It was in the top three of the greatest drag races I have ever been to. It’ll likely stay in the top three of the greatest drag races I’ll ever go to. The 50th Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals had it all. Massive crowds, killer performances, records, upsets, stories for days, and in the end, four final rounds that brought the crowd to their feet. Well, three anyway as the pro stock final saw Alex Laughlin suffer a mechanical problem before letting the clutch out against Bo Butner. We’ll get to that in a second.
In the pro stock motorcycle category, for the third year in a row it was Harley vs Harley with Eddie Krawiec taking on teammate Andrew Hines. Hines broke a 15 year streak in 2018 with no race wins. He started a new one at the Gators by locking up the golden Wally in a hard-fought contest with EK. Neither man gave each other an inch and they slugged it out to the finish line.
In pro stock car, Bo Butner who had driven himself to the final was to face Alex Laughlin who had been consistently quicker over the course of the day. Unfortunately for Alex, the car spit the bit on the burnout and was pushed back. This is Butner’s second race win in three races and with pro stock’s 18-race schedule this year, he has all but locked himself into the NHRA countdown already with this early season dominance.
In nitro funny car it was Robert Hight and a resurgent Tim Wilkerson side by side on the money run. With Hight having carried a number one qualifying position through the first three races and already having one win under his belt in 2019, Will tried to hop his car up but smoked the tires early. Robert thundered on for the win.
The crown jewel of the finals was definitely the top fuel contest between Clay Millican and Richie Crampton. Crampton the defending event champion has Kurt Elliot and Connie Kalitta as his crew chiefs on the DHL backed top fuel car and opposite him was Clay Millican. The re-tooled, re-staffed, and reenergized Strutmasters.com/Parts Plus top fuel car defied expectations by making the final. Those guys have proven that they’re back after faltering in the first two races with a new crew and leadership. It was a margin of victory that went four digits to the right of the decimal point and you can hear what this one means to Richie as he excepts the Wally and tries to keep his composure.
Awesome.
Pro Mod??