<img src="http://gallery.nitromater.com/files/6/5/d_worsham06.jpg" alt="d_worsham06" align="left"borders="0"/><img src="http://gallery.nitromater.com/files/6/5/p_burkart06.jpg" alt="p_burkart06" align="left"borders="0"/>
RICHMOND, Va. (October 10, 2006) -- Just about four weeks ago, the NHRA POWERade tour invaded the Pennsylvania Dutch Country for the Toyo Tires Nationals, in scenic Reading. Two days into the event, when Mother Nature took control of the situation and made racing impossible, the race was postponed and rescheduled for September 29 - October 1. There was, of course, much gnashing of teeth and complaining, as there always is when "circumstances beyond our control" intervene on the carefully crafted plan known as the NHRA tour. When Del Worsham and Phil Burkart returned to Reading after a quick trip to Dallas for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals, however, those complaints were quickly forgotten, as Worsham advanced to the quarter-finals and Burkart ran the table, picking up the first win in 2006 for the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen squad.
Now, as if stuck in a "Groundhog's Day" replay of the Reading mess, the tour has once again found itself returning to the scene of a washed-out event, though this time the delay was a more manageable week in duration and no trip to another far-off venue was in the way. Worsham and Burkart both returned to their homes of a few days of rest, and now are focused on making a second trip to Richmond, while also hoping for a return of that good Reading mojo.
"We traditionally get a lot of rain on the tour, as if we attract it somehow, and it's pretty common to lose a day here, or a session there," Worsham said. "But to have two out of three races completely washed out, and have to travel back and forth twice to each one to make it happen, is not something I remember happening before. It's hard on the fans, hard on the sponsors, and hard on the drivers and crews. But, it is what it is, so we just have to deal with it. Nobody is happy about it, but we have to deal with it.
"We left our transporters at the race track, and almost all of us got out of there and back home for a couple of days. A few of the crew guys decided to stay and hang out in Richmond, but the rest of us made it home and now we're headed back that way. Just two weeks ago we did this, going back to Reading to get that race in, and it worked out great for Team CSK. Maybe that same good fortune and good result will come our way this time, too. We've put ourselves in a position to take advantage of that, because both of our cars are really starting to respond, so we'll see how the karma works out for us this weekend."
Burkart, like Worsham, took the unexpected time off to return home after each rain out, but in both situations his travel plans were much simpler than his teammate's.
"I live in the east (Yorkville, New York,) so I drove down to Reading, and I drove to Richmond last week too, which made it easy for me to just turn around and drive home," Burkart said. "Del was on the wrong coast both times, and had long days of travel in each direction to get back to his wife and kids. When we went back to Reading, I just got in my truck and went back down there, hoping we'd do well and thinking we were about ready to win some rounds. I'm not sure I thought we'd win four rounds, until after we won the first one. Once we beat Ron Capps in round one, I'll admit I had a little bit of 'that feeling' you get. Don't get me wrong, you get 'that feeling' a lot, and a lot of the time you don't win, but sometimes it all comes together and Reading was one of those times.
"So, the Reading re-run worked out just fine for us, and maybe the Richmond deal will too. The bottom line about this sport is, though, that you don't get any credit for the previous race. The first thing we have to do is get qualified. Once we do that, we can worry about round one. Our goal is to keep winning as many rounds as were capable of winning, to finish this year on a high note."
With only three races left on the schedule, both Burkart and Worsham are still waiting for the day when their ultimate Team CSK dream comes true.
"We've never faced each other in a final round, but someday that's going to happen," Burkart said. "It's been a long year, and for most of it we weren't really in any position to think about facing each other anywhere but maybe round one or round two, but winning a race really does perk everyone up and it's hard not to get back to that dream scenario. Someday it will happen, and it will be a proud day around here."
Worsham echoed his teammate's thoughts, looking forward to the day the two Worsham Racing / Checker, Schuck's, Kragen cars will line up next to each other, running for the trophy and the glory.
"Well, it probably won't happen in the classic 'All CSK' sense this weekend, because Phil is running the Havoline body again, but I keep believing there will come a day when both CSK teams are up there against each other. We've had some great semi-final races, going all the way back to 2001 in Atlanta when Frankie Pedregon beat me and then went on to win the race, but we've never had the two CSK cars in a final. Just like Phil said, I do think that someday it will happen. After all the struggles we went through this year, we're finally getting back to the point of even being able to think in such big-time terms, so why not dream big? If it has to be the red CSK Monte Carlo against the Havoline car, I think CSK and Havoline would be okay with that."
