Steve Harker has become the first Aussie to win an NHRA World Championship taking out the 2014 Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Funny Car title.
In a dominant weekend capturing three Wallys, Harker took the event wins in the postponed Pep Boys Carolina Nationals and the NHRA Nationals to secure the first NHRA Championship for a non-North American born driver.
In the delayed Pep Boys Carolina Nationals, Harker outran Dale Cox Jr. in the final posting a run of 5.510, 263.77 to Cox's 5.713, 250.32. Earlier he beat Mark Rogers and Tony Bogolo in the early rounds then won over Dale Brand in the semis with a 5.545 second pass at 263.10 mph.
During the final of the NHRA Nationals Harker met John Lombardo Jr. who had the starting line advantage, but was up in smoke right off the finish line. Harker posted a career best ET of 5.429 at 267.69 for his second National event win of the weekend and his third National event in a row.
In the preceding rounds Harker eliminated John Fiorini and Sean Bellemuer before clinching the 2014 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Championship in a semi final winning 5.454-second pass at 267.91 mph against Dale Brand.
A huge congratulations goes out to Steve Harker and his entire team on a historic win.
Top Fuel
Top Fuel driver Richie Crampton bolstered his rookie-of-the-year bid with a huge first-round defeat of reigning series champion Shawn Langdon on Sunday morning.
It was the fourth time in five head-to-head meetings that Crampton has beaten the 2013 champ, a mark the first-year driver of the GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster finds hard to believe.
“It’s pretty wild that we’ve had some of our biggest round-wins against the guy that won it all last year,” Crampton said. “Credit Aaron Brooks and the guys for getting after it this morning when the conditions were so perfect. It is very difficult to beat that team and I feel fortunate to have gotten past Shawn because he’s one of the best in the world.”
The race was a stunner on a couple of fronts as Langdon, the higher-slotted driver, immediately lost traction at the hit of the throttle. In the end, it may not have mattered as Crampton posted the quickest run of his career, tripping the 1,000-foot timers in 3.734 seconds at 325.06 mph, the best run of the opening session.
“The car made a move right at the launch and it seemed like I was driving around quite a bit as it went down the strip, but it must have been pretty straight or we wouldn’t have put up that number,” Crampton said. “It definitely felt good when I went past the lights because it was marching down through there.
“We really felt like we’d found our final gremlin and we couldn’t wait to turn the car around and get back up there for Round 2.”
Brittany Force, who stumbled through a 3.886 at 313.37 mph in Round 1, was waiting for Crampton in the quarterfinals and although the scale seemed to be tilted in the rookie’s favor, it was Force turning on the win light this time. Both cars actually had trouble during the run, but Crampton shook his tires first and he couldn’t recover in time to track down Force, who had a wounded motor. Force won with a 3.972 at 249.58 mph to Crampton’s 4.223 at 305.56 mph.
“She played a little game with me when we were staging so I’ll definitely remember that for next time, but I’m not sure it made a difference other than the reaction times,” Crampton said. “When the tires shudder like that early in the run it’s so hard to recover in time to put up any sort of decent number. We were tracking her down very quickly but ran out of room.
“You look at what happened and realise you could have won with a super-safe 3.85-second pass but of course you don’t know that beforehand. I’m still pretty pleased with the weekend and the progress we continue to make. We’ll regroup back at the shop, freshen up all of our motors now that we have time, and try to win a couple more races.”
Images courtesy: Harker Motorsport Facebook, NHRA.com