K&N's David Rampy Rides on to Double Up Victory at NHRA National Event at Englishtown
- Jun 16, 2011
"It was pretty fast there," Rampy notes of Comp Eliminator qualifying sessions. "We were trying to position ourselves on the ladder and every session just got faster and faster. We wound up twelfth and I thought, well I would have rather been a little higher, but that's not a bad spot." Rampy felt based on where he landed on the Comp ladder, and his potential upcoming pairings, that it might be a difficult race to win. "You know what looks one way on paper, isn't always the way things shake out," he said. "If you keep up with the averages, number eight in a thirty-two car field is just a good place, to me, to be. That way for the first two rounds, you are running the slower cars and you go along chances are then you will run guys that are more used up [CIC penalty]."
Over in Super Stock, Rampy is not quite as concerned as to where he qualifies. "Wherever it winds up, that's where it is. Unless, there are cars there that, you know somebody in my class who may be a lot fasters than I am [same class, heads up runs] and try to move around in the field to get away from them." Once Rampy made it through his first round competitor, Carl Miller who broke around mid-track, it was pretty smooth sailing for him right to his ninety-ninth NHRA Comp Eliminator final. "Second round the guy [Dave Hughes] red-lighted against me," he reflected on his Comp Eliminator rounds. "Now he was used up, so I think that puts the pressure on you to try and hit the tree. Third round was the same thing. The guy had lost a lot of index and he red-lighted. Then in fourth round the guy also red-lighted. Now in the final, I had to run Anthony Bertozzi, which is normally a really tough competitor. But when he went to set the trans brake, something happened. I didn't get to talk to Anthony, but I did talk to the guy who owns the car, Vinny Barone. The trans brake didn't hold to start with and he rolled in and put out the top bulb but he never left the starting line." "It just turned out where, you don't make a mistake and you just can't lose the race," he said of his weekend in Comp. "I didn't feel like I did anything spectacular, they made all the mistakes and I was just in the right spot where they made them at." With things going as well as they were for Rampy in Comp Eliminator, it really took any pressure off and allowed him to concentrate even more in his K&N Super Stock entry. "You know this is what we live for and that's the opportunity to go rounds and win in two cars. They run us so fast, as the rounds go, that you really don't have time to think about it. With things in the Comp car just clicking, it allowed me to go up there in the Super Stock car and not be so concerned about the other side of the deal." Rampy was absolutely killer on the tree in his Super Stock GT/HA 1989 Camaro all throughout the rounds, and had each and every opponent covered at the hit. "The car was just real good this weekend and I felt like I was hitting the tree really good," he said. "While I don't look at the qualifying spot much in Super Stock, I actually thought for this time I couldn't have put myself in any worse spot, based on some of the guys I may have to run. I ran a lot of really good racers, but the car was really consistent and it was one of those deals where you could put a dial on it and you felt like it would go out there do what it should." Rampy lined up against Bob Hochrun in the Super Stock final, "Not to take anything away from him, but I knew all the guys that I had run up to that point. I mean I had seen the guy before, but just didn't know any history on him. Somebody did say to me that it was his first NHRA final. Well, I left first and had a good light and then he went red and that was the end of that," he chuckled. The win in Super Stock came first then the Comp victory giving David Rampy his 76th and 77th NHRA National Event wins and the fourth time he has doubled up during a national. "Traditionally I have not had a lot of success there," Rampy said of Englishtown. "My very first ever Super Comp win came there and I think before this weekend I had only won twice there. Normally I don't go there a lot, but I have been over the last several years and we are trying to go to more of the races this year." With the unprecedented success that David has found over his career, he is quick to point out that it's only possible by using nothing but the best products on his race cars and K&N is right at the top of his list. "Those guys at K&N are so great to work with and they really help me out when I need it. I use the K&N oil filters and air filters on both cars, plus the new Racing Glue products. I even have one of their scoops on my Comp Eliminator car. I even use all K&N products on my personal vehicles and my son has a K&N Air Charger Kit on his truck, we wouldn't have anything else but the best that's out there and when it comes to filters, that's K&N." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
