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Del Worsham had, relatively speaking, a "get well" weekend in Gainesville, but he knows it could've been much better had a mysterious failure in his car's timer box not doomed his performance in the second round. Driving a special-edition K&N Filters Impala, he made the field to break a two-race DNQ skid, landing in the 10th spot on the strength of two solid and consistent runs. He faced off with big hitter Robert Hight in round one, and won one for his team by out-dueling Hight in a side-by-side pedaling contest. And, he had the stuff to take out Densham in round two, had the gremlins not revisited his pit after the warm-up.
"Basically, after the warm-up, we went to set the timers and the whole system was dead," Worsham said. "Nothing, nada, zero. The air system was feeding air to it, but nothing was working and nothing was happening. We were the seventh pair in the first round, and first pair in the second round, so we had just the minimum amount of time, and that caused a pretty massive thrash, but we never even found a way to work around the problem. An hour after the lap, after getting back to the pit, we still hadn't found the problem. We just found it, a few minutes ago, but that's 90 minutes after we lost.
"So, we went up there broken, basically. We finally just had to button it up and take it to the line. We could do a burnout, and stage the car, even launch it, but it wasn't going to get anywhere and I really couldn't pedal it once it smoked the tires. With no management system at all, hitting the throttle a second time probably would've blown it up. All I could do was watch him smoke the tires and coast to a win, because there really wasn't anything I could do about it. You know, you really need to keep your wits about you in that sort of deal, because if you just get mad and stab the throttle out of frustration, there's a good chance you might just toss the body right off the car."
Qualifying in Gainesville was its own form of unusual, as persistent rain throughout Friday washed out the first two rounds. With 23 Funny Cars vying for 16 positions during the two Saturday runs, there was little room for error, for any team. Worsham never came close to booting one, as he put a 4.956 on the board to land 8th after one run, then improved to a 4.903 on the final pass, to clinch the No. 10 spot, his first qualifying position of the year.
"As frustrated as we all are now, the truth is we took some big steps here and that all started on Saturday," Worsham said. "After all the testing we've done, where we've pretty much gone down the track every time, you still come out here and wonder if it will smoke the tires at a real race, just because people are watching. That's all I can figure, because when we've tested at empty tracks, we've gone right down there. I wondered if maybe the car had stage fright or something. But, instead, it went right down the track twice and even though we were a little conservative, we got right in the field and had a nice solid spot on the ladder.
"Just the feeling of finishing the day Saturday, knowing we were back in the rhythm of getting the service done, getting a good night's sleep, and getting out to the track with some butterflies in your stomach, was all great. I was pretty excited this morning, and thought we had a chance to do a lot more than win one round."
In the opening stanza, Worsham lined up next to Hight, taking on one of the fastest cars in the sport, and although Hight got the jump at the flash of amber, Worsham charged hard right to the 330 mark, where his K&N Filters Impala began to spin the tires. Just when all looked lost, Hight lost traction only fractions of a second later, and what began as a tuner's race had instantly become a driver's duel.
Both Worsham and Hight pedaled their cars, looking for that elusive traction, but it was Worsham who managed to corral his 7,000 hp beast, settling the car expertly before squeezing the throttle again. He crossed the finish line charging, at 290 mph, clicking through the beams in 5.331, more than good enough to vanquish Hight's 5.636.
With little time to spare between rounds, the K&N/CSK crew got to work and had the car fired again with more than a few minutes to spare, but it was at that moment in time that the car's entire timer box ceased to function.
"We had guys from Dexter Tuttle's team over here, our guys, even the guys from Jim Head's team who developed a lot of the parts in this system, and they were getting ready to race, too, so that was great of them to get over here and try to fix it with us. We did all we could, we checked everything five times, we even scratched our heads, but it was dead. Like I said, it even took us about 90 minutes after the lap, doing an autopsy on it, to find the failed part.
"Basically, all we could do was stage the car and hope something happened in Gary's lane, like a red-light or a centerline deal, but he got his car to the other end. I wasn't going to play any games up there, trying to mess with Gary or anything. I just don't race that way, so we staged the car normally and I hit the throttle. It made it about 30 feet before it blew the tires off, and that was it. After that, all I had was a lousy seat to watch the rest of the race.
"But, we are now officially ahead of our pace from last year. We came out of here 0-1 last year, and now we're 1-1, so we just need to keep improving and keep building on our consistency. The driver will have to win one every now and then, but most of the time you just have to be consistent and get to the other end, to give yourself a chance to win. We'll have those chances."
The "DNQ monkey" may be off Worsham's back, but the mystery gremlins are still hiding somewhere in his car. Their present location seems to be the vicinity of the timer and management box, and an all-out "search and destroy mission" is in progress.
