Championship Drag Racing

Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
Reading, Pa.
(Oct. 3-5)
(rain out reschedule)

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Del Worsham Checker Schuck's Kragen Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Saturday Pre-race 2 Friday Pre-race

Reading, Sunday: The Reading race wasn't easy this year. It started in September, ended in October, was plagued by rain in both months, and though it toyed with providing big performance, the cool-to-cold temperatures also challenged every team on the property.

For Checker, Schuck's, Kragen drivers Del Worsham and Phil Burkart, the challenges were big, the end results weren't great but also weren't all that bad, and at least on the red side of the CSK pit, the "spectacle" quotient was at a near all-time high. Fortunately, a round was won on each side of the pit, and everyone walked away from this race under their own power, though Worsham was, perhaps, a little stiff and sore.

Three weeks ago, in what now seems like a different season, Worsham struggled on the green race track and could post no better than a 5.218 in the lone session before the event was postponed. Burkart was making his blue CSK debut in September, and his flashy 4.902 placed him in the top half of the field on his maiden voyage. He stayed there, of course, for three weeks.

When the racers reconvened in the eastern Pennsylvania hills this weekend, they were slated to receive two additional qualifying runs, for a total of three. Those sessions may have been slated, but the NHRA tour's continual nemesis, rain, visited again on Saturday afternoon, and set its own schedule. Fortunately, both Worsham and Burkart managed to step up in a big way in the lone Saturday lap, with Burkart's 4.813 placing him 6th and Worsham's 4.876 landing him in the No. 9 spot.

The odd two-lap method of qualifying, stretched over nearly a month, cost some teams dearly, as Whit Bazemore, Scotty Cannon, and Bob Gilbertson could not crack the race field. On Sunday, under stunningly gorgeous and completely unfamiliar blue skies, Burkart faced Frank Pedregon in round one, Worsham was paired with Tommy Johnson, and an enormous standing-room crowd packed the facility, showing their own resilience versus the weather.

Burkart went first, and his clean and smooth 4.836 gave him yet another round win, as he continued to impress as the blue team's new driver.

Worsham followed as part of the final pair in the initial round, and he and Johnson launched side-by-side. Johnson lost traction first, and he quickly back-pedaled his car to make a charge for the finish line. A fraction of a second later, Worsham's car also spun the hoops, and he slapped the throttle to regain traction. His special edition Valvoline Pontiac hooked up, and tore for the finish line, leading Johnson and pulling away.

Then ... boom!

Crossing the finish line first, Worsham won the round but lost his car's body as his motor exploded in ferocious fashion. Nothing above the cylinder heads was left in the power plant, shrapnel littered the track, and the Valvoline body ended up folded, shredded, and torn to pieces, after it disintegrated in a spectacular way. Worsham's fun wasn't over with the explosion, however, as he then struggled mightily to control the 280 mph screaming chassis, spinning in his own oil and fishtailing wildly down the track.

Nearing the sand trap, nearly out of room, he slapped the wall at least twice, and finally came to a rest in the sand and gravel. Woozy and stunned, he still managed to hop from the car to survey the damage.

"There's some history with that body, that a lot of people don't know," Worsham said. "This Valvoline car was actually the Mountain Dew car we exploded and tossed 30-feet in the air in Chicago two years ago. We fixed it up, and repainted it for this special edition deal. We won't be repainting it any more. The biggest surviving pieces are the roof and the rear wing. Everything else is in little bits.

"The force of the concussion popped opened my visor a little, and I got some nice hot oil in the face for a bit. I also got knocked around in there for a while, as the car fishtailed on me. I was battling it, trying to get it stopped, but it was very violent until it hit the sand. I'm a bit lucky, and very relieved to be okay. It wasn't a lot of fun. But, the bottom line is I'm fine."

Burkart's crew hustled to service their car, while the Worsham Racing Artisan Home Entertainment T2 team immediately went to work getting Worsham's red CSK body ready, along with a new motor and a lot of other parts and pieces.

After being checked out by the medical staff, and released, Worsham came back to his pit area to find a feverish thrash going on. With plenty of time to spare, the combined Worsham team rebuilt the car, replaced all the broken or mangled parts, fired the new motor, and placed the red CSK body on it for round two.

There was only one question: Had the chassis been tweaked or bent when the car made contact with the wall?

"You can measure it, you can eyeball it, and you can pull it around behind the tow vehicle, but you're not going to know how it is until you put it on a jig, put it on the scales, or race it," Worsham said. "We didn't have time for the first two options, so all we could do was put it back together and go up there."

Burkart went first, for Team CSK in round two, facing Dean Skuza. Though the blue car ran well, it lost a bit of horsepower from the first round and Skuza pulled away for the win.

