NHRA News: Worsham's career year came in three separate parts (11/28/2004)

Worsham's career year came in three separate parts

Contributed by Bob Wilber
11/28/2004

"You have to beat John Force, which is on a parallel to Formula 1 guys having to beat Michael Schumacher. It's a huge challenge."
– Del Worsham

It was the spring and fall of his dreams, yet the summer of his discontent. For Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Funny Car driver Del Worsham, his memory of the 2004 POWERade season seems not so much to be a continuous linear campaign, but much more like three distinct mini-seasons, each with their own flavor and each creating their own ramifications.

Depending on whether you are a "glass half-full" or "glass half-empty" type, the distinct permutations of Worsham's '04 season can be seen in different lights. On the positive side, Worsham posted a career year, winning more rounds and more races than ever before while cementing a No. 2 points finish on a thrilling final day. Without torrid streaks of success in both the spring and the fall, such an accomplishment would have been impossible in today's viciously competitive Funny Car class.

On the flip side, a summertime slump can be fingered as the culprit if all you care about is displaying the No.1 on your car the following season. John Force, in the end, earned his 13th championship by avoiding the type of slump Worsham's team fell into during the summer heat.

The media swarmed on Worsham in 2004.
DelWorsham.com

When he looks back over his 2004 results it becomes quickly clear that Worsham sees the glass not just half-full. He sees it lacking nothing more than the final few ounces of an elixir that hard work and continued dedication might provide. After all, as Worsham sees it, the summertime blues he and his group experienced were more a product of circumstances rather than self-inflicted wounds.

"If we had just gotten stupid or made bad decisions during the summer, I'd be more concerned about the slump," Worsham said. "But it was really just unfortunate that the rules changes hit our tune-up harder than some other people's. It took us a while to recognize it, figure it out, and fix it.

"Think of the successful tune-up as a round room that's approached by dozens of hallways. Although a lot of the hallways are dead ends, you can get to the room from every direction, and teams do just that. There are multiple ways to get at a winning combination and most teams have their own way of doing things. In effect, they come at it from different directions. When the rules changed, a few more hallways got blocked off or detoured, and we just happened to be coming at it from one of those directions. We had to go find a different hallway."

The proof of the challenge can be seen in the unflinching world of statistics. The numbers tell the story, and illustrate the empty sandwich of a season the red CSK team had, with two tasty pieces of bread surrounding nothing but a few morsels of flavor in the middle.

From the start of the season through the St. Louis race in June, Worsham posted a won/lost record of 23-9. He won three races, went to four semifinals, and lost in the first round only twice. Understandably, he held the top spot on the points sheet for seven of those first 12 races.

Worsham's five wins and 41-18 record in
eliminations marked career-best numbers.

From Denver through Indianapolis, while Worsham and his team struggled with new fuel and tire changes, his record dropped to an underwhelming 3-6, and two of those round wins came at one event as he willed himself to the semifinal in Memphis. In a six-race span, Worsham fell to fourth in points while picking up four first-round losses. As trends go, this was not a good one.

After Indy, where Worsham and his team "hit the wall" in terms of patience and understanding over their troubles with the new rules, Team CSK hit the track for a test session. In the course of one day, with both the red and blue CSK teams prepping and servicing their cars continually, Worsham hopped from one machine to the other on a nearly hourly basis, making eight laps before the work was done. It worked, and Worsham's down-trend was quickly reversed.

Starting with the Dallas race after the Reading rain-out, Worsham reeled off the single most impressive streak of his career. His 15-3 mark was the stuff future championships may be made of, and was built from back-to-back wins followed by two semifinals and a runner-up finish. The scalding streak vaulted Worsham back into second place and set up the almost surreal competition he and Gary Scelzi took part in at the final few races.

"Starting the season we were hot right out of the box, and in any sport it's great when you come out hot," Worsham said. "You get your confidence, you get a little more aggressive, and things start to roll. We weren't perfect, we made some mistakes in Las Vegas and Chicago and lost in the first round there, but we were darned good and won a lot of rounds.

"Then, we got to Denver and things started to unravel. It didn't seem so obvious at first because just like the first time we lost in Round 1 at Las Vegas, Phil Burkart and the blue CSK team went on to win the race. When you celebrate with them, you don't forget about the first-round loss but it absolutely doesn't sting as badly. After Denver, though, it stung a lot and we started getting very frustrated."

Showing off the national event win stickers.
DelWorsham.com

The ointment for those stings was that now famous Indy test session, and Worsham's gang came out firing with the ammunition they developed. "Those last five races were amazing," Worsham said. "That's the best streak of racing we've ever had, and it was a lot of fun. The second place thing turned out to be a lot of pressure, but we called for the pressure and put it on ourselves. We could have tried to downplay it by saying it didn't mean anything to us, but it did mean a lot and we weren't shy about saying it.

"We ended up going to Pomona in a tie with Gary, and then tied him with exact elapsed times in qualifying. I mean, it was really ridiculous, just off the wall. To put all the pressure on ourselves, to put ourselves on display out there as a team that really wanted that No. 2, and then to get it, well it felt awesome. I was so proud of our guys."

Looking ahead to 2005, Worsham admits to being a lousy soothsayer, but bases his prognostication on real world judgments.

"We'll be very much the same team again, which is important," he said. "We'll have the same drive and the same work ethic. We'll have all this great data to rely on and I expect us to run well. If we live up to our expectations and nothing weird happens to make our tune-up obsolete, we really should have a shot at it. But this past season taught me that it's a long hard haul, and you have to earn every single round. You also have to beat John Force, which I think is on a parallel to the Formula 1 guys knowing they have to beat Michael Schumacher. It's a huge challenge.

"We put the pressure on ourselves for the No. 2 thing to feel it, and to see how we held up. All we did was rise to the occasion, and that gives me a lot of confidence and a lot of hope for 2005. We've got a long way to go still, and a lot of people trying to stop us. I think it's going to be interesting."

If Worsham and his group can put a little meat into the middle of the sandwich, while keeping that tasty bread in place, it might be very interesting indeed.

2004 News Archive
Return to the Home Page