QUARTERFINAL FINISH FEATURES FORCEFUL FIRST ROUND
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Del Worsham drove his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car to a second-round finish at Norwalk on Sunday, taking out the man, the myth, the legend, John Force in round one, before losing to Ron Capps in the quarterfinals. The result allowed Worsham to keep pace with Bob Tasca, who currently sits in the 10th spot on the points sheet (now only eight points ahead), while it also put a bit of breathing room between the CSK driver and a bevy of other powerful hopefuls who are breathing down his neck in search of a spot in the Countdown to the championship.
Weather was a constant theme in northern Ohio, as it has been at nearly every event this year, though this race featured one day of racing almost completely washed out despite only a few sprinkles of rain. Downpours over the course of the prior two weeks have left the Norwalk area saturated, and a sunny Friday caused the ground water to seep up through cracks in the track, making conditions far too unsafe for the fuel cars to run. With only the two Saturday sessions left on the schedule, and a dodgy forecast for the day, the drivers were calculating all sorts of scenarios they might have to accomplish in order to be a part of the program.
"It really didn't look likely that we'd get both Saturday runs in, so we approached the first lap as if it was our only one," Worsham said. "The rule book says we set the field on only one session, but that any Top 10 driver not in the field gets inserted. Of course, we came in here seven points out of 10th place, so we were in danger of being bumped by one of those cars if it all lined up that way. Our goal was to out-qualify all the other teams not in the Top 10, just to make sure we weren't in that situation.
"As it turned out, we did way better than that and really put one of our better crunch-time laps on the board there. It put us way up on the sheet, and we felt pretty good about how we did right there. That was the sort of lap that gives you a lot of confidence."
That confidence was bred from the 4.977 Worsham ran in that early Saturday session; a clocking that may not sound stellar but was good enough for the No. 3 spot at the time. With 18 cars on-site, Worsham was sitting pretty no matter the weather. He was sitting even prettier moments later, when both Melanie Troxel and Gary Scelzi were expelled from the race due to a rules infraction. At that point, all 16 remaining cars knew they'd be racing and it was just a matter of settling the eventual order.
When the weather did hold off, the pro classes made one more pass late in the afternoon, and Worsham's car slowed enough for him to shut it off early, dropping him to the No. 7 spot on the final ladder.
"It was just slow and really laboring on that run," he said, "We found some problems with the blower after the run, but I'm not convinced that was all that was wrong with it. It just never got going and was wallowing around out there, so I clicked it off and we ended up seventh. That's still not too bad, and anytime you're in the top half of the field you feel pretty good about it. All it did was set up a first-round pairing with Force though, so we knew we were up against it."
What Worsham was up against was a resurgent Force, who has a typically Force-like car to drive and history on his side. Worsham is, however, one of only a handful of drivers who have held their own against Castrol team since the turn of the century. If there's one thing Worsham isn't, when he's facing the legend, it's intimidated.
"We've raced him for so long, and we've had our share of success as well as our share of getting our butts whipped, but we always go up there to just do our best and make him beat us," Worsham said. "He put the top bulb out on me, which is fair and square, but if he did it to distract me a little I'll admit that he succeeded. I was pretty late at the tree, but we had our good car again, the one from the first session, and we made a heck of a lap. It always feels great to win in round one, and it always feels great to beat Force, so that was a double bonus for us."
Worsham's 4.920 was the second-quickest E.T. of the first round, and it moved him on to face his buddy and nemesis Capps in round two.
"Ron and I are good friends off the track, but he just wears us out on the track," Worsham said. "I don't know what it is, but it seems to go on and on. Unfortunately, this time the Mr. Hyde version of our car came back, and it just seemed like it didn't want to go when I hit the throttle. It ended up spinning the tires at about 330-feet because of the jolt the tires took when the tune-up gets aggressive there. It could've been a great day, but it was only a good one."
The loss to Capps was mirrored by a Tasca defeat in the same round, keeping the CSK driver less than one round out of the Top 10 with six races left before the Countdown field is set. Worsham now has a 47-point lead on Jack Beckman, who is in 12th place.
The NHRA POWERade tour now takes a week off before the annual Western Swing three-peat in Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma.
