Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis, Ind.
(Sept. 1-6)
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Del Worsham Checker Schuck's Kragen Funny Car |
Reports: Monday Sunday Saturday Friday Pre-race |
Indianapolis, Monday: The annual running of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is roundly considered to be the single most prestigious, and historic, race on the NHRA POWERade tour. What is less often said, but just as legitimate, is that the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals is also the most demanding event on the 23-race tour. It stands alone as the only race with five qualifying sessions. It features a double-dose of pressure for Funny Car teams with the Skoal Showdown built into a schedule which would push the teams to breaking point even without the extra "race within the race." It truly is "The Big Go" and it truly is one tough week of racing in America's racing capital.
For Del Worsham and Phil Burkart, the additional hoopla, the extra racing, and the inherent pressure, joined forces with oppressive Midwestern weather conditions to challenge their teams to the limit. In the end, the demands were faced and the challenges fought, and though neither driver would consider the long weekend much of a success, especially considering the five race victories they have combined to claim this season, both were proud of the effort and supportive of the groups who helped them.
The regular field of Funny Cars on the NHRA tour averages in the 18 or 19-car range, but there were 24 nitro Funny Cars contesting for the 16-car field here in Indy. Granted, some of those extra cars do not regularly post the sort of numbers required to earn entry into this stout eliminations field, but Worsham was quick to point out how the deep field changes everything.
"It really doesn't matter if some of these guys have 5.10 or 5.20 racecars," Worsham said. "When you have 24 cars entered, it makes it impossible for a good car to limp into the field like you might be able to when 17 or 18 cars show up. Some of these extra cars are going to run well enough to push the bump spot down, and that adds to the pressure. When you see 24 cars on the qualifying sheet, you start thinking about getting in the show."
Through three days and five sessions of qualifying, the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen teams battled the track, the weather, and the competition to earn hard fought spots in this field. With today's rules, it has been a while since 4-second racers missed the cut, but here Bob Gilbertson (4.964,) Bob Bode (4.966,) and Frank Pedregon (4.995) could not crack the top 16, further illustrating Worsham's point about the enhanced competition fostered by sheer numbers.
Burkart paced Team CSK, with multiple solid runs, landing himself in the No. 7 spot with a 4.861 posted on Friday night. Worsham smoked the tires at the 330' mark on Friday, lengthened his run to the 660' mark on Saturday afternoon, and then saw the Saturday night session as a "make or break" deal.
"Qualifying lasts through Sunday here, but we looked at it like the Saturday night run was the final shot," Worsham said. "We had the Skoal Showdown on Sunday, which means you're trying to win laps and qualify for the real event at the same time. That's not good. Plus, both Sunday runs were in the daytime, and by Saturday night the bump spot was getting down to where you could barely run those numbers with a perfect run in the daylight. We had to do it Saturday night."
A 4.900 wasn't the sort of number that would necessarily bring the crowd to its feet, but it got Worsham safely in the show and allowed the team to aim for the $100,000 Skoal pay-out on Sunday. And, as expected, under a searing Sunday sun and dense Indiana humidity, the field was barely altered in the final two sessions. Worsham's number held for the 13th spot.
During the Skoal Showdown on Sunday, Worsham experienced a frustrating loss of traction at nearly the hit of the throttle.
"We really haven't done that all year, but we've been close to doing it a few times so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, " Worsham said. "We've analyzed this thing from all angles, and the truth is we're really struggling with the new rules. I didn't think the 85% nitro rule, the new tire, and the new minimum tire pressure would have that big of an impact, but they really seem to have combined to directly effect our tune-up.
"Teams tune their cars differently, and I think the new rules didn't hurt a few groups out here as much as they got to us. They hit us pretty hard, the way we've tuned our car for four years now, and it's up to us to figure out a new way to approach this thing so that we can get back in the ballgame."
