<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/1/d_worsham06.jpg"align="right"borders="0"/>
POMONA, Calif. - Del Worsham returned to his pit area after yet another frustratingly close loss and summed up his emotions in a simple sentence.
"There's our whole year in a nutshell," he said.
Finishing the long 2006 season with a fast race car, Worsham had high hopes of coming into his own backyard and ending the campaign with a bang. Instead, the bang he created ended up on national television for repeat viewings throughout the day on Saturday, and the only thing about his weekend that referred to a broken record was yet another nearly inconceivable loss by just "that much," a refrain that has been repeated so many times it sounds like a needle stuck in an album groove. For a guy having a hard time walking, and a harder time sitting, it was not the sort of wrap-up he was looking for.
Worsham came into this event knowing his car was finally coming around after a major tune-up change at the end of August. He proved that, stunning the field and the crowd on Thursday when he powered to a huge 4.712 to lead the pack after the first day of this four-day event. It was the quickest run of Worsham's illustrious career, but as quick as the 4.712 was it was well short of what could have been, as Worsham's car detonated the motor a good 200-feet before the finish line. The concussion from that bang splintered his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo body in a number of places, and the team brought out the back-up body for Friday.
"It popped the motor down there pretty well, so much so that it cracked the body in a couple of places and pushed two mounting pads right through the carbon fiber," Worsham said. "We fix these bodies ourselves, so the guys got to work on repairing it late that night, but the plan was just to have it ready by Sunday and we'd run the back-up body until then. The back-up was practically new, anyway, so it wasn't a bad trade-off, but I'm just more comfortable with 'old reliable' on there.
"The worst part was, we didn't know why the motor exploded. The car was running so hard, and so well, and then it just banged and quit. We had some ideas about what caused it, but I can't say any of us were totally sure. We just put the car back together, put the other body on it, and went back out there to run another strong lap on Friday."
That lap, and its eventual outcome, will likely follow Worsham for the rest of his career, defining him for a large number of people who may have had little or no interest in the sport prior to seeing it on national or local news for the next 24 hours. Worsham's car, with the barely-used back-up Monte Carlo atop it, was barreling down the track to another big run, when it quickly dropped two cylinders on the right side at the 1,000-foot mark. Almost instantaneously, the motor again exploded, but this time with far greater force. The blast crumpled the red CSK body, folding it up in front of Worsham's line of sight and making the parachute levers impossible to reach. Without 'chutes, and unable to see, Worsham was along for the ride, and what a ride it was.
After hitting the wall once, then scraping along it for another 100-feet or so, Worsham plowed into the sand trap at a viciously high rate of speed. When the nose of the Monte Carlo dug into the sand, the car somersaulted, end over end, through the air for about 40 yards, finally landing on its roof atop the first catch fence. Once that impact occurred, the car kept barrel rolling, making at least one more flip before landing, on its wheels, behind the second catch fence. Before the dust had even settled, Worsham was walking away, wounded but alive.
"It was pretty awful, and I remember all of it," Worsham said. "It blew up, I couldn't see, and I couldn't reach the 'chutes, so I knew something bad was going to happen, I just didn't know what. When it made the first somersault, it got very quiet in there, but when it hit, upside down, it was unlike anything I've ever experience. Imagine being dropped on your head from a ten-story building, and as you hit the ground, someone throws a dump truck full of sand right in your face. That's about what it was like."
Worsham was transported to a nearby hospital, where a broken tail bone was diagnosed and a couple of shin lacerations were stitched up. Released in a couple of hours, he gingerly returned to the race track late on Friday night, to find his crew preparing two back-up cars. Looking to give the driver the best chance at the least possible amount of pain, the two cars were brought out to allow Worsham to pick the one with the seat that best afforded that opportunity.
Returning to the track on Saturday, Worsham arrived in serious pain but with a strong will to get right back in his race car. With body repairs on the original car put on the fast track, the team finished readying the back-up chassis and prepping the body with just minutes to spare before Worsham's first Saturday lap.
"There's a lot to do, and a lot of work that goes into swapping out cars and bodies, but our guys kept their heads down and did the work," Worsham said. "On top of that, we found what blew the motor up, so I felt a lot better about getting back in there. The goal was to make a half-track pass, just to see how that car ran and how the driver could handle it. It didn't feel good, but you do get a lot of adrenalin going when you drive one of these, so that helped."
