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Rampy wins 22nd annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Summer Nationals.
However one wants to look at it, some racers just have certain tracks they almost seem to "own". Such is the case with David Rampy, one of the most successful sportsman competitor's on the NHRA circuit, and his "track" looks to be Heartland Park Topeka, in Topeka, Kansas.
Rampy competes in two categories on the NHRA circuit, Stock and Competition Eliminator.
When Rampy rolled into the most recent event, the 22nd annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Summer Nationals, he had already been victorious on seven previous occasions and several other final round appearances at the event.
Rampy, like many others, competes in two categories on the NHRA circuit, Stock and Competition Eliminator. Much like many other events, he was going rounds in both cars.
"I always tell people that the enjoyment I get out of it anyway is just driving both cars," he explained. "So naturally when you can go a bunch of rounds in both cars, it's just an awesome feeling. You're jumping out of one and into the other and you really don't have a lot of time to think about a lot of stuff and you just do it all naturally."
After his 331ci engine failed, causing an early exit for Rampy in his Comp Eliminator '32 Bantam during the previous event in Atlanta, the car was now fixed up with his smaller 323ci spare engine and ready for qualifying at Topeka.
"The spare engine is a little bit smaller, so we can actually take a little weight out of the car. We put the new motor in and went out for the first qualifying run and it just made an awesome run," said Rampy.
"There are just some races where things fall into place," he continued. "I felt like we were one of the fastest cars there, except for Bruno Massel. Of course the air got really bad and being naturally aspirated it really hurts. It hurts everybody except those who have some type of supercharger, turbocharger or whatever it may be."
Rampy felt that Massel would be the one guy he would really have to beat and with being on opposite sides of the ladder, that chance wouldn't come until the final.
"When Bruno broke during the quarterfinals, that kind of opened the door up a little bit wider," Rampy added. "Last year that is who I ran in the finals and he beat me, so I was looking forward to us meeting up again in the final."
Rampy was also doing very well in his The Racers Edge/K&N F/SA 1969 Camaro and made it all the way to the quarterfinals in Stock, when Nick Folk just nipped him by four thousandths of a second at the stripe, in an excellent drag race.
But it was Rampy's 1932 Bantam that would carry him to the finals in Comp Eliminator and a first time ever match up with Lou Ficco, Jr, who has been on a winning streak of his own lately.
"I had run the left lane all day and in the final I didn't have lane choice and he put me in the right lane," reflected Rampy. "And last year, I red-lighted in the right lane in the final. I was thinking about that. You know you need to have a good light, but that's that fine line that you're concerned with."
You don't win seventy-two previous NHRA National events and not understand the visualization of each round that it takes to get there.
"I made a couple of tiny adjustments to make sure I would go green in the final and it worked out well," he continued. "It went down about like I thought it would. I felt like we were real close in ET and the cars were close. It was going to come down to who got the better light."
Rampy nailed it on the head and his opponent at the starting line and it was pretty must over from there after his .009 to Ficco's .065 reaction time.
Sailing on to his seventy-third NHRA National Event win and now eight of those at the NHRA Summer Nationals Topeka event, Rampy was so pleased to be able to grab another Wally for all of his racing partners.
"K&N, you know they support us and this is part of the way we support them and give back," he said. "It makes a difference to me when you have people that help you and believe in you like K&N does with us. When you can deliver for them, it just makes you feel a little bit better."
Rampy will have one weekend off to enjoy his latest victory before heading out on a tough four week eastern swing, beginning with the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, June 3-6.
It took Jared Umbenhauer a few races to get up to speed in the Sportsman division at Big Diamond Raceway in Schuylkill Haven, Penn.
Jared Umbenhauer started his auto racing career in quarter midgets when he was 6 years old
Broken motors and mechanical failures relegated him to a couple disappointing finishes in the first two races of the season.
He was 20th in the opening night race and followed that up with a 28th place finish a week later.
But his team put a new motor in his car - actually the old motor from the car he raced last year at Big Diamond Raceway - and he has posted three podium finishes, including winning a race on April 23.
"The first couple races were frustrating because there was nothing we were doing wrong," said the 18-year-old Umbenhauer. "It's just weird stuff happening. After we put in the old motor, it gave me some confidence. We know this one is a good piece. We know it's going to stay together. It's going to stay under me for a while."
