CRAMPTON AIDS AND ABETS HIS RIVALS
It’s certainly no secret that Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel racer Richie Crampton works during the week for Morgan Lucas Racing, building dragsters that his on-track rivals are using to try to beat him each race. Crampton’s fingerprints are all over the cars that
Steve Torrence, Billy Torrence, Scott Palmer, Mike Salinas, and Blake Alexander drive.
Crampton said, “At Lucas Fab, we build all the Funny Car headers for all the Kalitta cars, for Cruz Pedregon, for Jim Head’s team with [Jonnie] Lindberg. We’re doing dragster headers now, as well.”
His situation is not unlike that of four-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Eddie Krawiec, who builds and freshens motors and preps bikes at the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson shop at Brownsburg, Ind., and advises teams at the racetrack.
“You can build them. It’s just what you go on and do with them that defines how successful that engine or race car or whatever’s going to be,” Crampton said. “I think you could give every crew chief out here the exact same race car with the exact same components and they’ll figure out a way to run it different than one another. That’s just how it works out here. The ingenuity, the innovations, that’s what makes this sport cool.”
Crampton said the situation doesn’t feel weird.
“Well, it’s kind of funny because with the rules, SFI and NHRA rules on the way these cars have to be constructed, they’re not that different,” he said. “It’s the little one percent details that sets all these cars apart. Everyone builds great stuff. These Bounty Hunter race cars that I drive here at Kalitta are awesome race cars, as well. So it’s just different. It’s not better, not worse. It’s just different.
“It is a weird dynamic for me to climb into someone else’s car, because, of course, for the three years I drove for MLR, I was driving our own product, but now I drive someone else’s. It’s a fast car, too,” Crampton said.
He conceded, “Yeah, it’s kind of weird. I don’t know how many Top Fuel drivers out here have been in this same predicament where they build cars during the week. And it’s obviously not just me building cars at the shop. We have a great team, with Rod Centorbi and Jason Rush and Norm Boutot.
“It’s fun. It’s different, but I like working during the week, so that’s what I do,” Crampton said.
Lucas Fab’s clients rave about the cars, and Crampton said, “Yeah, we’ve got some pretty fast cars. We just won the championship in Australia with one.”