After so many years and so many wins in so many places that even he can't keep them all straight, David Rampy still finds the inspiration to race and win. The hands-down greatest Comp driver of all time has won almost three times as many races as anyone else in the class in a career that would have him on the Mount Rushmore of sportsman drivers if one existed, right up there with Peter Biondo, Dan Fletcher, and Scotty and Edmond Richardson.
   
Now well into his fourth decade as a full-time professional, Rampy is one of the very, very few good enough to make a living from sportsman racing. "I always said that as long as God provided the money, I'd keep going," he says. "There are days when I think, 'Man, what am I still doing out here?' But what else would I do?"

After so many years and so many wins in so many places that even he can't keep them all straight, David Rampy still finds the inspiration to race and win. The hands-down greatest Comp driver of all time has won almost three times as many races as anyone else in the class in a career that would have him on the Mount Rushmore of sportsman drivers if one existed, right up there with Peter Biondo, Dan Fletcher, and Scotty and Edmond Richardson.
   
Now well into his fourth decade as a full-time professional, Rampy is one of the very, very few good enough to make a living from sportsman racing. "I always said that as long as God provided the money, I'd keep going," he says. "There are days when I think, 'Man, what am I still doing out here?' But what else would I do?"
   
Like everyone, Rampy has faced the prospect of being forced to the sidelines by expiring sponsorships, but something always comes through in the end – sometimes at the last minute. "A racer is one of the most hopeful people there is," he says. "You can be the No. 17 qualifier, up against No. 1 first round, and still think, 'I can win this round. There's got to be a way.' It's the same thing when you think you're going to have to quit. The handwriting's on the wall, but you still hold out hope, and so far it's always worked. That Racer's Edge deal wasn't done until about the first of February [2010]. The Boo Weekley deal didn't come together until clear into April [2008], three days before Atlanta. That time, I really thought we were done, but since I started running NHRA races, I've never been away from it."
     
The 58-year-old Alabama pro got his start in IHRA competition more than 30 years ago, with occasional forays into NHRA competition, including a semifinal finish at the 1980 Gatornationals. He won his first NHRA national event in Super Stock at the 1983 Cajun Nationals and has been racing NHRA events steadily since 1986 – in Comp from 1989 to 1992, Pro Stock from 1993 to 1994, and back in Comp continuously since 1997, dominating at a rate approached by only Frank Manzo and John Force.
   
Rampy still draws inspiration from the late Don Young, his closest friend in racing, who was killed when his shorty dragster veered across the track and hit the opposite guardrail on a winning run against Eric Hinderberger at the 1985 IHRA Fall Nationals at Bristol. Rampy was standing on the starting line when it happened. "It was right around this time of year," he says. "For a long time I knew the exact date [Sept. 22, 1985]."
   
Young won his first IHRA national event in 1983, won the IHRA Quick Rod championship a year later, and led the 1985 Top Sportsman standings at the time of his accident. The two traveled everywhere together, and Rampy was his protégé. "I couldn't tell you one specific thing I learned from him – that was a long time ago and racing has changed so much over the years – but he taught me a lot," Rampy says. "Don got me up to speed quicker than I ever could have figured things out on my own. Who knows, maybe I never would have gotten there. He was just so far ahead of other people. Things have evolved since then, obviously, but everybody's still doing a lot of the things Don did way back then. He was really good with the weather, the wind – things that nobody was even paying attention to at that time – and he made me way better than I ever would have been on my own."
    David Rampy remembers his mentor in this 2010 CPTV video.
Rampy relies on those fundamentals to this day in Comp, racing his A/Econo Altered like it was a bracket car, taking the stripe by as little as possible and rarely giving it back. He mastered the CIC immediately after its inception and always sacrifices a round-win today if will cost him performance for the rest of the year.
   
"The way I look at it, the CIC is like having some bank give you a $1,000 to play with at every race," he says. "That thousand dollars is all you're going to get that weekend, and every hundredth you give up is a hundredth you don't have in the bank anymore, so you'd better spend it wisely. It's hard to shut off when you know you have the power to get there, but sometimes you have to. I've only got one combination, so I really I try to pick and choose."
   
Pairing that sound strategy with his innate abilities on the Tree and at the finish line has taken Rampy to 68 career Comp victories – more than twice as many as any other driver. (All-time great David Nickens is second with 29.) Rampy was the first driver to appear in the final round in six different categories (Super Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, Comp, Stock, and Pro Stock) and has won championships in three different classes: Super Gas (1989), Comp (surprisingly just once, in 1990), and Super Comp (1995).

"I've always enjoyed Comp the most, I guess because it's a performance-based class," Rampy says. "You go to a race and have a general idea of how much of a chance you have to win. Super Stock, Super Gas, Super Comp – they're almost a coin-flip because the performance of the car isn't as big a part of it. I'm a competitive person no matter what car I'm running – I think all racers are – but it's not the same as when I was younger. I'd get home and take a few weeks off, and it was like, 'Now what?' At the end of the season, I'd be down in the dumps. 'Two or three months and no race to go to? Oh no.' I couldn't wait to get back out there. It's not like that anymore. I think as you get older, you lose some of that drive. You catch yourself thinking about doing other things, but whenever I think about quitting – really think about it – that's a whole different story. I still want to be out here."
   
It's hard to imagine Rampy – or anyone – ever being as successful at something else as he is as a drag racer. The numbers are staggering: including his 12 victories in other classes, Rampy has scored at Indy, Las Vegas, Englishtown, Bristol, and Atlanta four times; Dallas, Seattle, Sonoma, Houston, and Brainerd five times; and Topeka eight times. He won three national events in 1992, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2012; four in 1990, 1991, 1999, and 2001; five in 2000, 2007, and 2011; six in 1997 and 1998; and eight in 2003. He's way past having a favorite win, a favorite season, or a favorite track.

"I get asked that a lot, but I really don't," he says. "I'm trying to win every one, so it's the same thing every time. It's not like I get to a track and think, 'Well, this is it. I'm going to win this one.' There are so many highs and lows – a lot more lows, actually – that it's ridiculous. You can have a plan, have expectations, but what does it matter? You're trying to win as many as you can every year, no matter where you are. There are places you usually do better at, but I don't think it's for any particular reason. If I knew what it was, I'd do that everywhere."

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