Sears Craftsman
Nationals
Madison, Ill.
(June 26-29)
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With nitro flames cackling the nighttime eliminations, Del Worsham kept drag racing's winningest driver winless through 12 races in 2003 as he beat John Force, 4.88 to 4.93, in the Funny Car final of the 7th annual Sears Craftsman Nationals in Madison, Ill. Doug Kalitta closed the gap on Top Fuel points leader Larry Dixon by besting first-time finalist Scott Weis in that final.
Pro Stock winner Ron Krisher used his starting-line prowess for a couple of round wins including the final round, where he defeated Allen Johnson, 6.843 to 6.840, while Geno Scali scored his third win of the season and denied GT Tonglet and Harley Davidson an historic first NHRA Pro Stock Bike win by just .017-second.
Adding a huge exclamation point to his 14th career victory, Kalitta posted the quickest elapsed time of the day in the trophy round when he tripped the Gateway timers in 4.602 seconds at 312.35 mph. The e.t. put him two car-lengths ahead of challenger Scott Weis, a first-time finalist who passed through with a 4.805 at 298.27 mph.
 Doug Kalitta
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Kalitta's win and points leader Larry Dixon's quarterfinal loss to Darrell Russell helped him gain 61 points on the only man ahead of him in the championship chase. Kalitta is now a manageable 207 points back.
"Connie [Kalitta, uncle and team owner] and Jim-O [crew chief Jim Oberhofer] put a really great set-up together today," Kalitta said. "This win feels great. I just want to enjoy it. I don't want to watch points I just want to go rounds and get wins.
"It was good to see Dixon go out early and to gain some back from them but you can lose points just as easy as you can gain them. We just need to stay consistent. This is a strong running car, we all saw that today. We can win races and we can contend. This group of guys has been together a long time and they know how to win."
Kalitta used consistency to reach his fifth money round of the season and 29th of his career. His Mac Tools dragster posted a 4.79 versus Melanie Troxel, a 4.68 opposite Doug "Zilla" Herbert, and a 4.74 against a quicker but red-lighting Darrell Russell.
Weis powered his Race Girl dragster to his first career final by beating Jim Head, Cory McClenathan, and Rhonda Hartman-Smith. Head and McClenathan both encountered tire spin early in their runs, while Weis simply outran Hartman-Smith by a 4.74 to 4.88 margin to carry lane choice into the final. Top Fuel results
For the first time since the Houston event in 2000, the No. 16 qualifier in Funny Car managed to race his way through to the winner's circle. In Y2K it was Bob Gilbertson shocking the world with his first career win. At this event it was Worsham calmly posting his 13th victory. Both men had to beat 12-time champion John Force to complete the feat. Gilbertson opened with a win over Force, while Worsham waited until the final to dismiss the sport's all-time win's leader.
 Del Worsham
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Worsham's heroic 4.883 to 4.936-second triumph helped him return to third place in the POWERade points and keeps his slim championship hopes alive. He is now just 305 points behind Tony Pedregon.
"What an absolute wonderful job the whole team did today," Worsham said. "They really get up for Force. Qualifying didn't matter. We can come from the 16th position and win the race. We just need to be part of the 16 to begin with. The times when we qualified and the times when we raced were different so everyone was guessing today to a certain extent.
"We almost had to win. You can't let Tony get any farther out there. He's got the best car on the planet right now and it's a struggle just to keep them in sight. We're alive, at least for a little while longer."
Defending event champion Force got quicker as the day progressed and the temperatures decreased. His Castrol GTX Ford Mustang started with a 5.12-second upset win over Gary Scelzi, a 5.07 to 5.06 holeshot victory over Dean Skuza, and a straight-up 4.94 to 5-flat triumph over teammate and points leader Tony Pedregon.
