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BRISTOL, Tenn. (July 3, 2007) -- Del Worsham has earned his share of TV time over the years, and most of it has been based on great performances, emotional victories, and masterful driving efforts. Of course, there have also been a few spectacular moments in the popular driver's career, when his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car ended up doing things he never wanted and, after another one of those weekends in Norwalk, Worsham is not just anxious to race again, but is focused and intent upon putting those trials behind him. He'll have his chance
this weekend, as stop No. 3 on the current six-race swing takes place at Thunder Valley, in Bristol, Tenn.
By the end of his Norwalk weekend, Worsham had left parts, pieces, a chassis, and one shredded Funny Car body on the ground. He also left northern Ohio with a first-round loss, which only added to the frustration of a weekend gone awry. The good news, however, came in the form of some forensic study, when he and his team found the likely culprit for their recent misfortunes.
"We sifted through everything, and analyzed all the parts and pieces, and it looks like we've probably found the source of the explosions," Worsham said. "Knocking the blower off the car can usually be traced to something in the valve train, because all of those valves have to open and close exactly right, and if they don't you have a big boom on your hands and the pressure usually goes upward, through the manifold.
It's one thing to have a problem out here every now and then, because every team in the sport can relate to banging the blower and detonating motors, but to see a problem come back regularly, over a long period of time, well that's a different deal. That's something that we've been trying to pin down, so hopefully we've done that.
"The most frustrating part of this whole ordeal has been the fact the car really wants to run great. Whether you look back to Pomona last year, with the trip into the sand trap, or the first few races of this season, we've been on some monster runs over the last few months, but too many of them have ended with broken parts and mangled motors. If we have this thing ironed out, we're probably ready to go on a tear, because we're making good power and we have a good tune-up. Heck, we actually bumped our way into the field, in Norwalk, on the run where we blew the body off the car. We were on the best lap of the day, for anyone in the class."
Coming into Bristol, Worsham knows the weather is apt to be quite a bit warmer than the idyllic conditions the tour has experienced over the last two weekends, in Englishtown and Norwalk. He also knows he'll be racing on a completely green race track, one which hasn't seen a single pass since being resurfaced over the past month. The dice will be handy, because just about every team will be rolling them on Friday.
"We're finally getting into the hot weather, so that throws a wrench in a lot of tune-ups, and we have no idea what to expect regarding the track," Worsham said. "It should be smooth, since it's brand new, but I think we're all going there expecting it to be pretty loose and pretty green. It almost kind of has to be, really, because no cars have ever gone down it. It will probably get better as the weekend goes on, but I'm going in expecting this to be a real tuning challenge and I'm sure it will be a driving challenge too, because there's probably going to be a lot of pedaling going on.
"In terms of the weather, it's really hard to believe how lucky we've been the last two weeks. To be in New Jersey and Ohio in late June, and have it be so beautiful and dry, well that's amazing. The fun can't last forever though, so I'm guessing we'll be dealing with a lot more heat and humidity this weekend, and then after Bristol it's straight to Denver, where you can usually fry eggs on the asphalt. We're ready for it, so I'm excited."
Ready for the heat. Ready for the challenge of a freshly paved track. Ready to confirm the elimination of the motor-eating gremlin, and ready for Bristol. Del Worsham is all set to bounce back.
WORSHAM INTENT UPON BOUNCING BACK IN BRISTOL
BRISTOL, Tenn. (July 3, 2007) -- Del Worsham has earned his share of TV time over the years, and most of it has been based on great performances, emotional victories, and masterful driving efforts. Of course, there have also been a few spectacular moments in the popular driver's career, when his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car ended up doing things he never wanted and, after another one of those weekends in Norwalk, Worsham is not just anxious to race again, but is focused and intent upon putting those trials behind him. He'll have his chance
this weekend, as stop No. 3 on the current six-race swing takes place at Thunder Valley, in Bristol, Tenn.
By the end of his Norwalk weekend, Worsham had left parts, pieces, a chassis, and one shredded Funny Car body on the ground. He also left northern Ohio with a first-round loss, which only added to the frustration of a weekend gone awry. The good news, however, came in the form of some forensic study, when he and his team found the likely culprit for their recent misfortunes.
"We sifted through everything, and analyzed all the parts and pieces, and it looks like we've probably found the source of the explosions," Worsham said. "Knocking the blower off the car can usually be traced to something in the valve train, because all of those valves have to open and close exactly right, and if they don't you have a big boom on your hands and the pressure usually goes upward, through the manifold.
It's one thing to have a problem out here every now and then, because every team in the sport can relate to banging the blower and detonating motors, but to see a problem come back regularly, over a long period of time, well that's a different deal. That's something that we've been trying to pin down, so hopefully we've done that.
"The most frustrating part of this whole ordeal has been the fact the car really wants to run great. Whether you look back to Pomona last year, with the trip into the sand trap, or the first few races of this season, we've been on some monster runs over the last few months, but too many of them have ended with broken parts and mangled motors. If we have this thing ironed out, we're probably ready to go on a tear, because we're making good power and we have a good tune-up. Heck, we actually bumped our way into the field, in Norwalk, on the run where we blew the body off the car. We were on the best lap of the day, for anyone in the class."
Coming into Bristol, Worsham knows the weather is apt to be quite a bit warmer than the idyllic conditions the tour has experienced over the last two weekends, in Englishtown and Norwalk. He also knows he'll be racing on a completely green race track, one which hasn't seen a single pass since being resurfaced over the past month. The dice will be handy, because just about every team will be rolling them on Friday.
"We're finally getting into the hot weather, so that throws a wrench in a lot of tune-ups, and we have no idea what to expect regarding the track," Worsham said. "It should be smooth, since it's brand new, but I think we're all going there expecting it to be pretty loose and pretty green. It almost kind of has to be, really, because no cars have ever gone down it. It will probably get better as the weekend goes on, but I'm going in expecting this to be a real tuning challenge and I'm sure it will be a driving challenge too, because there's probably going to be a lot of pedaling going on.
"In terms of the weather, it's really hard to believe how lucky we've been the last two weeks. To be in New Jersey and Ohio in late June, and have it be so beautiful and dry, well that's amazing. The fun can't last forever though, so I'm guessing we'll be dealing with a lot more heat and humidity this weekend, and then after Bristol it's straight to Denver, where you can usually fry eggs on the asphalt. We're ready for it, so I'm excited."
Ready for the heat. Ready for the challenge of a freshly paved track. Ready to confirm the elimination of the motor-eating gremlin, and ready for Bristol. Del Worsham is all set to bounce back.
