For the first time in just eight months, Richie Stevens will be back behind the wheel of Pro Stock car.

Stevens will be piloting a second car for David Kramer’s team at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals Friday through Sunday at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.

This is a hometown race for Kramer as he is from Sterling, Colo., which is just over 2 hours from Bandimere Speedway. Deric, David’s son, drives the team’s main car. Both cars are Dodge Darts.

“They called me about a month ago and they said they wanted to run two cars at the race (at Bandimere) and they wanted to see if I was interested in driving the other car,” Stevens said. “I filled in last year for them when Deric couldn’t make the race at the NHRA Finals (in November in Pomona). I was familiar with them a little bit and when they asked me about driving at Bandimere it took me a second to answer and I said ‘yeah, I will be there.’”

Erica Enders-Stevens, the defending two-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion, is Stevens’ wife.

“I’m happy to be behind the wheel,” Richie said. “This should be a fun weekend. I’m going to go out there and try and pull an upset if I can, but just to be out there racing with Erica and everybody else at Bandimere is just awesome.”

At Bandimere, Stevens will be driving the Jerry Haas-built car Deric had been campaigning this season. That also is the same car Stevens drove at the NHRA Finals. Stevens qualified No. 13 and lost on a red-light start to Drew Skillman in the first round.

Deric is driving the Lazarus (one of V. Gaines' companies) race car which is new and being debuted this weekend.

Deric has competed in five national events this season, the last being at Topeka, Kan., May 20-22.

“We tested last week (July 11-14) at Bandimere and I made a bunch of laps in both cars,” Stevens said. “It was a fun time to do that testing. It’s been a while since I have drove a Pro Stock car, and it was neat to be back in the seat again. It was good to get some times in a Pro Stock car. I also made some runs in the brand-new car and we were trying to figure the sweet spot in it and what it likes and doesn’t like.”

At Bandimere, Kramer’s car and Stevens’ car are being sponsored by American Ethanol, Novozymes, Poet, and Lallemand Biofuels.

Michael Hiner will serve as the crew chief for both cars and Justin Elkes of Modern Racing will be a consultant for the team. Engines for both cars are done by Lester and Chris McGaha of Southwest Performance and Machine. McGaha also is fellow Pro Stock competitor. On a side note, David Kramer also is racing at the Mile-High Nationals this weekend in a comp dragster.

“This is a one-race deal for me,” Stevens said. “They said there is the possibility for me to run some other races for them in the Countdown. It just depends how their motors stay together. I will play it by ear and see how it goes.”

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