Chasing NHRA Division 3 points for 2011 in both Competition Eliminator and Super Stock, David Rampy added even more points to the board during the NHRA Div 3 event at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky when he put his 1932 Bantam in the Comp Eliminator Winner's Circle and nearly doubled up when he also made it to the final with his 1989 Camaro in Super Stock for a runner-up finish.
David Rampy's Comp Eliminator 1932 Bantam
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"Boy it was hot," reflected Rampy on the weekend's weather conditions. "The track was a little tricky, so we were able to make a few adjustments. We did test on Thursday prior to the race, so I think that gave us, well not an advantage but gave us an opportunity to make some extra runs. So we were able to have a little better tune-up for the conditions."
In the Comp Eliminator class, Rampy put his Racers Edge/K&N Bantam in the number three spot. "I felt like that was a decent spot to be in," he said. "I had to run fellow K&N racer Greg Kamplain first round and was able to get by him and off to second round where I had to run Doug Warren in his A/ED dragster. Well Doug redlighted so that let me get on by him and into round three."
Meanwhile, Rampy was also tearing it up in Super Stock where he had sent home Henson, Emmons and Hellenberg during the first three rounds. In round four, Rampy found himself with a heads up run against fellow GT/HA class competitor Aaron Disinger and based on their qualifying numbers and over three tenths of a second advantage, Rampy knew that he only needed a decent safe green to take the round win.
Rampy's third round in Comp Eliminator was somewhat of a tough one. "I had to run Steve Ambrose. I was just able to sneak by him, it was a really tight race. I missed the tree a little bit and thank goodness he missed the tree."
His quite uncharacteristic .064 reaction time caused Rampy to not be able to take as much advantage of Ambrose's even later .090 light. Both competitors fought hard for the stripe, trying to take as little as possible for the win. When the tough battle ended, the victory belonged to Rampy, but not without the consequence of taking a CIC hit of .04 with him into the semi-finals.
"At three cars, there was a bye on the other side of the ladder, so I had to run Rick Brown," said Rampy of the Comp Semifinal. "Rick had a .06 CIC to my .04 and I felt like that was going to be a real close race."
Both Brown and Rampy had their best lights of eliminations; Brown gave it his all with a .001 to Rampy's .012. Rampy knew that on the other side of the ladder, with his bye into the final, was another A/EA class car, driven by Mike Farrell. Should Rampy get by his round with Brown, that would set up for a very interesting heads up Comp Eliminator final round. Because of that, Rampy didn't have to worry about any additional CIC hit he may take trying to beat Brown.
And it worked. Rampy did what he had to do to beat Brown and for any other final, would have taken another CIC hit along with him.
"Whenever you have a class heads up run in Comp Eliminator with another car just like yours, the index just goes back to the standard index," he explained. "So it doesn't matter, for example, if you have been fifty-five under and he's only been forty-five under, it doesn't matter. All of that is wiped clean for that match up. So I knew if we could get by Brown, no matter how fast we had to go, it would go back to the original index for the final."
Rampy was also making headway to another final over in Super Stock where he used a beautiful .002 light to take a .016 starting line advantage over Dan Kyle and stay on the good side of the double breakout in round five. In the semifinals, he outdrove Irvin Johns at both ends of the track, giving himself a chance to double up at the NHRA Div event.
He had his toughest Super Stock round of the weekend in the final against Mike Walter. Although Rampy had him doubled up on the tree, he was unable to match Walter's dead on the dial 10.726 run, with only a mere .007 separating them at the finish line.
But for Rampy he wouldn't come away from the event empty handed, he had already wrapped up one Wally in Comp Eliminator. "Yeah, I did have a perfect light," reflected Rampy with a smile as he spoke of the Comp Final with Mike Farrell. "We did have him covered a little bit, you know index-wise we had him covered. He went red and trust me, I didn't mean to be [laughs] perfect on the tree 'cause I knew I had him covered by about four or five hundredths."
"I just wanted to be solid but I will tell ya that the sunlight was bad at that point," he continued. "I was running the right lane, and when you looked from the right lane towards the left you would look almost right at the sun. I was struggling a little bit to find [the point to look at on the tree], but sometimes when you find the tree like that, you are struggling to see it, but you will actually concentrate a little bit harder to make sure you don't miss the tree. I'm pretty sure that's why I went double-oh."
Going into Indy for the U.S. Nationals, Rampy is sitting fairly good on the divisional level after the success with both of his K&N entries. He currently holds down the number two NHRA Div 3 spot in Super Stock and number four in Competition Eliminator.
With little time to keep his two cars fresh between the numerous rounds he put on them at the divisional and immediately heading for Indy and only a day to spare, Rampy notes the importance of using K&N oil filter and air filters. "You just have to have certain things on your car that you know are doing their jobs, holding and sealing things as they should be and protecting these high dollar motors," he commented. "K&N products play such an important role in all my successes on the track and not only am I proud to be associated with them, their products more than speak for themselves."
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