Worsham's early loss in the Showdown was disappointing, but Burkart's exit hit harder. As he raced John Force, Burkart spun the tires at half-track, then pedaled his car in an effort to chase Force down. Unfortunately, that pedal job created havoc in the car's power plant, and when Burkart's CSK Monte Carlo exploded the motor it was instantly engulfed in flames while also spewing thick acrid smoke.
Trying to control his machine at 250 miles per hour with zero visibility, Burkart got it to a stop just past the finish line and exited through the roof hatch, unhurt but frustrated. Though the damage was severe, and the body a short term casualty, the team went right to work to completely strip, clean, and rebuild the chassis. With nearly all the wires and hoses burned off, the effort mirrored the construction of a new car, but the blue squad dug in and completed the job by late Sunday evening, capping off their work by firing the car in the pits to confirm its race worthiness.
Monday brought with it more bright sun and high temperatures, as well as a pair of tough first round match-ups for Worsham and Burkart. Worsham's opponent was Cruz Pedregon, who has been running extremely well as of late. Burkart's foe would be Ron Capps, who has also recently run well and could easily have earned much better results than have come his way during the summer months.
Burkart went first, as he and Capps were the first pair in round one. With a 2002 Pontiac Firebird body on the car, the blue team fired their rebuilt machine and Burkart aimed to reward them with a win. He did just that, running a 4.927 on the hot track. If any particular round wins fall more legitimately into the category of "well earned," this one deserved the moniker and the blue crew deserved every pat on the back they received.
Worsham then faced off as part of the second pair, staging his one-race-only special edition Mac Tools/CSK Monte Carlo next to Pedregon. Having struggled in qualifying, the red team brain trust was unable to completely identify the limits for traction, and the smart approach was taken.
"We really needed a good solid run on Sunday afternoon, to see what the hot track would take and to see if our new approach in the clutch department was the right one," Worsham said. "But on that last qualifying run we dropped a cylinder and didn't get the full pass we wanted. For round one, we were basically out there running a little blind. We had to take our best guess, because we hadn't done well enough in the heat to know what we could do.
"You can make the age-old mistake of just standing all over it, like you're going to be big heroes and stun the world by jumping up a tenth, but we learned that lesson years ago. We just wanted to make sure we got down there, and if Cruz was going to beat us he'd have to outrun us. We absolutely weren't going to give him the round by doing anything stupid."
Worsham and Pedregon left nearly simultaneously, and paced each other the length of the track. On this lap, neither team did anything stupid and no one handed anything to anyone. Worsham's 4.993 was a solid lap, but Pedregon's 4.915 was simply better.
After round one, the blue team got to work in the CSK pit area, aiming to make the most of a long difficult weekend. Having been literally "on fire" Sunday, Burkart wanted nothing more than to be figuratively "on fire" on Monday.
"It sounded like a great story," Burkart said. "To burn your car to the ground on Sunday, work all night, put it back together with a back-up body on it, and win the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals on Monday. I was up for it."
Burkart's opponent, Gary Densham, was still experiencing the afterglow of his $100,000 Skoal Showdown win on Sunday. He was also confident in the knowledge he had one very consistent and very fast car.
Densham's reaction time at the lights (a terrific .040) gave him the jump. Burkart took up the chase right away, and was quicker to 60-feet. Burkart was quicker to 330-feet. Burkart and Densham were dead even at half-track. At that point, Densham took the lead and refused to give it back, taking the win in a thrilling side-by-side tussle that did, indeed, bring the gigantic Indy crowd to its feet.
"We raced him, we gave him a fight, but he got there first," Burkart said. "This was a very hard week on everyone. The weather just sapped the energy right out of you, but our guys never complained and never slowed down. We burned the car up, and everyone just got to work and put a basically brand-new car together overnight. We went out there and beat Ron Capps, and gave Gary Densham all he could handle. Gary went on to win the race, and he and his team deserved it. They won the Skoal deal, won the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, and etched their names in the history books. I salute that, because what they did was a fantastic accomplishment. We wanted to go further, but in my book we did a great job and my guys were fantastic."
Not content with their results, Team CSK plans to stay at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Monday for further testing.