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/d_worsham.jpg" alt="d_worsham" align="right"borders="0"/>
Del Worsham drove his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car to a second-round finish at Norwalk on Sunday, taking out the man, the myth, the legend, John Force in round one, before losing to Ron Capps in the quarterfinals. The result allowed Worsham to keep pace with Bob Tasca, who currently sits in the 10th spot on the points sheet (now only eight points ahead), while it also put a bit of breathing room between the CSK driver and a bevy of other powerful hopefuls who are breathing down his neck in search of a spot in the Countdown to the championship.
Weather was a constant theme in northern Ohio, as it has been at nearly every event this year, though this race featured one day of racing almost completely washed out despite only a few sprinkles of rain. Downpours over the course of the prior two weeks have left the Norwalk area saturated, and a sunny Friday caused the ground water to seep up through cracks in the track, making conditions far too unsafe for the fuel cars to run. With only the two Saturday sessions left on the schedule, and a dodgy forecast for the day, the drivers were calculating all sorts of scenarios they might have to accomplish in order to be a part of the program.
"It really didn't look likely that we'd get both Saturday runs in, so we approached the first lap as if it was our only one," Worsham said. "The rule book says we set the field on only one session, but that any Top 10 driver not in the field gets inserted. Of course, we came in here seven points out of 10th place, so we were in danger of being bumped by one of those cars if it all lined up that way. Our goal was to out-qualify all the other teams not in the Top 10, just to make sure we weren't in that situation.
"As it turned out, we did way better than that and really put one of our better crunch-time laps on the board there. It put us way up on the sheet, and we felt pretty good about how we did right there. That was the sort of lap that gives you a lot of confidence."
That confidence was bred from the 4.977 Worsham ran in that early Saturday session; a clocking that may not sound stellar but was good enough for the No. 3 spot at the time. With 18 cars on-site, Worsham was sitting pretty no matter the weather. He was sitting even prettier moments later, when both Melanie Troxel and Gary Scelzi were expelled from the race due to a rules infraction. At that point, all 16 remaining cars knew they'd be racing and it was just a matter of settling the eventual order.
When the weather did hold off, the pro classes made one more pass late in the afternoon, and Worsham's car slowed enough for him to shut it off early, dropping him to the No. 7 spot on the final ladder.
"It was just slow and really laboring on that run," he said, "We found some problems with the blower after the run, but I'm not convinced that was all that was wrong with it. It just never got going and was wallowing around out there, so I clicked it off and we ended up seventh. That's still not too bad, and anytime you're in the top half of the field you feel pretty good about it. All it did was set up a first-round pairing with Force though, so we knew we were up against it."
What Worsham was up against was a resurgent Force, who has a typically Force-like car to drive and history on his side. Worsham is, however, one of only a handful of drivers who have held their own against Castrol team since the turn of the century. If there's one thing Worsham isn't, when he's facing the legend, it's intimidated.
"We've raced him for so long, and we've had our share of success as well as our share of getting our butts whipped, but we always go up there to just do our best and make him beat us," Worsham said. "He put the top bulb out on me, which is fair and square, but if he did it to distract me a little I'll admit that he succeeded. I was pretty late at the tree, but we had our good car again, the one from the first session, and we made a heck of a lap. It always feels great to win in round one, and it always feels great to beat Force, so that was a double bonus for us."
Worsham's 4.920 was the second-quickest E.T. of the first round, and it moved him on to face his buddy and nemesis Capps in round two.
"Ron and I are good friends off the track, but he just wears us out on the track," Worsham said. "I don't know what it is, but it seems to go on and on. Unfortunately, this time the Mr. Hyde version of our car came back, and it just seemed like it didn't want to go when I hit the throttle. It ended up spinning the tires at about 330-feet because of the jolt the tires took when the tune-up gets aggressive there. It could've been a great day, but it was only a good one."
The loss to Capps was mirrored by a Tasca defeat in the same round, keeping the CSK driver less than one round out of the Top 10 with six races left before the Countdown field is set. Worsham now has a 47-point lead on Jack Beckman, who is in 12th place.
The NHRA POWERade tour now takes a week off before the annual Western Swing three-peat in Denver, Seattle, and Sonoma.
