AREND TO TAKE A TEENAGER'S TECHRON CAR FOR ONE LAST FLING
SONOMA, Calif. (July 24, 2007) -- Like a teenager who has already agreed to part with his prized hot rod, Jeff Arend will be taking his beautiful Chevron Techron Impala Funny Car for one last fling this weekend, at the Fram Autolite Nationals in beautiful Sonoma, Calif. Once the race is completed, the Techron body will be just a memory for Arend, his fans, and the car's designer, as the shell will be shipped off to be reincarnated as yet another "special edition" body before the end of the 2007 season.
The teenage connection is part of the tale of the design of the Techron Chevy, a unique and interesting story which ties into the family atmosphere of both Worsham Racing and the NHRA. The car was actually designed by Danny Rubin, the 17-year old son of a CSK staff member. Danny, who attends Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, has been imagining,drawing, and designing Funny Cars for much of his life and when his visions began to develop into real artwork, his father Paul began to display a number of them in his office at CSK Auto headquarters. As fate would have it, Chris Bowen, the man behind the vast majority of the Worsham team's special cars, noticed the drawings early last year, and inquired as to their source. Soon thereafter, young Danny was commissioned to "take a shot" at coming up with the 2006 Techron design, and that car was so well received he was awarded the task again, this season.
Rubin drew the car by hand, working with colored pencils, after visiting the Chevron website to get a handle on corporate colors, logos, and design themes. Once the artwork was approved, it was shipped off to Square One Designs, in Indianapolis, where Danny's vision was transformed into vinyl, and installed on the bare Impala shell. For a high school student who loves to draw, it has been quite an exciting experience.
"To be able to see something that I drew up on a piece of paper come to life, and to be seen on ESPN, is a great feeling," Rubin said. "I got into the sport when I was young, and I would have never imagined that I would actually be doing something like this. All of my friends feel the same way. They all know that I love to draw these cars, and when I told them last year that I was doing one that was actually going to be put onto a car, they were all really excited."
That same excitement is shared by the car's driver, Arend, and his team. Sonoma will mark the third and final race for the strikingly vivid Impala, and Arend would like nothing better than to maximize the amount of national TV exposure he can generate for the car's young designer.
"I had no idea a high school kid designed this car, and when I found out it was like 'You gotta be kidding me'," Arend said. "It's our third special car of the year, and I've seen all the other ones the Worshams have run for the last six years or so. Not only is this car is as cool looking as any of them, but it also really works for Techron because the logo just leaps off the side of the car. It's a perfect marriage of great design and great sponsor visibility.
"From what I've been told, Danny is also involved with our final vinyl wrap this year, a Havoline car we'll run in Richmond and Dallas. If that car is as great looking as this one, the kid is going to be famous. To help get him famous, and maybe even help launch a career for him, it would great if we could go rounds on Sunday in Sonoma. Every round is seen all over the country, on ESPN2, and a high school student can't buy that sort of recognition. I hope we can do that for him."
Accomplishing that wish won't entail a massive turn-around in terms of performance. Arend and his squad have had their car running well for most of the year, averaging a solid No. 10 position on the qualifying sheet during a season in which every Funny Car team has at least one DNQ on their record. He has stayed within reach of the POWERade top eight and although he will enter Sonoma in 13th place, he is but 80 points out of the No. 8 spot, a total of four rounds.
"All of us are trying not to think about it, so that we can just concentrate on the immediate task each day, but we're still in it, both realistically and mathematically, so that's good," Arend said. "It's not going to be easy, by any means, because there are only three races left before the Countdown begins, but until they tell us we can't be in it, we're moving forward with the idea we can do it, and we will do it. Whether we do or not, though, is irrelevant right now. Our only goal is to make good laps.
"We've made plenty of good laps all year, but we've made some mistakes too and we know we have to minimize that side of the deal. What I'm most positive about is our team, because these guys are professionals who know what they're doing and who eat, sleep, and breathe drag racing. I've been around this game for a while, and I've driven some cars I absolutely knew couldn't win on performance alone, so I think I know what I'm talking about when I say there is absolutely no reason this car can't win four rounds this Sunday. No reason at all."
Should that happen, young Danny Rubin might want to start researching the paperwork needed to start a business.
