NHRA News: Densham looking to defend Gator title in his 300th career NHRA race (3/17/2004)

Densham looking to defend Gator title in his 300th career NHRA race

3/17/2004

"I'm the luckiest guy on the planet."
– Gary Densham

When he defends his championship this weekend in the 35th annual Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway, Funny Car veteran Gary Densham will be appearing in his 300th NHRA POWERade tour event.

"Three hundred?" Densham asked when informed of the milestone. "Man, I must be old. But it's all good. You know when I started, I never thought they'd even have 300 races. I certainly didn't think I'd race in that many.

"I remember when they had the 25th anniversary U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis (1979)," Densham said, "and I said to myself, 'you know, this drag racing probably isn't going to last very much longer and I've never been (to Indy), so I really oughta go.'

"I figured that when a bunch of us ol' geezers were sitting around and talking, I could say I went to the 25th anniversary of Indy before drag racing was wiped off the face of the map."

The only active nitro drivers with more tenure than Densham (near lane) are John Force and Jim Head.
Racers Edge Photography

Of course, once he has retired from drag racing and is sitting around with a bunch of ol' geezers talking about the past, Densham is going to have a lot more to talk about than the 25th anniversary of Indy. He can talk about this year's 50th anniversary, for instance, maybe even how he won it in one of the John Force Racing Ford Mustangs. Or he can talk about his tour victories, especially his first one at Memphis in 2001, one in which he beat his boss in the final. He can talk about his NHRA national speed record, the fact that he led the POWERade point standings on more than one occasion and his acceptance, along with crew chief Jimmy Prock, of Car Craft Magazine's "Person of the Year" award in 2001.

Who knows how many races the 57-year-old journeyman will have run by the time retirement comes. Right now, however, he's enjoying himself too much to think about a time when he hangs up his driving suit.

"We're on a roll right now," Densham said, "where the car is running really well, the guys are working perfectly together, and Jimmy just seems to be working magic every time he makes a decision. You hope it lasts all year. You know it won't, but I sure am enjoying it right now."

Although Gainesville will be Densham's 300th race in the NHRA series, the resident of Bellflower, Calif., figures he's run twice as many events if you count all his match race appearances and the races in which he participated in the old American Hot Rod Association Series.

"Back when I started racing, I was just going to the Supernationals (in Ontario, Calif.) and the Winternationals," Densham said, "but I was running (independent) races up and down the West Coast. Ontario and Pomona were just the only NHRA national events we ran.

The usual pose for Auto Club of Southern California
pro Gary Densham always includes a big smile.
Racers Edge Photography

"Back then, there were only seven or eight events in the entire NHRA series, but we stayed plenty busy with match racing and everything. One year we ran 36 events and all of them were on the West Coast. We couldn't really afford to travel. It wasn't just the money. It was the fact I had to be back in school on Monday morning and so did my crew (which was largely comprised of his current and former students at Gahr High School in Cerritos, Calif.)"

Densham's early efforts in the NHRA series were notable largely for their futility. At the outset, it was an accomplishment merely to qualify, which he did for the first time in 1982 as the No. 16 starter in the race that would become the Auto Club Finals, although at the time it was contested not at Pomona Raceway but at the now non-existent Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, Calif. He lost to Kenny Bernstein in the first round.

Still, for Densham it never has been as much about the winning and the losing as about the participation and the camaraderie. He's often been quoted as saying "a bad day drag racing is better than a good day doing almost anything else."

He must truly believe that because he's had a lot more bad days racing than good ones, especially early in his career. Fifty-two times he's failed to make the starting lineup, most recently at last year's Fram/Autolite Nationals, but Densham wouldn't even trade the disappointments for anything else.

"I'm the luckiest guy on the planet," he said. "All my life I've been able to do what I enjoyed doing most – driving racecars and working with kids. What could be better? And now I'm getting to pass on what I've learned to my son, Stephen. When I'm not driving the AAA Ford for, he and I get to work together on a little alcohol Funny Car we have. Three hundred races? Now that I think about it, it just doesn't seem like that many."

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