Lucas Oil driver Richie Crampton hopes Denver race day belongs to him

DENVER – As finicky as the air is in the Mile-High City, Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster driver Richie Crampton knows eliminations for the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals on Sunday at Bandimere Speedway will be a crapshoot, so he’s not worried about coming from the bottom half of the field as he chases his fourth victory of the season.

“This place is so different than any other venue at which we race that tomorrow is a whole other day,” Crampton said. “It’s really anyone’s race tomorrow.”

Crampton qualified No. 12 with a pass of 3.980 seconds at 290.44 mph. He’ll square off against Doug Kalitta in the first round after Kalitta qualified No. 5 with a top lap of 3.828 seconds at 317.34 mph.

Thinner air in the Denver altitude wreaks havoc with Top Fuel teams and crew chiefs and even drivers. Less oxygen means less horsepower, and teams try to compensate by spinning the supercharger more and decreasing wing angle.

The Morgan Lucas Racing team, led by crew chief Aaron Brooks, has had a difficult time getting the Lucas Oil dragster to go down the track this weekend, but a conservative run in the third qualifying session, on Saturday, got Crampton comfortably in the field.

“We struggled a little on Friday,” Crampton said. “Driver error cost us Q1, which put us behind the eight ball for the weekend, but Aaron did a good job today. Obviously an A to B run in Q3 with some good information was what we were looking for.”

Crampton and the MLR team hosted two special guests on Saturday: World War II veterans Lucky McGinty and Richard Rohleder spent time with the team through The Greatest Generations Foundation. McGinty was a waist gunner in a B-17, flying 29 missions over Europe with the 95th Bomb Group. Rohleder was part of the glider infantry with the 82nd Airborne Division, fighting in the invasion of Normandy and in the Battle of the Bulge.

McGinty and Rohleder got to spend time with Crampton and U.S. Army veteran Dustin Smith, a crewmember on the Lucas Oil team. The WWII vets also were on the starting line for Q3 and were announced to the crowd, which gave them a warm ovation.

“Everyone here at MLR, myself especially, is just really honored to have two heroes like them in our pit area,” said Crampton, a native of Australia who is a naturalized U.S. citizen. “It was really nice to meet them and hear some of their amazing stories. The courage that those guys have is just truly amazing.”