ROUND 1 WIN IS GOOD. ROUND 2 GREMLINS ARE BAD
Del Worsham had, relatively speaking, a "get well" weekend in Gainesville, but he knows it could've been much better had a mysterious failure in his car's timer box not doomed his performance in the second round. Driving a special-edition K&N Filters Impala, he made the field to break a two-race DNQ skid, landing in the 10th spot on the strength of two solid and consistent runs. He faced off with big hitter Robert Hight in round one, and won one for his team by out-dueling Hight in a side-by-side pedaling contest. And, he had the stuff to take out Densham in round two, had the gremlins not revisited his pit after the warm-up.
"Basically, after the warm-up, we went to set the timers and the whole system was dead," Worsham said. "Nothing, nada, zero. The air system was feeding air to it, but nothing was working and nothing was happening. We were the seventh pair in the first round, and first pair in the second round, so we had just the minimum amount of time, and that caused a pretty massive thrash, but we never even found a way to work around the problem. An hour after the lap, after getting back to the pit, we still hadn't found the problem. We just found it, a few minutes ago, but that's 90 minutes after we lost.
"So, we went up there broken, basically. We finally just had to button it up and take it to the line. We could do a burnout, and stage the car, even launch it, but it wasn't going to get anywhere and I really couldn't pedal it once it smoked the tires. With no management system at all, hitting the throttle a second time probably would've blown it up. All I could do was watch him smoke the tires and coast to a win, because there really wasn't anything I could do about it. You know, you really need to keep your wits about you in that sort of deal, because if you just get mad and stab the throttle out of frustration, there's a good chance you might just toss the body right off the car."
Qualifying in Gainesville was its own form of unusual, as persistent rain throughout Friday washed out the first two rounds. With 23 Funny Cars vying for 16 positions during the two Saturday runs, there was little room for error, for any team. Worsham never came close to booting one, as he put a 4.956 on the board to land 8th after one run, then improved to a 4.903 on the final pass, to clinch the No. 10 spot, his first qualifying position of the year.
"As frustrated as we all are now, the truth is we took some big steps here and that all started on Saturday," Worsham said. "After all the testing we've done, where we've pretty much gone down the track every time, you still come out here and wonder if it will smoke the tires at a real race, just because people are watching. That's all I can figure, because when we've tested at empty tracks, we've gone right down there. I wondered if maybe the car had stage fright or something. But, instead, it went right down the track twice and even though we were a little conservative, we got right in the field and had a nice solid spot on the ladder.
"Just the feeling of finishing the day Saturday, knowing we were back in the rhythm of getting the service done, getting a good night's sleep, and getting out to the track with some butterflies in your stomach, was all great. I was pretty excited this morning, and thought we had a chance to do a lot more than win one round."
In the opening stanza, Worsham lined up next to Hight, taking on one of the fastest cars in the sport, and although Hight got the jump at the flash of amber, Worsham charged hard right to the 330 mark, where his K&N Filters Impala began to spin the tires. Just when all looked lost, Hight lost traction only fractions of a second later, and what began as a tuner's race had instantly become a driver's duel.
Both Worsham and Hight pedaled their cars, looking for that elusive traction, but it was Worsham who managed to corral his 7,000 hp beast, settling the car expertly before squeezing the throttle again. He crossed the finish line charging, at 290 mph, clicking through the beams in 5.331, more than good enough to vanquish Hight's 5.636.
With little time to spare between rounds, the K&N/CSK crew got to work and had the car fired again with more than a few minutes to spare, but it was at that moment in time that the car's entire timer box ceased to function.
"We had guys from Dexter Tuttle's team over here, our guys, even the guys from Jim Head's team who developed a lot of the parts in this system, and they were getting ready to race, too, so that was great of them to get over here and try to fix it with us. We did all we could, we checked everything five times, we even scratched our heads, but it was dead. Like I said, it even took us about 90 minutes after the lap, doing an autopsy on it, to find the failed part.
"Basically, all we could do was stage the car and hope something happened in Gary's lane, like a red-light or a centerline deal, but he got his car to the other end. I wasn't going to play any games up there, trying to mess with Gary or anything. I just don't race that way, so we staged the car normally and I hit the throttle. It made it about 30 feet before it blew the tires off, and that was it. After that, all I had was a lousy seat to watch the rest of the race.
"But, we are now officially ahead of our pace from last year. We came out of here 0-1 last year, and now we're 1-1, so we just need to keep improving and keep building on our consistency. The driver will have to win one every now and then, but most of the time you just have to be consistent and get to the other end, to give yourself a chance to win. We'll have those chances."
The "DNQ monkey" may be off Worsham's back, but the mystery gremlins are still hiding somewhere in his car. Their present location seems to be the vicinity of the timer and management box, and an all-out "search and destroy mission" is in progress.