What also helped was the performance of the new car. Streaking to incremental numbers that mirrored the 4.71, Worsham toughest assignment was actually lifting off the pedal. He did, but not until nearly 1,000 feet.
"It was running so good, it was really tough not to take it to the finish line, but we had promised NHRA and ourselves that we'd do a short shake-down run, so I finally lifted," Worsham said.
The team then skipped the final session, to give their driver a rest and to finish the service they needed to perform in order to be ready for Sunday. By the end of Saturday qualifying, Worsham had finally slipped out of the top spot, but only as low as No. 4, where he would face Gary Densham in round one.
When round one arrived on Sunday morning, Worsham and Densham lined up as the second pair of Funny Cars, not sure what to expect from a track that was heating up rapidly in the Southern California sun. At the hit of the throttle, Worsham's car moved forward but quickly, and surprisingly, smoked the tires. Just as it appeared this race was already over, Densham's machine also lost traction, and a pedaling duel was on.
The extra momentum Densham had, after making it an additional 100-feet under power, gave him a big head start, but Worsham's ability to settle a car and get it to hook up again allowed him to put up a real chase. Behind by a 100 feet at first, he powered down the track, reeling Densham in at a frantic pace. At the finish line, Worsham's machine was under full power and closing fast. Unfortunately, the CSK machine needed a 1,330-foot track, and drag strips are only 1,320-feet long.
"I was catching up fast, and thought I was going to get him," Worsham said. "I just ran out of track, which means I also ran out of rounds, and ran out of chances to end this season with a win. Despite all the bad things that happened, we still ended the year on a positive note. We ran our quickest lap ever, we're right on the doorstep of running in the 4.60s, and the Thursday run might have actually done that if it had lived to the finish line, and we survived an awful wreck.
"I'm going into the off-season to rest a little, let this tail bone heal, and then get right to work on 2007. With the performance we showed here, I'm eager to get back at it. We ended up missing the top ten by all of 27 points, and I can think of a hundred different ways those points got away from us, by inches, all year. We wipe the slate clean, and we'll be back in '07 with a fresh points sheet and the same tough attitude."
There should be no question of Mr. Worsham's toughness or attitude. We'll see you all in 2007.
Worsham Walks Away, With First Round Loss
POMONA, Calif. - Del Worsham returned to his pit area after yet another frustratingly close loss and summed up his emotions in a simple sentence.
"There's our whole year in a nutshell," he said.
Finishing the long 2006 season with a fast race car, Worsham had high hopes of coming into his own backyard and ending the campaign with a bang. Instead, the bang he created ended up on national television for repeat viewings throughout the day on Saturday, and the only thing about his weekend that referred to a broken record was yet another nearly inconceivable loss by just "that much," a refrain that has been repeated so many times it sounds like a needle stuck in an album groove. For a guy having a hard time walking, and a harder time sitting, it was not the sort of wrap-up he was looking for.
Worsham came into this event knowing his car was finally coming around after a major tune-up change at the end of August. He proved that, stunning the field and the crowd on Thursday when he powered to a huge 4.712 to lead the pack after the first day of this four-day event. It was the quickest run of Worsham's illustrious career, but as quick as the 4.712 was it was well short of what could have been, as Worsham's car detonated the motor a good 200-feet before the finish line. The concussion from that bang splintered his red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo body in a number of places, and the team brought out the back-up body for Friday.
"It popped the motor down there pretty well, so much so that it cracked the body in a couple of places and pushed two mounting pads right through the carbon fiber," Worsham said. "We fix these bodies ourselves, so the guys got to work on repairing it late that night, but the plan was just to have it ready by Sunday and we'd run the back-up body until then. The back-up was practically new, anyway, so it wasn't a bad trade-off, but I'm just more comfortable with 'old reliable' on there.
"The worst part was, we didn't know why the motor exploded. The car was running so hard, and so well, and then it just banged and quit. We had some ideas about what caused it, but I can't say any of us were totally sure. We just put the car back together, put the other body on it, and went back out there to run another strong lap on Friday."
That lap, and its eventual outcome, will likely follow Worsham for the rest of his career, defining him for a large number of people who may have had little or no interest in the sport prior to seeing it on national or local news for the next 24 hours. Worsham's car, with the barely-used back-up Monte Carlo atop it, was barreling down the track to another big run, when it quickly dropped two cylinders on the right side at the 1,000-foot mark. Almost instantaneously, the motor again exploded, but this time with far greater force. The blast crumpled the red CSK body, folding it up in front of Worsham's line of sight and making the parachute levers impossible to reach. Without 'chutes, and unable to see, Worsham was along for the ride, and what a ride it was.
