<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/D_Worsham07.jpg" alt="D_Worsham07" align="right"borders="0"/>
Taking Advantage Of An Unexpected Interruption
When the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, in Bristol, were unexpectedly postponed due to track issues, two things were quickly apparent to every member of Team CSK. 1) The team would now have three straight off-weekends, during a part of the year when the racing schedule normally begins to take on a very hectic look, and 2) The "payback" part of the equation was going to be a tough one, as the NHRA schedule would combine with a booked match race to create 12 racing events in the next 14 weeks. Knowing the pace would be harrowing for three months, many team members made quick vacation plans to take advantage of the time off.
Del and Connie Worsham took their twin girls, Kate and Maddy, on a Caribbean cruise. Within 48 hours of hearing about the Bristol postponement, Connie was able to score a last-minute deal to reserve a state room on the maiden voyage of the Liberty Of The Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world.
Marc and Krysta Denner attended the 25th Annual Paso Robles Wine Festival, which included a stop at the coincidentally named Denner Vineyards.
Chris and Sheila Cunningham hopped on their Harley's and rode from their home in Charlotte to "Bike Week" in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Bob and Barbara Wilber made like Chevy Chase and put together an impromptu trip around the "Wild West," driving from their home in the Twin Cities to Deadwood, S.D., making side trips to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Devil's Tower.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Look Out PBA Tour...
This week's edition of The National DRAGSTER includes a small note about Jeff Arend's rapidly developing bowling prowess, news of which first appeared in the May 10th version of this "News Bits" email newsletter. At that time, Arend's scores of 192, 191, and 189 were notable in and of themselves, but during the current bit of downtime, Arend has moved his own personal bowling bar a bit higher. He recently took on Chuck Worsham, the undisputed holder of Team CSK's "Best Bowler" designation, and promptly beat the Skipper with a superb 260. Chuck's 244 was terrific, but not good enough to best Arend's nine strikes, which included seven straight to open the game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More Good Ink...
The same issue of The National DRAGSTER, referenced above, included quite a bit of ink and a goodly number of column inches devoted to Team CSK. In addition to the short bit about Arend's consistent bowling, which appears on the "Out Of The Groove" page, the May 25th issue also includes an in-depth feature story on Arend, on a two-page spread with color photos. In addition to that, Del Worsham's latest "On The Run" column appears on page 14, and the season's first look at "Drag Stats" for the pro classes shows Arend sitting in the No. 8 spot for average E.T. (4.837), the No. 7 spot for average MPH (316.29), and the No. 6 spot for average reaction time (.083), while Worsham appears in the No. 8 spot in average MPH, just behind his teammate, with a 316.05 average.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Madman Cometh...
As has been previously reported, the CSK blue team will put their second "special edition" car of the year on the track in the upcoming month, running the popular "Madman Murray" car in both Chicago (June 7-10) and Norwalk (June 29-July 1.) The team had originally planned to use the same Murray's Discount Auto body they utilized in 2006, after some small "tune-ups" to the vinyl wrap which has remained on that particular Monte Carlo since last year. Once the team began racing with new '07 Chevy Impala bodies, however, it became clear they did not want to penalize their performance on two very stout race tracks, just for the sake of taking the easy way out by running an older body.
After receiving their first new Impalas in January, Team CSK placed an order for additional Impala SS bodies and put the designated Madman car on the fast track, in their in-house fabrication and mounting shop. Under the guidance of chassis and body guru Grant Downing, the body is currently 90% complete and is due to receive its rear wing assembly today. It will be completed and out the door at the Orange, Calif. shop, on Friday, when it will be shipped via truck to Square One Designs in Indianapolis. While the team is racing in Topeka next week, the Madman design will be wrapped on the new body, and the team will stop in Indy to pick it up between Topeka and Chicago.
"It's going to be tight, but we all agree it's worth the effort, the time, and the money to do this," said Marc Denner, blue team co-crew chief. "We had the old Murray's car just sitting here, and could put it on and go, but it's quite a bit heavier and it's not an Impala. Once we started getting our additional Impalas at the shop, it was just a matter of looking at the calendar and making it happen.
"I'm sure we'll be finishing up the contingency decals, and the final bit of work on this car, right up until we run on Friday afternoon at Route 66, but we'll get it done. If the conditions in Chicago are anything like they normally are, you'll want to have your best stuff ready to go, so this year the Madman will be grinning from the hood of an Impala."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I Googled Your Name, and...
In this day of easy internet access, just about everyone with a keyboard has, at one time or another, typed their own name into the Google search engine to see what pops up. A quick run through the roster of Team CSK created no end of interesting (though non-related) connections, as illustrated here.
Googling Del Worsham would, of course, only trigger page after page of links to our red team driver, but by widening the search to Worsham alone, we discover Lew Worsham, a noted professional golfer from the 40s and 50s. Lew Worsham even played in the 1947 Ryder Cup. It also brings up the name Anne Worsham, who is a famous water color painter, known for highly popular paintings of birds.
