WORSHAM IMPROVES, BUMPS IN, HANGS ON

During a final session so full of drama it brought back instant memories of the Pomona Winternationals and the mad shuffling for position that took place there, Del Worsham found a way to bust his way into the tight Gainesville Funny Car field, but then had to sweat out Tim Wilkerson's final run to see if he would, indeed, make the race field. As opposed to Pomona, where Wilkerson knocked Worsham from the field, the LRS Chevy came close but did not outrun Worsham's final 4.842, and Worsham landed the 16th spot on the hotly contested grid.

Worsham entered the final session in the No. 11 spot, but by the time he ran he had been bumped down to the inglorious 20th position, and had to leapfrog over the likes of Jack Beckman, Mike Ashley, Scott Kalitta, and Gary Densham to squeeze his way back into the show. Though his car did, once again, detonate a motor before the finish line, Worsham managed to hang on to this one.

"First of all, I'm extremely glad we'll get a chance to race on Sunday, but we have to fix this problem we have," Worsham said. "We are, literally, blowing it up every time we go down the track. The only times we're not breaking a motor is when we smoke the tires early, so there's no comfort there. If we could make the motor live to the finish line, we'd be 3-for-3 right now, in terms of qualifying for the field, instead of 1-for-3. It's hard to run numbers good enough to get in these stout fields when you're coasting the last couple of hundred feet. We managed to do it here, but it's not a good thing.

"When we ran, I knew it was going to be close. The bump spot kept getting lower and lower with every pair, so it was hard to know what it all meant. When I heard we were 16th after the run, but Tim Wilkerson was back there getting ready to run, it was impossible not to think of Pomona. Tim's a wonderful guy, and a fierce competitor, so I just hate it that it comes down to an 'either or' situation like this. We'll spend another night trying to find the gremlin that's eating our rods and pistons, and we'll come out tomorrow to take a shot at it."

Worsham will face Robert Hight in round one.