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NHRA | March 17, 2019 7:37 PMTop Fuel pilot Richie Crampton secured back-to-back event victories Sunday at the 50th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.Robert Hight (Funny Car), Bo Butner (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were also winners in their respective categories at the third of 24 events on the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule.Crampton locked in his first victory since this event last year on a holeshot win against Clay Millican with his pass of 3.769s at 329.89mph in his DHL / Kalitta Air dragster. He had not won a round this season, prior to securing this one, his ninth career win.

Crampton claimed his ninth career win in Top Fuel.
“This is just a big race no matter what year you win it,” Crampton said. “There were not too many easy rounds this year. That goes to tell you how difficult this Top Fuel category is. I think this win is going to take a while to sink in. I’m so lucky to have a team that puts me in a position to win like this. I’m just focusing on being a dependable driver.”Millican, who raced to his second career final round at the facility, started from the No. 7 position and defeated Austin Prock, Jordan Vandergriff and veteran Doug Kalitta before the final.

Hight on route to another Funny Car title.
Hight claimed the Funny Car title with his run of 3.867s at 331.61mph in his Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS to defeat Tim Wilkerson in the finals. After earning his third No. 1 qualifier of the season on Saturday, Hight secured his second Wally of the season and 47th of his career.“Qualifying No. 1 at the first three races is really impressive,” Hight said. “It shows that we have a really good handle on this car. We didn’t get the job done on the last day of the season last year, and my team worked really hard over the winter because they don’t want to be in that spot again.”Hight raced against Terry Haddock, Ron Capps and John Force before entering his second final round of the season. Wilkerson took down Dave Richards, Cruz Pedregon and defending event winner Jack Beckman.In Pro Stock, 2017 world champion Butner powered his Jim Butner’s Auto Chevrolet Camaro to victory with a run of 6.505s at 212.29mph over Alex Laughlin. Butner was the runner-up at this track last year and clinched his second win of the season. His fiance, Randi Lyn Shipp, won in the Stock Eliminator category at this event.

Trouble in the early rounds, but Pro Stock winner Butner’s KB crew never gave up.