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Memo to Jeff Arend: Welcome to the wacky world of razor-thin losses in the Worsham Racing camp. Your teammate, Del Worsham, can tell you all about it.
On a rainy weekend, during which the teams and fans spent something approaching 20 consecutive hours at the venue without a single car making its way onto the track, Jeff Arend claimed a top-half qualifying berth, ran well, and lost in the first round by 25-thousandths of a second.
By the time the teams actually contested round one, around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, it was, frankly, hard to remember qualifying (way back on Friday) but for Arend it was a mostly pleasant experience. During the first session, he drove the "special edition" K&N Filters / Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car to a strong 4.836, which was a better result than those posted by the likes of Ron Capps, Gary Scelzi, or Tony Pedregon. It was better than the E.T.'s recorded by Cruz Pedregon, Tommy Johnson, and teammate Del Worsham. It was better than everybody, actually, and Arend spent a few hours in the No. 1 position, thinking he still had three more qualifying runs before the race on Sunday.
Under the lights on Friday night, the K&N/CSK team took a shot at big-time glory, hopping the car up for an even bigger run, but the Chevy overpowered the track early in the lap and Arend had to settle for the No. 8 position, going into Saturday. When Saturday dawned, the thick clouds, heavy rains, and massive thunder and lightning show kept anyone from seeing the sunrise, and the wet stuff kept the cars off the track, for hours and hours.
In a cruel dance where the line "we're almost ready, the track is dry" was followed by more rain, each and every time, it finally got to be the dinner hour on Saturday evening, and even if the rain did hold off, the dewpoint was so high it was impossible to keep anything dry. At that point, NHRA called it a day, set the field as it stood after session No. 2,, locking Arend into the 8th spot, and set the race schedule for 11:00 am on Sunday.
Though the forecast called for clearing skies early in the morning, the reality of the situation was more of the same. As the teams prepared for action, warming up their cars with no rain in the air, the clouds visited once again, just as pre-race ceremonies were due to begin. The waiting game was on one more time, and as Tom Petty likes to sing, "The waiting is the hardest part..."
Finally, at 2:00 the clouds parted, the sun came out, and steam began to rise from the Houston pavement. At the same time, the first pair of Top Fuel dragsters took to the track and we were racing again. Arend sat at the end of the Funny Car line, where he would face No. 9 qualifier Bob Gilbertson as the last pair in round one. After this marathon of "sitting around doing nothing," what's wrong with a little more waiting?
When analyzing the Sunday pairings, one can usually assume the No. 8 versus No. 9 match up will be a close one, since those two cars are the ones which qualified together, right in the middle of the pack. This race did nothing to dispel that assumption.
Arend left the starting well, with a solid .084 reaction time. Gilbertson simply dipped into his very deep well of super lights (he is consistently one of the quickest leavers in the game,) to strap a great .060 on the board. The race was on, and both cars tore down the track in a rare show of side-by-side racing (only one other pair of Funny Cars made side-by-side full laps in round one) and it was too close to call, until the win light went on in Gilbertson's lane.
The scoreboards told the only part of the story that needed to be known. Arend clocked in with a 4.908, while Gilbertson recorded a 4.907.
It was "that close" but it went the other way.
"I didn't cut a bad light, by any means, but he is very quick at the line, and he got out on me by just a little," Arend said. "The car ran well, we didn't bobble or smoke the tires, and a lot of people were having problems out there. To beat him, I would have needed something like an .058 light, which is something I can do but that's a little quicker than what I'd call normal. I don't like to go up there trying to slay the tree, because that takes you out of your routine and you can end up beating yourself doing something stupid.
"I just try to stay with my routine, and so far that's been good enough to leave first all year. This time, a good leaver got me by a whisker, and we ended up losing by a fender. I know Del went through this for most of last year, so now I've been indoctrinated. I'll be happy if this is the only time it happens this year, but as competitive as this class is, that's not very likely."
Welcome to wacky Worsham world of photo-finishes, Mr. Arend.