Dream big, travel fast, and return to the scene of an earlier wash-out. Team CSK was handling those exact details just two weeks ago, and look what happened there.
WORSHAM AND BURKART HOPE RICHMOND RE-RUN IS A REPLAY OF READING
RICHMOND, Va. (October 10, 2006) -- Just about four weeks ago, the NHRA POWERade tour invaded the Pennsylvania Dutch Country for the Toyo Tires Nationals, in scenic Reading. Two days into the event, when Mother Nature took control of the situation and made racing impossible, the race was postponed and rescheduled for September 29 - October 1. There was, of course, much gnashing of teeth and complaining, as there always is when "circumstances beyond our control" intervene on the carefully crafted plan known as the NHRA tour. When Del Worsham and Phil Burkart returned to Reading after a quick trip to Dallas for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals, however, those complaints were quickly forgotten, as Worsham advanced to the quarter-finals and Burkart ran the table, picking up the first win in 2006 for the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen squad.
Now, as if stuck in a "Groundhog's Day" replay of the Reading mess, the tour has once again found itself returning to the scene of a washed-out event, though this time the delay was a more manageable week in duration and no trip to another far-off venue was in the way. Worsham and Burkart both returned to their homes of a few days of rest, and now are focused on making a second trip to Richmond, while also hoping for a return of that good Reading mojo.
"We traditionally get a lot of rain on the tour, as if we attract it somehow, and it's pretty common to lose a day here, or a session there," Worsham said. "But to have two out of three races completely washed out, and have to travel back and forth twice to each one to make it happen, is not something I remember happening before. It's hard on the fans, hard on the sponsors, and hard on the drivers and crews. But, it is what it is, so we just have to deal with it. Nobody is happy about it, but we have to deal with it.
"We left our transporters at the race track, and almost all of us got out of there and back home for a couple of days. A few of the crew guys decided to stay and hang out in Richmond, but the rest of us made it home and now we're headed back that way. Just two weeks ago we did this, going back to Reading to get that race in, and it worked out great for Team CSK. Maybe that same good fortune and good result will come our way this time, too. We've put ourselves in a position to take advantage of that, because both of our cars are really starting to respond, so we'll see how the karma works out for us this weekend."
Burkart, like Worsham, took the unexpected time off to return home after each rain out, but in both situations his travel plans were much simpler than his teammate's.
"I live in the east (Yorkville, New York,) so I drove down to Reading, and I drove to Richmond last week too, which made it easy for me to just turn around and drive home," Burkart said. "Del was on the wrong coast both times, and had long days of travel in each direction to get back to his wife and kids. When we went back to Reading, I just got in my truck and went back down there, hoping we'd do well and thinking we were about ready to win some rounds. I'm not sure I thought we'd win four rounds, until after we won the first one. Once we beat Ron Capps in round one, I'll admit I had a little bit of 'that feeling' you get. Don't get me wrong, you get 'that feeling' a lot, and a lot of the time you don't win, but sometimes it all comes together and Reading was one of those times.
"So, the Reading re-run worked out just fine for us, and maybe the Richmond deal will too. The bottom line about this sport is, though, that you don't get any credit for the previous race. The first thing we have to do is get qualified. Once we do that, we can worry about round one. Our goal is to keep winning as many rounds as were capable of winning, to finish this year on a high note."
With only three races left on the schedule, both Burkart and Worsham are still waiting for the day when their ultimate Team CSK dream comes true.
"We've never faced each other in a final round, but someday that's going to happen," Burkart said. "It's been a long year, and for most of it we weren't really in any position to think about facing each other anywhere but maybe round one or round two, but winning a race really does perk everyone up and it's hard not to get back to that dream scenario. Someday it will happen, and it will be a proud day around here."
Worsham echoed his teammate's thoughts, looking forward to the day the two Worsham Racing / Checker, Schuck's, Kragen cars will line up next to each other, running for the trophy and the glory.
"Well, it probably won't happen in the classic 'All CSK' sense this weekend, because Phil is running the Havoline body again, but I keep believing there will come a day when both CSK teams are up there against each other. We've had some great semi-final races, going all the way back to 2001 in Atlanta when Frankie Pedregon beat me and then went on to win the race, but we've never had the two CSK cars in a final. Just like Phil said, I do think that someday it will happen. After all the struggles we went through this year, we're finally getting back to the point of even being able to think in such big-time terms, so why not dream big? If it has to be the red CSK Monte Carlo against the Havoline car, I think CSK and Havoline would be okay with that."
Dream big, travel fast, and return to the scene of an earlier wash-out. Team CSK was handling those exact details just two weeks ago, and look what happened there.
