Langdon Takes Camry to Finals At NHRA New England Nationals
EPPING, NH – Shawn Langdon earned three round victories on the way to advancing to the Funny Car final at the 
NHRA New England Nationals at the New England Dragway, Sunday. It marked Langdon’s 32nd career final round in Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competition.
Langdon opened up eliminations with a match-up against Jim Campbell where he had the starting line advantage and never trailed for the win. That set up a tough second-round assignment versus current Funny Car point leader Robert Hight with Langdon earning the lane choice by making the quicker first-round pass. Hight had a small starting line advantage, but Langdon had the lead by 330 feet. He never trailed from there on for the win, registering his quickest pass of the weekend with a 3.999.
From there, Langdon advanced to the semifinals against Tim Wilkerson. Wilkerson had a starting line advantage and held the lead until just beyond half-track when Langdon chased him down, powering past to earn the victory by 0.011 seconds with a 4.006-second run, despite Wilkerson registering his best run of the weekend.
Langdon would square off against Matt Hagan in the finals in a match-up of the two most dominant cars throughout eliminations – and two of just three to run passes in the 3’s. With track temperatures at their highest of the day, both drivers had strong lights with Hagan inching ahead early. He would never trail, winning a close final round, 4.014-4.046.
“We just made some great runs today in our Global Electronic Technology Toyota,” said Langdon, who ran four passes at 4.046 or better on the day. “These Global guys made some really good calls to give me a great car. We were able to go some rounds at a critical time of the year as we start to get closer to the Countdown. Each of the runs we were able to do what we were trying to accomplish with the car. Obviously, we had a tough race with Robert Hight in the second round and the car really responded well. We just need to keep progressing and keep making moves. Our Camry is responding well and the guys have been working really hard. We’re heading in the right direction at the right time.”
Langdon’s Kalitta Motorsports Camry Funny Car teammate J.R. Todd was able to advance to the second round today. After winning the pole position on Saturday, Todd received a first round bye before advancing to meet Wilkerson in round two.Todd had a few ticks on the tree, but started to drift out of the groove toward the centerline, giving Wilkerson the win.
After qualifying second, Richie Crampton led the Toyota Top Fuel contingent as he advanced to the semifinals today. In round one against Audrey Worm, Crampton had the starting line advantage and led wire-to-wire for the victory. After receiving a second-round bye, Crampton lined up against eventual winner Steve Torrence in the semifinals. Torrence had the advantage at the starting line, but Crampton moved into the lead by the 330-foot mark before hazing his tires, giving Torrence the win.
Antron Brown also earned a round win in Top Fuel today over Cameron Ferre before a second-round loss to Scott Palmer, where Brown had a sizeable starting line advantage, but was up in smoke quickly. Doug Kalitta rounded out the Toyota contingent by falling in the first round against Terry McMillen.
After taking next weekend off, the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series kicks off the three-race Western Swing in Denver, July 19-21.