An afterthought at the start of the day, final qualifier Worsham and his Checker Schuck's Kragen stablemates followed Force's lead and managed to improve each round. He opened with a huge 5.08-second upset of top qualifier Gary Densham, before cruising by Scotty Cannon with a 5.01 and Ron Capps with a 5-flat. The CSK troop then turned up the wick in the final. Funny Car results
Krisher posted satisfying holeshot win over Allen Johnson in the final, winning with a 6.843 to Johnson's 6.840. His work was done at the starting line when he left with a .026-second reaction time to Johnson's .054-second start.
 Ron Krisher
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"We have a completely new set-up in the car," Krisher said. "Before we were leaving the starting line all over the place with the set-up and it really hurt my lights. I couldn't find any consistency. Now, I've got my old group back working on this car and they set it up the same way every time. Consistency was key. It made it easy for me."
Much maligned for his six red-light losses this season, Valvoline driver Krisher got some measure of redemption Sunday, posting an average reaction time of .022-second through four rounds, which included huge holeshot wins over defending series champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Johnson in the final. Krisher also beat Terry Adams and Taylor Lastor III in logging his fifth career win and first of the year.
A runner-up at the season-opener in Pomona, Mopar Parts pro Johnson returned to the money round here after solid wins over Larry Morgan, Kurt Johnson, and Greg Stanfield. His runaway victory against Stanfield started with a near-perfect .001-second light. This was the first time a Dodge Stratus R/T has reached a Pro Stock final. Pro Stock results
Scali denied Harley-Davidson its first NHRA national event victory in Pro Stock Bike with a dramatic come-from-behind win over GT Tonglet. After surrendering a .010 to .031-second head start to Tonglet, Scali caught and passed his opponent and won with room to spare. The final numbers had Scali crossing in 7.139 seconds at 187.99 mph to Tonglet's 7.177 at 185.46 mph.
 Geno Scali
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The victory returned Scali to the No. 1 position in the POWERade points, a spot he held for two races earlier in the season. His win, combined with Angelle Savoie's gigantic first-round holeshot loss, puts Scali 68 points in front.
"I can't say enough about all the people who worked on this bike today," Scali said. "It feels great to be back in the point's lead, especially by winning my sponsor's race. To debut this special Craftsman bike here run so consistently all the way through to the win is so cool.
"I'm starting to learn how to work this new [starting] tree. All of us in the bike class have struggled with it but I just told myself I had to be professional about it and learn to do whatever it took to stop red-lighting. Now I just sit there, see green, count to three, and then go. [laughs] It's not that bad, of course, but I did slow myself way down.
"We started this season hoping to be a top five or maybe even a top three car. Now we're thinking seriously about the championship. We have a real long way to go and it's not so easy out there but we're in position to run well."
Sponsored in large part by this event's title backer, Craftsman, Trim-Tex rider Scali raced like a man on a mission Sunday. He carded a 7.18 against Craig Treble, a 7.17 versus Mike Berry, a 7.15 next to Columbus finalist Karen Stoffer, and a 7.13 against Tonglet. This was Scali's seventh career final and third of the year. He now has three career victories.
Tonglet fought his way back into the POWERade top 10 by surviving through to his first final of the season and fourth of his career. The Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod rider dismissed Fred Collis, Steve Johnson, and low qualifier Shawn Gann on the day. Pro Stock Bike results
David Rampy scored his milestone 50th career win, becoming just the eighth driver in NHRA history to reach that mark, when he scored in Comp with his A/EA roadster on Tony Stephenson's final-round red-light.
Pro Stock hitter Jeg Coughlin Jr., at the wheel of his brother's SS/CM Cavalier, proved he still know show t win in the Sportsman classes as he relegated last year's event runner-up Jeff Dona to second-place again.
Reigning Stock champ Kevin Helms lost his bid for his third of season when he sliced a -.006 red-light in the final round with his A/S '69 Camaro against James Paul's H/SA Mopar.
Mark Horton got the win in Super Gas by beating Edmond Richardson in the semifinals, 9.90 to 9.91, as Ron Erks and Jonathan Womack, quarterfinalists battling for a semifinal bye, both were disqualified in the quarterfinals.
Horton lost his bid for a double when his Super Comp entry rolled out of the beams in the final, handing the win to Sherman Adcock Jr.
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