The AAA of Texas NHRA FallNationals was a pivotal race in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship, and the drivers raced accordingly. The reign of Antron Brown ended in the semi-finals against eventual Top Fuel winner Richie Crampton, Del Worsham took yet another Funny Car win against Jack Beckman, and Erica Enders-Stevens is riding off into the sunset with a 154-point lead in the Pro Stock division. Jerry Savoie defeated Eddie Krawiec in the Pro Stock Motorcycle divison, as well.
Top Fuel
Top Fuel driver Richie Crampton scored his fifth Top Fuel victory of the season, taking out points leader Antron Brown in the process.
Crampton gained a footnote in teh track’s history books as he opened Sunday’s eliminations with the quickest Top Fuel pass ever recorded at Texas Motorplex.
“You know, whene verything functions correctly, like in the first round when it ran 3.705, for the record, it’s a breeze to drive these things,” he said. “But it fought us from the second round onward. We had some clutch controller issues, so that’s where my Lucas Oil team really earned their paycheck today. Man, we fought that race car all day long and things went our way, so these are the kind of race days that are really rewarding.”
In order, Crampton beat Doug Kalitta, Brittany Force, Brown, and Steve Torrence in the final. The Wally round was a thriller with Crampton pedaling the car to regain control when it hazed the tires mid-run. He managed and produced 3.972 seconds, 283.07 mph to defeat Torrence’s time of 4.041, 272.17 mph in the finals.
With this victory, Crampton jumped up two spots to third in the Mello Yello rankings. Brown leads Tony Schumacher by 132 points and 203 away from Crampton.
Funny Car
Del Worsham defeated Jack Beckman, walking out with the points lead with only two races to go. In one of the most anticipated races of the year, both cars couldn’t fight off the slick track conditions under the sunny Texas skies, causing both cars to spin their tires.
Worsham came up big, winning with a 4.041 ET, 272.17 mph to Beckman’s 4.077 ET at 286.25 mph.
“It was a great weekend,” said Worsham. “The car ran well all weekend other than the final round where it got a little squirrely. It was challenging. We didn’t have the fastest car all day. Being in the right land one round didn’t seem to matter, and we got ourselves in a final round. We kind of showed the depth we have right now at Kalitta Motorsports to come back from that explosion [in the St. Louis final] and win all these rounds.”
Worsham was the No. 1 qualifier running a time of 3.917 seconds, just eclipsing Beckman’s best pass of 3.919 seconds in Friday night qualifying.
Worsham advanced through eliminations, defeating John Hale, then Alexis DeJoria and Ron Capps in the semi-finals.
Pro Stock
Erica Enders-Stevens proved she’s the best drag racer on Sunday, beating her nearest two rivals in the Mello Yello points to power to a massive 154 point advantage with just two races left in the season.
As usual, Enders-Stevens was a demon behind the wheel, taking out V Gaines in Round 1 to set up a big match with a better rival, Chris McGaha, who is third in the points.
“Those first two rounds were very significant,” Enders-Stevens said. “First round, we watched [McGaha] beat Greg right in front of us and then we crushed his ET by four-hundredths to earn lane choice in our race against him. We didn’t want to give him anything.”
All Enders-Stevens needs to do is have a 151-point lead a tthe end of the Toyota Nationals in Las Vegas and she’s a two-time Pro Stock champion. At present, she leads Greg Anderson by 154 points and McGaha by 166.
Pro Stock Motorcycle
Jerry Savoie rode his Suzuki to his third Pro Stock Motorcycle victory of 2015 with a 6.744 at 198.44 mph win over Eddie Krawiec. This win moves Savoie to third in points.
“When you’re making the power like we had this weekend, and I can’t thank Vance & Hines enough for that, you don’t want to throw it away on a red-light,” said Savoie. “We tried to set up the clutch and myself for .050 reaction times, and we ended up a bit slower than that. But we managed to get away with a couple of close ones, so it’s all good.”
Andrew Hines is still the points leader by 21 points over Krawiec and 31 away from Savoie.
