K&N's David Rampy Moves to Number One in NHRA Div 3 Super Stock With Win at Columbus
- 6 Oct 2011
Rampy had already put a first round win in the books, with his 1989 Camaro that he runs in GT/HA, back in July. "We had won first round and to be honest about it, I really didn't want to go back," he admitted of his decision to return and complete the event two months later.
The postponed divisional event was run the day before the regularly scheduled NHRA Jegs SportsNationals with the plan to allow all contestants a hit at the track before heading into the remaining elimination rounds. "They [officials] kept having to stop to work on the track on Thursday," he said. "We were supposed to be completely finished with the race by five o'clock and I don't think we started running any elimination rounds until after five. Out of about thirty-two or so cars that were left in the class, only about five or so got down the track for their time run. Everyone else was just blowing the tires off. So then, they decided to give us all another run, since a lot of folks were complaining. It ended up being kinda a big mess." Once they were able to get eliminations underway, Rampy made it past second round and his match up with Jerry Silveus, while there was still good daylight to work with. For third round on, it would be a whole different story. "We were very fortunate to win the race," he said. "I just do not drive good at nighttime; it's just plain and simple. Every now and then I do, but the majority of the time I just don't. I just don't hit the tree as well at night and I know it's because I use a blinder. I live by it and I guess at night time, I die by it." Rampy had a very uncommon .103 reaction time during his third round pairing with Robert Issi, but managed to outdrive him at the stripe with a 10.280 on his 10.27 dial to take advantage of Issi's way under the dial, 9.398 on his 9.43 dial. "He actually should have beat me, but it was a messed up run from the start," Rampy explained. "They [tower] had his dial-in wrong and he staged to the dial-in. I'm sitting there trying to think what to do and thank goodness they didn't count me out and I'm knowing his dial-in is wrong. It's to my advantage, he's supposed to be dialed a 9.43 and they have him on 9.13. I'm wondering do I stage, do I not stage, what do I do? About that time, one of his buddies comes flying up there and gets him to back up. Well, he doesn't realize it's a dial-in problem, he thinks he broke or something. He backs completely off the track. It was such a mess, guy thought they were throwing him out because he was leaking or something." "Well they backed me outta the lights for a minute and then I went on back in and pre-staged," he continued. "That guy was still sitting there, but he finally went on in. I missed the tree and he hit the tree and caught me by about half track and went blowing by me. He did breakout, so I got lucky there." "I didn't get flustered or anything, but here's what I'm thinking happened," he explained. "I'm thinking after all that, this guy is all messed up. So I'm telling myself don't go red and as it turned out the whole starting line thing didn't bother him too much at all." In round four, the nighttime was still giving Rampy troubles on the tree, but luckily for him it also seemed to affect his opponent A.H. Adkins. Rampy was behind at the start by .023, but was able to safely take a nice chunk of the stripe when Adkins apparently could not run the dial. Winning this very important round, Rampy earned a bye into the semi-finals. "I had to run Craig Marshall," Rampy said of the semi-final in Super Stock. "He actually missed the tree a little bit and then he spun, I actually talked to him afterwards, and he got kinda loose so he didn't run his dial-in. That made it a little easier and I did have a better light than him, but the spinning he did helped me. I was actually breaking out that round and was able to get on the brakes. I did go dead-on [10.262 on 10.26 dial]." That moved Rampy on to a very familiar place for him, the final round. By this time, it was very late in the evening and for a race that was planned to end before five, it was now almost eleven PM. Rampy, who points out how much he doesn't like running at night, now found himself not needing to worry so much about his reaction times, thanks to a heads-up final round pairing. "We knew we had him covered," explained Rampy. "He [Johnny Duncan] had been running 10.60's and we had been running 10.20's, so we knew the only way we could lose that round was to make some kind of major error there or the car break or something. I had been complaining about not hitting the tree very good and Barry told me, 'Well don't try to find it now' [laughs] 'Just go back up there and have that same ol' light and I think we will be in good shape.' So I had my bad light and he had a decent light and I was just able to outrun him." The win added to Rampy's extensive list of victories and boosted him to the number one position in the NHRA Division 3 Super Stock standings. Rampy is also currently number three in the National NHRA Super Stock Standings, with a couple races left to claim on the divisional level where he could add to that total. Rampy continues to be adamant in his praise for the products he uses, not only on his Super Stock car, but his Comp Eliminator car. "When you run as many races as we do each year and hope to go as many rounds as you can, you have got to have the best protection you can have on your engines," he noted. "I totally feel comfortable using K&N products, both their oil and air filters. I have been using them for years and they always do the job I need for them to. I really thank the folks at K&N for all they do for drag racing and the sportsman racers." 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. |