After hitting the wall once, then scraping along it for another 100-feet or so, Worsham plowed into the sand trap at a viciously high rate of speed. When the nose of the Monte Carlo dug into the sand, the car somersaulted, end over end, through the air for about 40 yards, finally landing on its roof atop the first catch fence. Once that impact occurred, the car kept barrel rolling, making at least one more flip before landing, on its wheels, behind the second catch fence. Before the dust had even settled, Worsham was walking away, wounded but alive.
"It was pretty awful, and I remember all of it," Worsham said. "It blew up, I couldn't see, and I couldn't reach the 'chutes, so I knew something bad was going to happen, I just didn't know what. When it made the first somersault, it got very quiet in there, but when it hit, upside down, it was unlike anything I've ever experience. Imagine being dropped on your head from a ten-story building, and as you hit the ground, someone throws a dump truck full of sand right in your face. That's about what it was like."
Worsham was transported to a nearby hospital, where a broken tail bone was diagnosed and a couple of shin lacerations were stitched up. Released in a couple of hours, he gingerly returned to the race track late on Friday night, to find his crew preparing two back-up cars. Looking to give the driver the best chance at the least possible amount of pain, the two cars were brought out to allow Worsham to pick the one with the seat that best afforded that opportunity.
Returning to the track on Saturday, Worsham arrived in serious pain but with a strong will to get right back in his race car. With body repairs on the original car put on the fast track, the team finished readying the back-up chassis and prepping the body with just minutes to spare before Worsham's first Saturday lap.
"There's a lot to do, and a lot of work that goes into swapping out cars and bodies, but our guys kept their heads down and did the work," Worsham said. "On top of that, we found what blew the motor up, so I felt a lot better about getting back in there. The goal was to make a half-track pass, just to see how that car ran and how the driver could handle it. It didn't feel good, but you do get a lot of adrenalin going when you drive one of these, so that helped."
What also helped was the performance of the new car. Streaking to incremental numbers that mirrored the 4.71, Worsham toughest assignment was actually lifting off the pedal. He did, but not until nearly 1,000 feet.
"It was running so good, it was really tough not to take it to the finish line, but we had promised NHRA and ourselves that we'd do a short shake-down run, so I finally lifted," Worsham said.
The team then skipped the final session, to give their driver a rest and to finish the service they needed to perform in order to be ready for Sunday. By the end of Saturday qualifying, Worsham had finally slipped out of the top spot, but only as low as No. 4, where he would face Gary Densham in round one.
When round one arrived on Sunday morning, Worsham and Densham lined up as the second pair of Funny Cars, not sure what to expect from a track that was heating up rapidly in the Southern California sun. At the hit of the throttle, Worsham's car moved forward but quickly, and surprisingly, smoked the tires. Just as it appeared this race was already over, Densham's machine also lost traction, and a pedaling duel was on.
The extra momentum Densham had, after making it an additional 100-feet under power, gave him a big head start, but Worsham's ability to settle a car and get it to hook up again allowed him to put up a real chase. Behind by a 100 feet at first, he powered down the track, reeling Densham in at a frantic pace. At the finish line, Worsham's machine was under full power and closing fast. Unfortunately, the CSK machine needed a 1,330-foot track, and drag strips are only 1,320-feet long.
"I was catching up fast, and thought I was going to get him," Worsham said. "I just ran out of track, which means I also ran out of rounds, and ran out of chances to end this season with a win. Despite all the bad things that happened, we still ended the year on a positive note. We ran our quickest lap ever, we're right on the doorstep of running in the 4.60s, and the Thursday run might have actually done that if it had lived to the finish line, and we survived an awful wreck.
"I'm going into the off-season to rest a little, let this tail bone heal, and then get right to work on 2007. With the performance we showed here, I'm eager to get back at it. We ended up missing the top ten by all of 27 points, and I can think of a hundred different ways those points got away from us, by inches, all year. We wipe the slate clean, and we'll be back in '07 with a fresh points sheet and the same tough attitude."
There should be no question of Mr. Worsham's toughness or attitude. We'll see you all in 2007.
