Chris Gulitti has always been a player in the Top Sportsman scene, but until this year that talent was mostly reserved for the Renegades Division. Gulitti, a multi-time divisional winner, finally broke free from the reins of the regional scene and made quite a splash on the national level this year with a season that won’t soon be forgotten.

Gulitti began the year with a runner-up finish to Gary Bingham at the season opening Mardi Gras Nationals in March followed very shortly by his first win one month later at the Summit All-Star Race at Rockingham Dragway. Gulitti got a little revenge with a victory over Bingham and from that moment on he couldn’t be stopped. Gulitti went on to win twice more on the national level at the Texas Nationals and at the Pine Valley Sportsman Nationals and finished the year second in the Renegades Division on the Summit Pro-Am Tour. That incredible season helped earn him Sportsman Driver of the Year honors for 2009.

Thanks to his incredible season Gulitti not only qualified for the inaugural Tournament of Champions to be run at a later date, but he also eliminated four positions from the Top Sportsman ladder thanks to his career defining year. Gulitti will now try to cap his incredible season with a world championship when the Tournament of Champions gets underway.

NAME: Chris Gulitti

DOB: January 17, 1968

HOMETOWN: Spring, TX

CLASS: Top Sportsman, Top Dragster

DIVISION: Renegades

CAREER: Sportsman Driver of the Year in 2009; Two-time national event winner; Summit All-Star Champion in Top Sportsman in 2009

2009: Won Texas Nationals in TS; Won Pine Valley Sportsman Nationals in TS; Won Summit All-Star Race in TS; Runner-up at Mardi Gras Nationals in TS; Finished second in Renegades Summit Pro-Am Tour.

Chris Gulitti

GET TO KNOW CHRIS GULITTI:

You decide to run for President. Who will be your running mate?
Oh, shoot. That’s a tough one. How about Jason Lynch? I chased him all over the country in ’07 and ended up second anyway. (Laughs)

OK, let’s say you’re elected. What law will you change five minutes after the inauguration?
Aw geez, I could get myself in a lot of trouble with that answer. Umm…(Laughs) taxes. We should all…wait, I can’t say anything that would be politically correct. Too many people watching. (Big laugh)

You travel quite a bit. What’s your favorite mom and pop restaurant?
Hmm. (Calls out to his wife) Geri, what’s the name of the restaurant up here on the corner we like to go to? (Waits a moment) Shogun. Japanese. I would order steak and scallops cooked on a hibachi.

Can you name all Seven Dwarfs?
Busted. No way. Dude, I knew there were seven of them, but that’s it.

So, create the eighth dwarf for us. That way you can just make one up.
Wait, my wife’s behind me naming off the 7 dwarfs. Jason Lynch, Marco Abruzzi, Bob Gulitti, Chris Nyerges, Lynn Butcher…how many do I have left? (Laughs) How many did I name off? Tom Donovan, for sure. (Still laughing) Did I name seven 7?

If you had a time machine that could take you anywhere in history, where would you go?
Where would I want to go? My wife’s present, I couldn’t answer that question. (Huge laugh) I’d want to go back to high school. I went to Spring High School. (Spring, Texas) I live, I don’t know, about an eighth of a mile from where I went to junior high and high school.

So, in high school, you were the guy most likely to_______?
(Immediately responds) Go racing.

Then you were the guy least likely to_____?
Succeed, I want to say. I don’t know why. (Laughs)

If we went out right now and sat in your car, what would we hear on the CD player?
Buckcherry. Yeah.

Talk about a band that you wish would take you on tour with them.
A band I would tour with. (Long pause) Nickleback.

What would the tour be like?
Disoriented. (Big laugh)

What would you wear to a costume party?
A costume…umm, it ain’t Tarzan! I don’t freakin’ know! (Laughs) Umm, Casper. I’d be wearing a sheet and some pillows, because I’m a skinny little guy right now.

Who makes you laugh so hard you just about cry?
It’s a pair of guys, Steve and Kirk Harvey. They’re brothers. They don’t know when to stop, and they’re intelligent so you can follow them pretty easily, and they’ll lead you right into total BS. They’re great guys and they’re hysterically funny. They’re great to hang out with. We go divisional racing with them quite often.