"We found what was wrong after the run, and we were lucky to not have another big bang out there," Burkart said. "We hurt the motor, and we were lucky it held together for us, but a lot of teams didn't run as well as we did and won. We were not a lucky team today. But, what the heck. Anyone who counts on luck isn't a winner. And we're going to be winners out here."

Moments later, Worsham faced No. 1 qualifier Gary Densham in his round two race, and was quickly out in front of him. He led to 330, and was pulling away at 660, leading the crowd to believe this comeback story was about to come true. Just past half-track, however, the CSK Pontiac was fading left toward the center line and, though Worsham had the steering turned all the way to the right, the car simply would not come back. He eventually had to lift and Densham pulled around for the win.

"We'll have to check the chassis very well, but my guess is that we tweaked it just a bit in the first round deal," Worsham said. "I could feel it on the burnout, it just acted differently and kicked the opposite direction that it usually does. On the run, it just kept fading left, and there wasn't anything I could do to bring it back. I hated to give it up, because we were out on him pretty well and we were on our way to winning that round, but the next thing coming was the center line and you can't be driving over there.

"Our guys worked very hard to get us back up there, and we had a fast enough car to win, to win the whole race," he continued. "But, breaks are breaks, and we haven't had any lately. We'll work on everything, get it all ready to go, and head to Dallas."

It started in September. It ended in October. And, though it wasn't the most successful race, it surely was spectacular.

Reading, Saturday: Del Worsham and Phil Burkart, drivers of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Pontiac Funny Cars, after Saturday's rescheduled qualifying sessions in Reading, Pa.

After returning to Reading and setting up on Friday under sunny skies, racers awoke on Saturday morning to persistent rain and chilly temperatures. The rain did abate around 1 p.m. and racing continued with one final round of qualifying.

Worsham improved to a solid 4.876, moving him from outside the provisional field to the No. 9 spot.

"That was the smoothest launch we've had all year, I'd say," Worsham said. "It just powered off the line without so much as a quiver, and although a 4.87 wasn't bad, we left way too much on the table. We just didn't know how good the track was out there, and we were running near the front of the pack so, in effect, the special edition Valvoline/CSK car was the guinea pig for Worsham Racing. We all knew the air was great, but the only way to find out how good the track was, was to run on it. As soon as we ran, I knew it was a 4.7 race track."

Burkart learned from his teammate, and posted a 4.813 to jump up to the No. 6 position.

"That was a handful, right there," Burkart said. "It's funny, we ran back-to-back 4.77's in Chicago, and neither one of them felt as edgy as that run. I was working it hard, steering like crazy to get it down there. On a run like that, you sure can't be chicken. You have to have the nerve to hold on and go for it, and we got it down there and got in the top half. That's what driving a Funny Car is all about. Hauling down there, with the motor screaming, staying ahead of it and keeping it in the middle, and then hitting the 'chutes and hearing we made a good pass on the radio."

Worsham will face Tommy Johnson, while Burkart will face Frank Pedregon in round one tomorrow.

Reading, pre-race 2: It's deja vu all over again for Del Worsham and his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Pontiac Funny Car team, as they return to the hills of eastern Pennsylvania to complete the Lucas Oil Nationals, which were washed out by rain three weeks ago.

At the time of the postponement, Worsham was in the majority when he felt frustration and disappointment as the announcement was made to postpone the event. Now, as his team works its way from Chicago to Reading, he's quite a bit more excited.

"It was a very frustrating stay in Reading the first time," Worsham said. "It's easy to get fed up with the rain, and to get upset about it. It's been such a bad year for weather, we're all completely worn out by the rain. But now that's it time to go back to Maple Grove Raceway, I'm all amped-up, actually. We're coming off a Chicago race that really turned our teams around, and we're anxious to get back to Maple Grove to run some numbers."

There is one qualifying pass in the books for Reading, and all pro teams will have two more qualifying laps on Saturday this weekend. Though three laps represents an abbreviated schedule, they still represent one more than the teams received in Chicago this past weekend, when rain washed out all of Friday qualifying. In Worsham's lone attempt three weeks ago, he pedaled his way to a 5.218-second E.T., which has him sitting in the No. 11 spot.

"We knew the forecast was horrible, and we didn't know what was going to happen in terms of getting the race in, or how many laps we'd get, so I pedaled it," he said. "I didn't pedal it to get a 5.21, the number was kind of irrelevant. I just wanted to be placed lower down the list for the next run. So now, when we go back, I'll be in a little better shape than if I'd just lifted and coasted down there to 10-second deal."

While the postponed Reading event hung in limbo over the past two weekends, Worsham and his CSK team ventured to Memphis, where they did not run particularly well, and then to Chicago, where they found their stride and connected on some major numbers.