"We're basically going to come at this thing from a new direction," Worsham said. "We've been behind the curve since the rules changes went into effect, but there are ways to go fast and some teams out here are doing it. We're not going to rest until we rework our tune-up and start giving people fits again.
"Our guys are gamers. They're in it with all the sweat and effort they can come up with. Our goal is to win Reading, and in two weeks we'll see if we can do that. There's no quit in this group."
Indianapolis, Sunday: In the Skoal Showdown, Del Worsham smoked the tires at the hit of the throttle, dropping his first round race against Gary Densham.
"I think that's the first time we've smoked the tires right at the step all year," Worsham said. "The bottom line is, we've been off a bit since the 85percent rule was instituted and we got these current tires. Our clutch set-up wasn't designed for these conditions, and it's been too edgy for a while now. We've got an idea of what to do about it, and we're going to make some changes to give ourselves more leeway with the conditions. Right now, if the conditions don't come right to us, we're in trouble."
Later in the day, during the final qualifying session, Worsham aborted his final run when his car dropped a cylinder before half-track, ending qualifying in the 13th position.
"I told the guys to yell at me on the radio if it dropped a hole, because there wasn't any way to improve on a 4.90 running on seven cylinders," he said. "It got out there, and I could sense it wasn't running great, but right when my brain was registering that I heard the voices on the radio and lifted. You can't understand what people are saying on the radio when you're going down the track, but the rule is they keep quiet unless they want me to lift. If I hear anything, I lift. We'll just have to get our running tomorrow and go for it."
Worsham will face Cruz Pedregon in round one. He is 0-1 versus Pedregon this season.
Indianapolis, Saturday: Del Worsham struggled in his first run Saturday, spinning the tires at half track during a session held in searing heat and nearly overwhelming humidity. Heading into the Saturday night session, which was run well after 9:30 pm due to a series of lengthy oildown delays, Worsham was still outside the field and facing the prospect of having only the late Saturday night session remaining before the final two qualifiers would be run during the daytime on Sunday.
Compounding Worsham's worries was the fact that Sunday's qualifiers will be run in conjunction with the Skoal Showdown, meaning he would have to be thinking of how he'd get qualified for the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals field while simultaneously strategizing on how to win Skoal rounds.
Worsham then erased his major concerns by streaking to a solid 4.900 on Saturday night, placing him well up the ladder in the No. 12 spot.
"That was a big run, and we were nervous about it," Worsham said. "Trying to get in the show here on Sunday would not be fun, and I didn't want anything to do with that. Hopefully we won't have to worry about it. If the weather tomorrow is like today, there aren't going to be but a handful of cars that can run 4.89 in that heat and humidity. If anyone does run that well, we plan to be a part of that group.
"Now, we can actually tune the car to win the first Skoal round on Sunday, rather than have to think of two strategies at once. We'll head up to the line trying to beat Gary Densham to the other end, one way or another. Hopefully, Phil Burkart and the blue team will find a way to beat John Force in their first round. There's a lot of money on the line in this Skoal deal, so I hope we can be a part of some of that."
Indianapolis, Friday: Del Worsham, driving a spectacular one-race special edition CSK/Mac Tools Monte Carlo, put up early incremental numbers in rarified territory, but his car could not stick past half-track and he finished the first day of qualifying outside the top 16, with four sessions remaining.
"We've struggled with some power issues lately, just not getting the car up and running like we can," Worsham said. "Today, we had no end of problems warming up, chasing a low oil pressure problem around the motor, and getting very frustrated. Finally, about 20 minutes before the session, we made the call to swap motors. The blue team pitched in, and we had air wrenches and torque wrenches flying everywhere. The guys did an amazing job, and we slapped a new motor in there. We took our best shot at the tune-up, but after a thrash like that you really never know what you're getting.
"The new motor had perfect pressure, and made a lot more power. Only John Force ran quicker to 60-feet and 330-feet, and our 2.29 at 330 is about as well as we ever run. We just haven't had a car that wanted to jump out there that well lately, and with our tune-up not quite situated for that kind of pop it overpowered the track after that. Now we've got something to tune from, and we've got some power back. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, and it will run well."
