Dodgy Englishtown track delivers bad news to Lucas Oil pro Richie Crampton

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Very few nitro cars managed to make it down the right lane of Old Bridge Township Raceway Park Sunday morning, and reigning Auto Club Rookie of the Year Richie Crampton was no exception, relinquishing his Toyota NHRA Summernationals title early when he smoked the tires in Round 1 of eliminations.

“Everyone tried to calm their tune-ups down, even the cars in the left lane, which was obviously better, but we didn’t do enough,” Crampton said. “We had a lot to live up to this weekend being the defending Toyota race champions, but we didn’t give it much of a chance. It’s upsetting.”

Although having a fairly equal surface is best for competitive racing, Crampton was quick to point out that if his Lucas Oil team had qualified better than 11th overall, they would have had lane choice and most likely a first-round win.

“When you see a pattern of results where one lane is winning just about every race or where you need the car in the better lane to have a major issue to even have a chance, the first thing you think of is the fact you’d really like to have lane choice,” Crampton said. “It’s disappointing for the team and really bad for the fans, but we should have done better in qualifying and we wouldn’t be in this spot.

“The NHRA Safety Safari does an awesome job week after week getting the playing field as level as possible. Sometimes there’s only so much they can do.”

By the numbers, Crampton’s up-in-smoke and drifting 9.477-second pass at 75.71 mph was no match for Brittany Force’s steady 3.848 at 316.01 mph. After gaining a slight edge at the starting line — .081-second reaction time to Force’s .091 — the Lucas car immediately spun its tires.

The good news for Crampton and his teammates is the fact they won’t have long to stew over this result as the NHRA Mello Yello tour quickly heads to New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., for next weekend’s NHRA New England Nationals.