AREND BARELY EDGED IN CLOSE FIRST ROUND
Memo to Jeff Arend: Welcome to the wacky world of razor-thin losses in the Worsham Racing camp. Your teammate, Del Worsham, can tell you all about it.
On a rainy weekend, during which the teams and fans spent something approaching 20 consecutive hours at the venue without a single car making its way onto the track, Jeff Arend claimed a top-half qualifying berth, ran well, and lost in the first round by 25-thousandths of a second.
By the time the teams actually contested round one, around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, it was, frankly, hard to remember qualifying (way back on Friday) but for Arend it was a mostly pleasant experience. During the first session, he drove the "special edition" K&N Filters / Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car to a strong 4.836, which was a better result than those posted by the likes of Ron Capps, Gary Scelzi, or Tony Pedregon. It was better than the E.T.'s recorded by Cruz Pedregon, Tommy Johnson, and teammate Del Worsham. It was better than everybody, actually, and Arend spent a few hours in the No. 1 position, thinking he still had three more qualifying runs before the race on Sunday.
Under the lights on Friday night, the K&N/CSK team took a shot at big-time glory, hopping the car up for an even bigger run, but the Chevy overpowered the track early in the lap and Arend had to settle for the No. 8 position, going into Saturday. When Saturday dawned, the thick clouds, heavy rains, and massive thunder and lightning show kept anyone from seeing the sunrise, and the wet stuff kept the cars off the track, for hours and hours.
In a cruel dance where the line "we're almost ready, the track is dry" was followed by more rain, each and every time, it finally got to be the dinner hour on Saturday evening, and even if the rain did hold off, the dewpoint was so high it was impossible to keep anything dry. At that point, NHRA called it a day, set the field as it stood after session No. 2,, locking Arend into the 8th spot, and set the race schedule for 11:00 am on Sunday.
Though the forecast called for clearing skies early in the morning, the reality of the situation was more of the same. As the teams prepared for action, warming up their cars with no rain in the air, the clouds visited once again, just as pre-race ceremonies were due to begin. The waiting game was on one more time, and as Tom Petty likes to sing, "The waiting is the hardest part..."
Finally, at 2:00 the clouds parted, the sun came out, and steam began to rise from the Houston pavement. At the same time, the first pair of Top Fuel dragsters took to the track and we were racing again. Arend sat at the end of the Funny Car line, where he would face No. 9 qualifier Bob Gilbertson as the last pair in round one. After this marathon of "sitting around doing nothing," what's wrong with a little more waiting?
When analyzing the Sunday pairings, one can usually assume the No. 8 versus No. 9 match up will be a close one, since those two cars are the ones which qualified together, right in the middle of the pack. This race did nothing to dispel that assumption.
Arend left the starting well, with a solid .084 reaction time. Gilbertson simply dipped into his very deep well of super lights (he is consistently one of the quickest leavers in the game,) to strap a great .060 on the board. The race was on, and both cars tore down the track in a rare show of side-by-side racing (only one other pair of Funny Cars made side-by-side full laps in round one) and it was too close to call, until the win light went on in Gilbertson's lane.
The scoreboards told the only part of the story that needed to be known. Arend clocked in with a 4.908, while Gilbertson recorded a 4.907.
It was "that close" but it went the other way.
"I didn't cut a bad light, by any means, but he is very quick at the line, and he got out on me by just a little," Arend said. "The car ran well, we didn't bobble or smoke the tires, and a lot of people were having problems out there. To beat him, I would have needed something like an .058 light, which is something I can do but that's a little quicker than what I'd call normal. I don't like to go up there trying to slay the tree, because that takes you out of your routine and you can end up beating yourself doing something stupid.
"I just try to stay with my routine, and so far that's been good enough to leave first all year. This time, a good leaver got me by a whisker, and we ended up losing by a fender. I know Del went through this for most of last year, so now I've been indoctrinated. I'll be happy if this is the only time it happens this year, but as competitive as this class is, that's not very likely."
Welcome to wacky Worsham world of photo-finishes, Mr. Arend.