Umbenhauer started on the pole in the April 23 race. He didn't get a great start, though and fell to second place on the first lap.
"On the initial start, the guy on the outside got passed me," said Umbenhauer, a senior at Eastern Lebanon County High School in Pennsylvania. "For eight laps I was following him. I was taking my time, waiting for him to mess up. I got him back on the top and from there on, I led the whole way."
He followed up his win with a pair of third-place finishes and was 13th place in the Sportsman standings at Big Diamond Raceway after the races on May 21. Doug Hendricks of Orwigsburg, Penn., was leading the Sportsman standings with 682 points. Umbenhauer was 231 points out of first.
"It's early," Umbenhauer said. "I got plenty of time."
Umbenhauer, who lives in Richland, Penn., started his auto racing career in quarter midgets when he was 6 years old. He made an interesting switch to BMX and raced bikes for a couple years before returning to cars. His older brother got into modifieds and the two worked on his car until Jared Umbenhauer was old enough to race his own car.
"When my brother turned 16, he was old enough to race," Jared Umbenhauer said. "My brother got a sportsman modified and I was helping him out on weekends. When I got old enough, then I started."
Jared Umbenhauer said he would eventually like to race on one of the NASCAR Modified tours, but he wants to win a Sportsman championship first. He was 14th and won one race in the Sportsman division at Big Diamond Raceway last year.
"We just want to maybe get three wins, and top five in points would be nice," Umbenhauer said. "It's been up and down, but we've been racing pretty good."
K&N provides mostly product support for Umbenhauer's race team.
"I've always used K&N filters," said Tom Umbenhauer, Jared's dad. "Anything helps with a family-run race team."
Rally car racing puts the "X" in extreme automobile racing. It's a motorsport that requires a very unique set of skills, which makes it a huge fan favourite at the X-Games. And, North American Rally Champion Andrew Comrie-Picard proved once again why he sits at the very pinnacle of the sport by winning the very demanding Oregon Trail Rally. Comrie-Picard theToronto, Ontario racer, and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey, driving in their NOS Energy Mitsubishi Evolution led almost the entire event on the way to their win. It was in fact the first time in Rally America history that the podium was an all Mitsubishi affair.
Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey, driving in their NOS Energy Mitsubishi Evolution
Rally racing is all-season motorsport that sees drivers and co-drivers take modified road cars to the very limits as they traverse over courses covering hundreds of miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads, or slick mud and extreme heat. The Oregon Trail Rally took place over 100 miles of competition on a course that that threw pretty much all of that at the racers this year, except perhaps the extreme heat. The conditions that make this race so difficult to overcome though are the very reasons why it's so supremely satisfying when you win. This year, by the end of the day two, 24 out 64 teams that entered were gone.
"The Oregon rally has a wide variety of roads over three days, from tarmac and broken tarmac at Portland International Raceway on Friday, to tight, twisty high-altitude work on Saturday, to wide-open 120 plus miles per hour runs through silt beds on Sunday. You have to do well on all the different sections to win it, and I'm happy we were strong throughout," remarked Comrie-Picard.
With this victory Comrie-Picard is now tied for fourth place with Dave Mirra in defending his Rally America Championship.
"This year there are no 'drops' in the Rally America Championship - every event counts. Last year we were leading at this point, but this year we crashed out on one event and had a driveline failure in another, so we're in fourth. There are only two events left so it will be an effort to win the championship, but you never know what's going to happen to the other guys, and we never give up."
We wondered what challenged Comrie-Picard most and what gave him the most gratification - rally car racing, drifting, or competing at the X-Games?
"That's an interesting question. Each of those competitions is different, but there's interesting crossover too. Rally and X-Games use a similar car and driving style. Drifting and X Games are both super-intense short-format races. Rally is about speed, drift about style and speed, and X-Games about speed with some style," explained Comrie-Picard.
"I like all of them to be honest, and developing my skills in each helps with the others. I'm really excited right now about the addition of SuperRally to the X-Games, and the three national-level, wheel-to-wheel Rallycrosses we'll be doing in New Jersey in the fall. Think of the X-Games rally, but with six cars wheel-to-wheel. It's going to be sensational."