Much like Worsham, the Jeff Arend search needs to be widened to just the last name to avoid the fact our blue team pilot is, all by himself, quite famous. With just the last name in play, we discover Lucien den Arend, a Finnish sculptor of some fame.
Marc Denner also appears to be far too well known to generate matches, but a Google of his last name shows us there is a supermarket chain in Switzerland by the name of DENNER.
Typing in full names, we discover that Chris Cunningham is also a famous film and video director/producer, who has worked with Icelandic singer Bjork. Who knew?
John Fink may be a longtime member of Team CSK, but the relatives of John Fink the successful actor, who appeared in both Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, might dispute that.
The input of Larry Lush triggered a mention of a somewhat well known musician and disco DJ, who specializes in dance house and techno remixes.
Type in Bob Wilber and you'll have to wade through many pages of eferences to the very successful musician, who has played jazz clarinet and saxophone in big bands since the 1940s, before you come to any mention of the CSK Team Manager.
Terry Snyder is a name that also belongs to a musician of some repute, a percussionist who made his mark in the "big band era", most notably playing for the Bert Block Orchestra.
Mark Stewart may be new to Team CSK in '07, but a British pop musician and writer of the same name has been making music and touring Europe consistently since the early '80s.
Chase Steele continues the musician connections, as Google reports many links to sites about a young avant-garde player, who specializes in cutting edge sounds. Of course, add in our Chase's middle name, Remington, and the links to the old Pierce Brosnan TV show are nearly limitless.
Team CSK's newest crew member is Daniel Gilbert, whose name triggers many mentions of a famous psychologist and author, writer of the New York Times Bestseller "Stumbling On Happiness."
Seth Randall is mostly a strike-out, unless you drop the final "S" in his last name. It turns out Seth Randal is a successful young movie writer/director/producer, who recently released the indie film "The Fall of '55".
Crew members Warren Bryning, Rick Ducusin, and Ryan McGilvry can take pride in having unique names, while their inclusion on the Team CSK website also means they, themselves, are the only direct results from their full name searches. Using only last names, however, we learn that John Bryning was an actor in many major movies, from the 1930s through the 70s, that Sheryll Anne Ducusin was Miss Phillipines for 2002, and that Tim McGilvry is a Hollywood cinematographer.
Now you are free to Google yourself.
"News Bits" from the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car team
Taking Advantage Of An Unexpected Interruption
When the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, in Bristol, were unexpectedly postponed due to track issues, two things were quickly apparent to every member of Team CSK. 1) The team would now have three straight off-weekends, during a part of the year when the racing schedule normally begins to take on a very hectic look, and 2) The "payback" part of the equation was going to be a tough one, as the NHRA schedule would combine with a booked match race to create 12 racing events in the next 14 weeks. Knowing the pace would be harrowing for three months, many team members made quick vacation plans to take advantage of the time off.
Del and Connie Worsham took their twin girls, Kate and Maddy, on a Caribbean cruise. Within 48 hours of hearing about the Bristol postponement, Connie was able to score a last-minute deal to reserve a state room on the maiden voyage of the Liberty Of The Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world.
Marc and Krysta Denner attended the 25th Annual Paso Robles Wine Festival, which included a stop at the coincidentally named Denner Vineyards.
Chris and Sheila Cunningham hopped on their Harley's and rode from their home in Charlotte to "Bike Week" in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Bob and Barbara Wilber made like Chevy Chase and put together an impromptu trip around the "Wild West," driving from their home in the Twin Cities to Deadwood, S.D., making side trips to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Devil's Tower.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Look Out PBA Tour...
This week's edition of The National DRAGSTER includes a small note about Jeff Arend's rapidly developing bowling prowess, news of which first appeared in the May 10th version of this "News Bits" email newsletter. At that time, Arend's scores of 192, 191, and 189 were notable in and of themselves, but during the current bit of downtime, Arend has moved his own personal bowling bar a bit higher. He recently took on Chuck Worsham, the undisputed holder of Team CSK's "Best Bowler" designation, and promptly beat the Skipper with a superb 260. Chuck's 244 was terrific, but not good enough to best Arend's nine strikes, which included seven straight to open the game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More Good Ink...
The same issue of The National DRAGSTER, referenced above, included quite a bit of ink and a goodly number of column inches devoted to Team CSK. In addition to the short bit about Arend's consistent bowling, which appears on the "Out Of The Groove" page, the May 25th issue also includes an in-depth feature story on Arend, on a two-page spread with color photos. In addition to that, Del Worsham's latest "On The Run" column appears on page 14, and the season's first look at "Drag Stats" for the pro classes shows Arend sitting in the No. 8 spot for average E.T. (4.837), the No. 7 spot for average MPH (316.29), and the No. 6 spot for average reaction time (.083), while Worsham appears in the No. 8 spot in average MPH, just behind his teammate, with a 316.05 average.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Madman Cometh...