Chris Gulitti

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
It’s racing, c’mon! (Huge laugh) Hmm…smoking cigarettes.

What is a gift that you always asked Santa for, but he never gave you?
Motorcycle, as a kid.

What TV show will you stop everything to watch?
Oh, you want to laugh? What the hell is the name of that show with Will Smith? Old show…Fresh Prince. No doubt.

When you were a kid, who was your favorite superhero?
Umm, the Underdog.

So, if you had a superpower, which one would you want?
Double 0 and dead-on every time.

Without looking, what’s in your fridge right now?
Umm, definitely milk, lots of milk. Grape juice for sure. Deli meat, and beef tips ready to be made. I don’t do much of the cooking, though. I’m not a big cook at all. We’d starve if it were up to me. (Laughs)

So, if you and your wife opened a restaurant, what would you serve?
With my wife being from the South, it would definitely be southern home cookin’. Biscuits, gravy…fried. Anything that could hurt you. (Laughs)

What would you name the place?
Umm, GG’s. My wife’s initials are GG. Her first name is Geri.

Talk about an athlete you would like to trade places with for 1 day.
Wow, some of the greatest athletes from football are now freakin’ all pretzeled up. Umm, Mike Tyson for sure because I would’ve done it a whole lot different than he did.

Let’s say you’ve been asked to make a commercial. What would you like to sell?
Definitely high-performance cars.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Oh, wow. Take what you know and do it for yourself. My uncle told me that.

Talk about the holiday you love the most.
Thanksgiving. Well, we’re Italian, so it’s very common for us to have turkey and lasagna on the same day. We have a big family and we normally meet up at my house, my brother’s, or my mom and dad’s. My sister, my brother, my mom, and myself all live within 10 miles of each other. We’d have fried turkey, lasagna, and definitely stuffed mushrooms as appetizers. And then Geri’s side of the family always does the dressing, stuffing, you know, the normal stuff. Normally, we’re bailing to leave for a race that weekend. You’ve always got a big race on that weekend, actually. (Laughs) Normally, we eat and run. When we get the opportunity, we’re going.

If you’ve ever had “one of those days”, what’s the first food you grab from the fridge?
I would prefer to have a big bowl of linguini with clam sauce.

If you could’ve lived in another time, where would you have lived?
Oh, definitely the 50s and the 60s for the hot rodding. I was born in ’68, so I missed the muscle car era. I didn’t grow up in it.

What sort of movies do you like to watch?
I don’t like scary movies, but I do like comedies. How about “Used Cars” with Kurt Russell? That’s funny stuff to me, but my wife says I have a twisted character. (Laughs)

What’s your favorite section in the grocery store?
The sweets, like cupcakes, donuts, and brownies. I burn them off as soon as I put ‘em in me. (Laughs)

What person who is no longer living do you wish you could’ve met?
How about John Belushi? I love his work on Saturday Night Live. I love “Animal House” and back when I was younger I wasn’t supposed to watch it on cable, but it’s funny as hell when you’re hiding.

You’re being interviewed now. Who would you like to interview?
Umm…John Travolta, because of the level of success he’s achieved and the heartache he’s had to deal with at the same time. The guy’s good, he’s really, really good.

If you were writing your autobiography today, what would be the first line in the book?
“This road wasn’t easy.” It took a lot of hard work, time, effort, sacrifice, and compromise. In my opinion, I’m about 35% of the way to where I’m headed.

When will you know you’ve arrived where you want to be?
Well, I won’t have to worry about going to work every day.

Are you the kind of person who sits in traffic or tries to find an alternate route?
I’m a feeder hopper, absolutely. I will go by your ass. (Laughs) Everyone else might not understand what a feeder hopper is, due to the fact that we’re one of the few cities (Houston) that have feeder roads.

In five words or less, what is the secret to life?
Be honest, true, loyal, and dedicated.

If you could be on any magazine cover, except for a racing publication, which would you want it to be?
(Long pause) People. The article title would be, “Most Unlikely.” (Huge laugh)