"K&N has been a longtime partner with our team and we value the relationship," commented Comrie-Picard.
"I use their air filters exclusively, and frankly, have done so for the last fifteen years, even before we had a direct relationship. For what we do, through silt and dirt and sand and water, there's nothing better."
K&N Air Intake Installed on 2009 Chevy Cobalt SS 2.0L Turbo
Dyno Chart for 2008, 2009 and 2010 Chevy Cobalt SS 2.0L Turbo
The very impressive Chevrolet Cobalt SS is a front-wheel-drive compact car that is comfortable, economical and fun to drive. Chevy released their first 2.0 L Ecotec LNF turbocharged Cobalt SS in 2008 to replace the supercharged engine offered from 2005 to 2007. Tight handling, powerful brakes, excellent acceleration and a great sound system set the Chevy Cobalt SS 2.0L Turbo in a class of its own.
K&N Air Intake System for 2008, 2009 and 2010 Chevy Cobalt SS 2.0L Turbo
Although the 260 horsepower turbo engine puts out an adequate amount of power, K&N wanted to increase that power with the introduction of their 69-4518TTK performance air intake kit. The 69-4518TTK is designed for 2008, 2009 and 2010 Chevy Cobalt SS 2.0L Turbo models and completely replaces the factory airbox and intake housing. K&N air intake system 69-4518TTK uses a mandrel-bent aluminum intake tube to lower airflow restriction attached to a high-flow K&N cotton air filter (RC-4470).
K&N air intake 69-4518TTK offers the Chevy Cobalt SS more horsepower and excellent filtration. K&N Dyno testing revealed a 12.2 horsepower boost at 4600 rpm with the use of this simple performance modification.
Temperatures under the hood of a Chevy Cobalt can be very high because of the engine. K&N's 69-4518TTK is equipped with a powder coated heat shield to help reduce the amount of hot engine air that enters the air filter.
Installation of the 69-4518TTK performance air intake system is very simple with K&N's installation instruction sheets. A typical install only takes 90 minutes and can be done with hand tools found in most households. Check out the Chevy Cobalt SS install video for more information about installation of K&N's performance intake system or K&N's Chevy Cobalt SS feature video for highlights and benefits of the 69-4518TTK air intake kit.
There was drama aplenty going into round four eliminations in Competition Eliminator at 40th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor at Firebird Raceway in Boise, Idaho. Defending champion Jeff Lane, the Shoreline, Washington racer was paired up with Rob Harrison, who had never been to a final round at Firebird. Harrison had a 0.17 CIC penalty and Lane was looking at a 0.05 penalty. Harrison had the horsepower edge, but Lane, as has long been his reputation, had been deadly on the tree all day. Yet it ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, as Harrison red-lighted, adding to Lane's total victory booty and handing him back-to-back wins at the event.
K&N's help with hood scoop and airpan development had Hancock and Lane Racing ready to compete out of the gate this year, according to Jeff Lane.
"We have been thrashing nonstop since mid season last year," said Lane. "We were sorting bugs out of our new Cobalt last year and finally got a handle on things at the World Finals in Pomona. With help from K&N on our hood-scoop development and airpans, along with finding ways to make good power over the winter months, we were ready out of the gate this year. The track and personnel at Firebird raceway are first rate and the starting line had great traction, and we kept throwing everything at it we could."
"Rob is a great racer and he is really fast. He already had hit the J/Altered index permanently, and he told me after the final round that he knew if we both had green lights that he would have to eat more index if he wanted to win the race against us. I guess our racing reputation of having great reaction times sometimes helps."
"I really do want to thank K&N for their support and help, all the people are easy to work with and very knowledgeable," continued Lane.
"Jonathan (Fiello) in product design made us a really fast hood scoop design. It is not only ultra lightweight, but very functional with low drag. Bob Harris always responds immediately to our every needs, and I can't say enough about Steve Williams. Not only is he a first class guy, but he is also one of the best Super Class racers in the business."
"Our K&N oil filters are second to none on our 10,500 rpm, SB-2 Chevrolet racing engines. And the air intake systems on our tow vehicles keep our engines running great."