"Chicago, this past weekend, was dialed in about as well as you can ask for," he said. "Awesome air, awesome track, everything was nearly perfect. When it's like that, and the big boys are all out there slapping new record numbers on the board, you don't want to get left behind. We hit it pretty well, and all three of our teams lowered their career numbers. The only bad part of our deal was lowering it in the second round, to a 4.764, which was a hundredth quicker than we'd ever gone, and yet Gary Scelzi got there first. We were disappointed, but there's not much you can do when a guy spanks you with a 4.738. We gave it a great shot, and it was the best race of the weekend, but we came up short."

Worsham anticipates that Reading will be quick this weekend, and thinks it could be "Chicago, Part 2" if the conditions are right. On the other hand, he has removed himself from the weather speculation business.

"It's a fast track to begin with, and when it's cool there we put some big stuff on the board," he said. "I refuse to look at the weather forecast, though. First of all, it's usually depressing, and when it's not depressing that means it's wrong. We had a 30-percent chance of rain in Chicago on Friday, and we were saying that meant a deluge. Sure enough, we got drenched. So, I'm just going to Reading expecting clear blue skies and cool temperatures. It will be great racing, and we'll be ready."

Reading, Friday: Del Worsham pedaled his car once, in reaction to violent tire shake, and posted a 5.218, which was still good enough for the No. 11 spot overnight:

"It shook hard, really hard. We haven't even thought of tire shake in months, much less felt any, because the tracks have been hot and greasy. But here, after all the rain and then another brief rain delay in the middle of the Funny Car session, the track cooled off and tightened up and it wasn't hard to be undertuned. I knew it was shaking hard enough that either it would shake the tires loose, or shake my head off, so I let off the throttle, let it settle, and got back into it. It hooked up again and took off, which kind of surprised me, and we got to the other end. The E.T. is no good, but it beats lifting and being outside the field going into tomorrow. There are some good teams that didn't make it down there, so I'm glad we did. The weather reports are pretty depressing, so I'm glad we got any kind of number at all."

Reading, pre-race: Del Worsham wears a lot of hats, handles a lot of responsibility, and shoulders a lot of stress as the man in charge at Worsham Racing. Keeping a three-car organization up and running is responsibility enough, but adding in driver changes, a hectic travel schedule, and the joys of fatherhood can be enough to wear a guy out.

Heading into this weekend's Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., Worsham is ready to trade it all in for a few days of wearing just one hat, his racing helmet.

"I'm a very hands-on guy, I think people know that," Worsham said. "I'm not going to kid anyone; it's been pretty wild around here for a few weeks. This past weekend, with the blue team going to the final round at Indy, and then Johnny Gray resigning the next morning, us moving Phil Burkart over to the blue team and bringing Cory Lee back in to drive the black car, it's all been pretty hectic.

"Plus, I had my girls and my wife with me in Indy, and it takes two of us to fly on planes with the twins, so after the race I had to fly back to California for a day to help Connie get the girls home. I'll fly back to Reading on Thursday and head straight to the track. This weekend, I'd really like to just be thinking of racing."

With all the peripheral activity that has taken place in the last few days and weeks, it almost comes as an afterthought that Worsham suffered through one of his worst Mac Tools U.S. Nationals ever over the past two weeks. His red Checker, Schuck's, Kragen team struggled throughout qualifying and ended up sneaking into the show in the 16th position. They then went out and smoked the tires early in round one, ending their event on a down note. Worsham is ready to put all that behind him, as well.

"It was just a lousy event for us," he said. "On the first weekend, we just got off on the wrong foot and got behind. As other teams, including our two other teams, kept tweaking and improving, we were still trying to find the right combination. We were lucky to make the field, really.

"Whether all the outside stuff had any connection to our performance, I don't know. Maybe it did. It's just been crazy around here lately, so maybe that sneaks over into how we perform on the track. I know my head is clearer right now than it has been in weeks. We've got a lot of this stuff behind us, and I want to get in the car and race. I'm pretty excited about getting to Reading."

The advantages of operating a multi-car team will come directly into play for Worsham, as he and his red CSK team look to rebound at Maple Grove Raceway this weekend. With the blue CSK team coming off a runner-up performance in Indy, and the black Artisan team running extremely well, Worsham won't have to look to the heavens to find renewed performance. He'll only have to look at his own teams.

"Both of our other cars really ran well at Indy," he said. "The only downside was that they had to run each other in round one. The Artisan car actually outran the blue CSK car in that race, but Johnny got a jump at the lights and won on a hole-shot. Either one of those cars could have won the U.S. Nationals, and we have all the computer data right in our transporter, so we have a leg up on getting back on track."

And getting back on track, wearing only one hat, will be the one thing Worsham will really enjoy.