team to represent them this weekend in St. Louis," Grubnic, a 45-year old resident of Ennis, Mont., said. "They're going to bringing out a lot of guests to Gateway this weekend, and we're looking forward to meeting them and hopefully showing them a great performance with our race car on the drag strip." "The St. Louis Carpenters Union is looking forward to the NHRA event at GIR this weekend, and the opportunity to promote its 21,000 union carpenters who live and work in the St. Louis region," John Holzer, Director of Jurisdiction & Research, said. "Like Kalitta Motorsports, the Carpenters Union and our members possess the skills, desire and know-how necessary to be a winners and succeed in our profession. Sponsorship of Dave Grubnic and the Kalitta Motorsports Top Fueler gives us a unique chance to reach out to potential new members in an exciting environment while being a part of one of NHRA's top teams." Grubnic was the Top Fuel runner-up in 2004 at GIR. He was a quarterfinalist at the event last season. Grubnic and his Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta will also compete in the "NHRA on Dirt" event Thursday night, May 1, at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill. The event features an autograph session with Grubnic, Kalitta, and other participating stars of the NHRA POWERade Drag Series that begins at 5:30 p.m. (CT). Grubnic and Kalitta and their straight-line racing cohorts will take to the dirt oval of Tri-City Speedway at approximately 7:15 p.m. Tri-City Speedway is located eight miles north if GIR on Hwy. 203. At the previous NHRA national event last weekend at Atlanta Dragway, Grubnic and his team, who flew the colors for DHL in final eliminations, qualified in the No. 8 position for Sunday's race day. Unfortunately, Grubnic was on the losing end of a very close side-by-side race in the opening round against Antron Brown (4.597 seconds to 4.580 sec.). Grubnic is currently in 9th place in POWERade Top Fuel championship points. In early 2004, Grubnic was hired to drive for legendary team owner Connie "the Bounty Hunter" Kalitta and Kalitta Motorsports. In the fall of '04, Grubnic won the lucrative and coveted Budweiser Shootout in Las Vegas, becoming only the fourth driver in the special event's history to win its $100,000 prize in his first attempt. Grubnic picked up an emotional first NHRA national event win in May, 2005 in Topeka, Kans., to become the first non-native North American to win a Top Fuel trophy. He has one other event victory to date, the 2006 running of the famed Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. The O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals begins Friday for the nitro-fueled classes with two qualifying sessions at 4:00 p.m. (CT) and 6:30 p.m. Two more qualifying opportunities take place Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The top sixteen qualified cars will race Sunday in final eliminations beginning at 11:00 a.m.
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