Drivers will be hard-pressed to match Grant Downing’s enthusiasm for this year’s Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Denver. Downing has been working around the clock to make his 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car debut, which will be aided by tuning assistance from Chuck Worsham. The tough-as-nails New Zealand transplant is downright giddy about returning to action in the Silver Fern Racing Monte Carlo.
“I’m just ecstatic, man,” said Downing. “I’ve entered Denver, Dallas, and Las Vegas so far. I might add one or two more depending on how much stuff I tear up and if I can find just a little bit of money. I’m just really excited I get to take the car out again.”
Appearing in his first NHRA event since the 2007 Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Downing has been burning the midnight oil to finish the process of building a new chassis that features thicker tubing than his old ride to meet NHRA specifications. All the work has been done by the one-man fabrication team during night and weekend hours so as not to interfere with his day job of building Funny Cars for the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing team at Del Worsham’s shop in Orange, Calif.
“The earliest I’ve been out of the shop is 9 o’clock at night,” said Downing. “I work on Del’s stuff until 5 p.m. and then use the rest of the night and all weekend to work on my stuff. I’m getting there, but putting together a brand-new car by yourself just takes a bit of time. Since I didn’t run any NHRA races last year, I’ve had to put on the new safety-shutoff deal, the 5/16-inch valve-cover studs, the mandatory poured seats, and a custom carbon-fiber tunnel. But I’m getting there. It’s all coming along good.
“I’m finishing up my third Funny Car chassis for Alan Johnson right now. He wants to pick the chassis up at the Sonoma race, and I only have a few more little things to do on that car. I’ve stayed busy doing that, mounting bodies, and building spares. We didn’t start them until after the Charlotte race last year, so I’ve been trying to get up to speed in getting three complete Funny Cars together. There was a lot to do when you start looking at doing bodies, tin, tanks, everything.”
The excitement of trading his welding mask for a driving helmet causes Downing to laugh heartily at the end of any self-deprecating or woe-is-me tale, as if to say, “It’s all been worthwhile.” Downing, a boat builder by trade in his native New Zealand, moved to Southern California with his wife, Lynne, a registered nurse, to pursue his dream of drag racing at the highest level in the 1990s. Downing lent a hand to several alcohol and fuel teams while establishing himself as a premier chassis builder with his business, Paralax Race Cars.
Worsham was the first driver in the Professional ranks to use one of Downing’s chassis after an ill-fated attempt to build his own, and Worsham’s team later struck a deal to hire Downing as its in-house chassis builder. After Worsham parked his team at the end of 2008, Downing was kept onboard to continue building cars for the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing team. Worsham has picked up two wins thus far this season with Downing’s handiwork and netted a Best Engineered Car award at the Madison event.
Downing had a successful tenure as a hired driver for Venom Racing in the import ranks, all the while acquiring parts with which to piece together his own Funny Car. He made his debut in 2003 and competed in multiple NHRA events in every season except 2008. Though Downing achieved several of the performance milestones he sought, his attempts to qualify for eliminations have ended in heartbreak in all 11 tries.
“At the moment, there are only 15 cars entered for Denver,” Downing pointed out. “I’ve been to 11 national events and never qualified at one. I ran I-don’t-know-how-many four-second, 300-mph runs, but none of them were quite good enough to qualify. I think the lowest car count of any race I went to was 21 cars.”
Even if the event has more entries, the realistic-but-competitive Downing still likes his chances of mixing it up on Sunday. His race car is up to date, and he can rely on the tuning experience of Chuck Worsham.
“He’s really excited about going back out again,” Downing said of Chuck. “He’s been kind of jonesing, hanging around the shop. He likes his bowling and all that, but he really misses being at the races. He went to a couple races with Del, but it gets kind of boring just hanging out. This time, he gets to do something and hopefully helps get my car running a bit better.
“I’m not going there just to qualify. I’m going there to do good. Chuck has a pretty good tune-up at that track. They won the race twice [in 2002 with Worsham and 2004 with Phil Burkart Jr.]. Hopefully, Chuck remembers what he did, and he can keep it all going. We’re going to go out there and try to beat Del in the final.”
Downing, who strives to fire up his new car for the first time this week, happily accommodated the elder Worsham’s sole request for air conditioning by installing two AC units on his small trailer. The many hours he has been putting in at Worsham’s facility have been manageable due to the understanding of his wife, whose passion for the sport matches his. She has been picking up extra shifts at the hospital to get time off to go to the races, and she even surprised Downing by buying new crew shirts for their team.
How Downing stacks up against his heavily financed foes on “the Mountain” remains to be seen. However, fans at Bandimere Speedway will not be shorted the option of having a true, working-class hero to root for, and any shortcomings on the dragstrip will not be due to a lack of talent or effort.
“We’ll see what happens when we get there,” said Downing, who shifts from matter-of-fact to jubilant when the prospect of getting back behind the wheel comes up. “I can’t wait to just get out there and race! I want to go play! I want to have some fun!”
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