Deric Kramer didn’t go to Florida this weekend for vacation, but it’s been a get-right weekend for the Pro Stock standout.
After struggling mightily the first two races of the year, Kramer looked to make massive changes during the Drag Illustrated World Doorslammer Nationals presented by CTech Manufacturing. It couldn’t have gone better through three qualifying rounds, as Kramer put together back-to-back 6.40s on Saturday, including a massive 6.481 at 212.66 in his American Ethanol Chevrolet Camaro that would qualify as a carer-best pass.
It put Kramer fourth heading into final qualifying, curing a lot of what had ailed him early this season.
“Truth be told, we haven’t done well,” Kramer said. “We looked at this as a chance to get paid to go test. We need to test, we need to get the car right. We thought we had a handle on it, but the car is not responding to what we want. Hopefully we can get the car running back into the car that qualified No. 2 in Pomona this weekend.”
Kramer backed that up with a 6.493 at 213 in the third session, putting him on a good path for the race, which will award the winner $75,000 on Sunday. He’s one of 18 participants at the inaugural event and Kramer has definitely enjoyed the headliner status the Pro Stock and Pro Mod stars have received.
“It’s definitely a switch. Instead of the second-tier, the people are here to watch us, which is pretty cool,” Kramer said.
Kramer has held up his end of the bargain, too, running well all weekend. It started with a solid pass of 6.520 on Friday night to open qualifying, followed by the two massive blasts on Saturday. If nothing else, it can ease Kramer’s mind knowing his car is back to running well and consistently, much like it did most of last season.
That’s put him in a good spot heading into Sunday’s eliminations, where Kramer is thrilled to go after the huge payout. He knows he’ll have to be close to perfect to get it, but Kramer has thrived with those challenges in recent seasons. Doing so on Sunday would mark one of the greatest moments in his Pro Stock career, also putting him on a good pace heading into the rest of the 2020 season.
“No matter what we did last year, the car would still go down the track unless we really missed something. This year, with very minor changes the car doesn’t want to go anywhere. We definitely want to figure out why. On Sunday, you have to be as close to perfect as you can be every time you get in the car,” Kramer said.
This story was originally published on March 7, 2020. 