Indianapolis, pre-race: Del Worsham, driver of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Monte Carlo Funny Car, will be driving a car adorned with a special one-race-only design this weekend. He'll be driving it at a race singularly known as "The Big Go" and revered as the one event which stands out as the most prestigious race on the NHRA POWERade tour. It's almost enough to get a low-key, mild mannered, laid back guy like Worsham excited.
"This is the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, the most historic race on the schedule, and this year the race celebrates its 50th Anniversary," Worsham said. "I start getting amped up for Indy weeks in advance. You dream of winning this race every year, but this season it's even bigger as the 50th annual. You imagine it, and want it, and work so hard for it. I'm pretty wired at every race we go to, because I love what I do and I'm a little tightly wound to begin with. But believe me, it all gets turned up a bit at Indy. The dials get turned up to 11."
Adding to Worsham's excitement level at this year's event will be his inclusion as part of the Mac Tools "Dream Team" of racers who will hit the track with specially designed 50th Anniversary graphics covering their race cars. In addition to Worsham in the Funny Car class, other Mac Tools team members will include Cory McClenathan in Top Fuel, Jason Line in Pro Stock, and Shawn Gann in Pro Stock bike. Worsham is honored to fly the colors of Mac Tools, and his primary sponsor CSK Auto, at the 50th Anniversary race.
"To be asked to be a part of this was a big honor," Worsham said. "We're part of a very talented group of Funny Car teams who are supported by Mac Tools, and when they came to us with this idea, and proposed that we would be the one Funny Car team to have the special graphics covering our car, we were really thrilled. It's our goal to give John Aden, Tony Merritt, and everyone at Mac Tools something to cheer about this weekend."
As a team that is accustomed to running special bodies at individual races, Team CSK has often had to press older Pontiac Firebirds into service when such events pile up on the schedule. Worsham's Checker, Schuck's, Kragen / Mac Tools car will be a brand new Monte Carlo, however, as the team throws everything they have at this year's "Big Go."
"We received our third and fourth Monte Carlo bodies a few months ago," Worsham said. "Rather than paint them up and then have to add layers of vinyl on top of all that paint, we kept this first one as light as possible just for this event. This Monte Carlo will be wrapped in vinyl from nose to tail, and it looks fantastic. We'll be hitting the track in Indy with a new car and a new look that will get everyone's attention."
Worsham will enter the 50th Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals with three wins in the book for 2004. He now stands fourth in the POWERade standings, but heads into this 18th race on the 23-race schedule only a handful of points out of second place.
"You can throw a blanket over the three of us in second, third, and fourth," he said. "Gary Scelzi has been hot lately, and he's jumped up ahead of (third place driver) Whit Bazemore and me, but I'm only two points behind Whit and 25 behind Gary. We went through a slump that started on the western swing and hit rock bottom when we had to shut off at the line before first round in Brainerd. That whole deal cost us a lot of points, but we bounced back in Memphis and got to the semi-final there. I feel like we got back on track in Memphis, which gives us a lot more confidence heading into Indy."
That confidence should be bolstered by the hard work Team CSK put in last week during a two-day test session at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Between the two CSK teams, 14 laps were run on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"We focused on some things we're trying to improve in the front half of the track," Worsham said. "We accomplished what we were trying to do, and I think all those laps will help us a great deal this week. The guys worked very hard, coming straight off a very hot and exhausting event in Memphis. It was like running two races in four days, but they never complained. Everyone got a few days off this past weekend, so now they're all eager to go."
Worsham, in his special star-spangled red, white, and blue CSK / Mac Tools Monte Carlo, will begin qualifying for the 50th Anniversary Mac Tools U.S. Nationals on Friday. He will also take part in the prestigious $100,000 Skoal Showdown on Sunday, prior to final eliminations for "The Big Go" on Monday.
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