Since Richie Crampton opened the Countdown with a win at Maple Grove Raceway the DHL Kalitta Air Top Fuel dragster has been battling on race day. The young Australian has been strong in qualifying throughout the Countdown and that success continued this weekend at the Vegas NHRA Nationals. Over two days at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Crampton made solid runs and went into race day as the No. 7 qualifier.
For the third time in six races Crampton drew rookie Austin Prock in the first round and unfortunately for the third time it was Prock getting the win light. Crampton took off and was right beside Prock in the first round but his DHL Kalitta Air dragster hazed the tires and Prock kept his dragster right in the middle of the groove.
“We were ready for a long race day today,” said Crampton. “Our runs in qualifying gave us a lot of info and we were also working with teammate Doug Kalitta’s team sharing info. Those guys are tough and we just got a little too aggressive.
Crampton and teammate J.R. Todd are racing commemorative 50th anniversary DHL race cars. The cars were unveiled before the race and during the event fans were thrilled to see the new look race cars.
“We have a great relationship with DHL and I am really proud to represent them. The cars look great and we will be doing everything we can to get this DHL Kalitta Air dragster into the winner’s circle at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona,” added Crampton.
Quotable:
Richie Crampton on wrapping up season in Pomona: “We are going to head to Pomona in two weeks completely focused on winning the last race of the season. We have the DHL specialty car and we also want to finish the season on a high note. It would be great to win the first race and last race of the Countdown.”
Statistics:
Qualified: No. 7 (3.709 sec., 328.22 mph)
Bonus points: 0
Race Details:
First Round
Driver Qual R/T ET MPH
Richie Crampton 7 .080 4.497 195.96
Austin Prock 10 .051 3.743 331.04 (W)
Kalitta Motorsports PR
