Richie Crampton is scarcely a household name in Adelaide, and I’m going to take a stab in the dark and assay that he’s basically unknown to all but a small fraction of Australians, even those who – like me – pay close attention to American motorsport. Yet, in the last twelve months, Crampton has worked his way towards the very top of one of the most difficult disciplines in global motorsport: drag racing.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) runs America’s number one drag racing series, for four disciplines – Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock motorcycle – and in 2015 the series, home to drag racing’s biggest names, visits 24 different drag strips. It’s big business, with giant sponsorship arrangements from global companies like DHL, Powerade, NAPA Auto Parts, Patron Tequila, MAC Tools, U.S. Army, Lucas Oil, Harley Davidson and more. It’s big business.
In terms of popularity, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is second only to NASCAR’s top-tier Sprint Cup Series. It’s that big and Richie Crampton has carved himself out a niche in the highly-competitive Top Fuel class. It’s been quite a meteoric rise for Crampton: he started his American odyssey working on cars, and now he’s racing them with great success, claiming two race wins in 2014, his first year as a full-time driver in the sport’s top class. The most important of the pair of victories was his triumph at the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals.
Run at Indianapolis on Labour Day weekend every year, the U.S. Nationals is to NHRA drivers and fans what the Indianapolis 500 is to IndyCar or the Daytona 500 to NASCAR, It’s the biggest event on the calendar year-in, year-out, and has been won by the best drivers in the history of drag racing, including John Force – the Peter Brock of drag racing – Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme, Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon. If you win at Indianapolis, you’re instantly amongst the sport’s greats.
Qualifying fourth fastest, Crampton beat ‘The Sarge’ Tony Schumacher in his semi-final, and took out his first U.S. Nationals trophy with a narrow victory over Steve Torrence. How fast did he roar down the quarter-mile at O’Reilly Raceway Park? A lazy 327.98 miles per hour. What’s that in kilometres you ask? 527.832!
Crampton is just about criminally a stranger in terms of popularity and press. We hear plenty about our overseas stars like reigning IndyCar Series champion Will Power, former Formula One star and now Porsche World Endurance Championship pilot Mark Webber, MotoGP rider Jack Miller, and, of course, our current rising F1 star Daniel Riccardo, but not much about Crampton’s exploits. It’s a shame, because he’s moved quickly to the upper echelons of a very tough sport, and seems set for a huge career.
Even if you don’t believe drag racing is a nowhere near as difficult as other, longer forms of motorsport, you must surely be able to respect the reflexes of these guys – we’re talking about mere fractions of a second when the lights go off, and they must accelerate from a standing start – and their ability to be able to handle a remarkably light car that basically explodes from zero to up to five hundred kilometres an hour in scarcely more than the blink of an eye.
The winning driver must do it four times each race weekend, with absolute perfection, to win an event. That means no spinning the tyres or jumping the start. It means knowing exactly when to accelerate. The different between a good start and getting a red light is so small a time measurement is isn’t even funny. To get it right, time and time again, is no mean feat.
I don’t think there’s another motorsports category where a race can be won or lost in the first quarter-second of an event. In Formula One, IndyCar or MotoGo racing, a bad start can cost you, but there’s always a chance to get it back. There are laps in hand to make up the distance and positions lost. Certainly that’s true of long distance sports car racing, too. Drag racing? Not so much. Unless your opponent blows an engine, a bad start is curtains.
Whilst it hasn’t been the most encouraging start to 2015 for Crampton – he’s made it out of the second round just one this year, at the most recent event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on the unique 4-wide drag strip – but his most recent pass was his fastest, at 324.12 miles per hour, and as the series picks up steam heading into the summer months, don’t be surprised if Richie Crampton becomes a real household name in Australia. Not before time, either.
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