As has been previously reported, the CSK blue team will put their second "special edition" car of the year on the track in the upcoming month, running the popular "Madman Murray" car in both Chicago (June 7-10) and Norwalk (June 29-July 1.) The team had originally planned to use the same Murray's Discount Auto body they utilized in 2006, after some small "tune-ups" to the vinyl wrap which has remained on that particular Monte Carlo since last year. Once the team began racing with new '07 Chevy Impala bodies, however, it became clear they did not want to penalize their performance on two very stout race tracks, just for the sake of taking the easy way out by running an older body.
After receiving their first new Impalas in January, Team CSK placed an order for additional Impala SS bodies and put the designated Madman car on the fast track, in their in-house fabrication and mounting shop. Under the guidance of chassis and body guru Grant Downing, the body is currently 90% complete and is due to receive its rear wing assembly today. It will be completed and out the door at the Orange, Calif. shop, on Friday, when it will be shipped via truck to Square One Designs in Indianapolis. While the team is racing in Topeka next week, the Madman design will be wrapped on the new body, and the team will stop in Indy to pick it up between Topeka and Chicago.
"It's going to be tight, but we all agree it's worth the effort, the time, and the money to do this," said Marc Denner, blue team co-crew chief. "We had the old Murray's car just sitting here, and could put it on and go, but it's quite a bit heavier and it's not an Impala. Once we started getting our additional Impalas at the shop, it was just a matter of looking at the calendar and making it happen.
"I'm sure we'll be finishing up the contingency decals, and the final bit of work on this car, right up until we run on Friday afternoon at Route 66, but we'll get it done. If the conditions in Chicago are anything like they normally are, you'll want to have your best stuff ready to go, so this year the Madman will be grinning from the hood of an Impala."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I Googled Your Name, and...
In this day of easy internet access, just about everyone with a keyboard has, at one time or another, typed their own name into the Google search engine to see what pops up. A quick run through the roster of Team CSK created no end of interesting (though non-related) connections, as illustrated here.
Googling Del Worsham would, of course, only trigger page after page of links to our red team driver, but by widening the search to Worsham alone, we discover Lew Worsham, a noted professional golfer from the 40s and 50s. Lew Worsham even played in the 1947 Ryder Cup. It also brings up the name Anne Worsham, who is a famous water color painter, known for highly popular paintings of birds.
Much like Worsham, the Jeff Arend search needs to be widened to just the last name to avoid the fact our blue team pilot is, all by himself, quite famous. With just the last name in play, we discover Lucien den Arend, a Finnish sculptor of some fame.
Marc Denner also appears to be far too well known to generate matches, but a Google of his last name shows us there is a supermarket chain in Switzerland by the name of DENNER.
Typing in full names, we discover that Chris Cunningham is also a famous film and video director/producer, who has worked with Icelandic singer Bjork. Who knew?
John Fink may be a longtime member of Team CSK, but the relatives of John Fink the successful actor, who appeared in both Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, might dispute that.
The input of Larry Lush triggered a mention of a somewhat well known musician and disco DJ, who specializes in dance house and techno remixes.
Type in Bob Wilber and you'll have to wade through many pages of eferences to the very successful musician, who has played jazz clarinet and saxophone in big bands since the 1940s, before you come to any mention of the CSK Team Manager.
Terry Snyder is a name that also belongs to a musician of some repute, a percussionist who made his mark in the "big band era", most notably playing for the Bert Block Orchestra.
Mark Stewart may be new to Team CSK in '07, but a British pop musician and writer of the same name has been making music and touring Europe consistently since the early '80s.
Chase Steele continues the musician connections, as Google reports many links to sites about a young avant-garde player, who specializes in cutting edge sounds. Of course, add in our Chase's middle name, Remington, and the links to the old Pierce Brosnan TV show are nearly limitless.
Team CSK's newest crew member is Daniel Gilbert, whose name triggers many mentions of a famous psychologist and author, writer of the New York Times Bestseller "Stumbling On Happiness."
Seth Randall is mostly a strike-out, unless you drop the final "S" in his last name. It turns out Seth Randal is a successful young movie writer/director/producer, who recently released the indie film "The Fall of '55".
Crew members Warren Bryning, Rick Ducusin, and Ryan McGilvry can take pride in having unique names, while their inclusion on the Team CSK website also means they, themselves, are the only direct results from their full name searches. Using only last names, however, we learn that John Bryning was an actor in many major movies, from the 1930s through the 70s, that Sheryll Anne Ducusin was Miss Phillipines for 2002, and that Tim McGilvry is a Hollywood cinematographer.
Now you are free to Google yourself.
