Great news from SEMA today as Optima Batteries announced that they are going to be the primary sponsor on David Grubnic’s Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel Dragster in 2012. Grubnic, the fan favorite Aussie driver will compete at 16 NHRA Full Throttle events under the Optima banner and their truck and trailer will also be adorned with Optima logos. Grubnic was certainly excited by the announcement, “We are absolutely thrilled and honored to be representing Optima Batteries as a primary sponsor on our dragster next year,” said Grubnic. “Optima Batteries have proven to be the best high-performance batteries on the market, and we’re very excited about them becoming the primary sponsor on our high-performance dragster.”

We think this is a great deal for both parties as Grubnic is a guy who bleeds nitro and will represent the Optima brand well and Optima has a cool program that will follow the team to the races and have interactive displays, contingency programs for racers in many categories, and other innovative programs for both racers and fans.

Here is the full release from Optima – A Hearty Congrats From BangShift to Dave Grubnic, Kalitta Motorsports, and Optima Batteries!

Optima Batteries, a worldwide leader in high-performance batteries, will continue and grow its partnership with Kalitta Motorsports by becoming a primary sponsor for Dave Grubnic in the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The announcement was made Tuesday at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Grubnic will drive the Optima Batteries Top Fuel dragster at 16 national events in the 23-event NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series next season. The team’s tractor-trailer will also be adorned with Optima Batteries branding for the entire 2012 season.

Optima Batteries will continue to be an associate sponsor in 2012 on the other Team Kalitta NHRA hot rods, the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car driven by Jeff Arend, the Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster driven by Doug Kalitta, and the Tequila Patrón Toyota Camry Funny Car driven by 2012 Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award candidate Alexis DeJoria. Optima Batteries joined the Kalitta Motorsports family in 2009.

The Optima Batteries team has built an extensive and integrated program to support its NHRA presence in conjunction with the growth of the Kalitta team partnership. With plans for support at each national event, Optima will feature education and entertainment for race fans, a contingency program to reward racers for running Optima batteries, and a program to educate and award retail sales associates utilizing the Kalitta Motorsports VIP hospitality area. More than 1,200 attendees participated in the Optima retail sales associates training program during the 2011 season.

“We are absolutely thrilled and honored to be representing Optima Batteries as a primary sponsor on our dragster next year,” said Grubnic. “Optima Batteries have proven to be the best high-performance batteries on the market, and we’re very excited about them becoming the primary sponsor on our high-performance dragster.””We are proud to take this next step in our partnership with the legendary Kalitta family. Their winning history is a perfect match for Optima Batteries,” said Cam Douglass, director of product development and marketing for Optima Batteries. “Our relationship continues to demonstrate that Optima batteries are proven to perform in the most demanding applications.”

Grubnic, who began driving Top Fuel dragsters in the United States in 1995, earned his first victory with Kalitta Motorsports in 2005 in Topeka, becoming the first racer born outside North America to win an NHRA Top Fuel event.

Grubnic is in seventh place in NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship Top Fuel points (2,220) with one event remaining in the 2011 campaign.