TOUGH DAY IN GAINESVILLE DOES NOT LEAVE WORSHAM DOWN FOR THE COUNT
GAINESVILLE, FL – Two-time NHRA world champion, Del Worsham, remains optimistic and goal oriented in spite 
of having a less than stellar performance at the NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday at Gainesville Raceway.
The 2015 NHRA Funny Car champion qualified his Lucas Oil Toyota Camry Funny Car sixteenth, making for a difficult match-up against number one qualifier, John Force.
“The next goal is to just qualify better. I would like to make sure that we get qualified, and we can get ourselves a better first round match. With our current first round qualifying positions we’re getting tough first round draws,” Worsham said.
Worsham and his team suffered several mechanical errors throughout the weekend. A stuck clutch valve resulted in Worsham smoking the tires on Sunday. Unfortunately, for Worsham John Force made a smooth pass to pick up the win.
“We want to improve on just making good, clean runs down the track. We’re smoking the tires right now, and that’s not the kind of racing that we set out to do. We set out to have a car that was consistent on the track, even if it wasn’t the fastest car. That it would be a car that could compete, and right now we don’t have that. We’re going to stay here on Monday and test after the Gainesville race before the Las Vegas event and make sure we get ahead of this, so hopefully these problems will all be behind us,” Worsham expressed.
John Force went on to win the race, which makes Worsham’s tough first round loss easier to swallow. In the point standings, Worsham maintained his eleventh place standing. The XXX-time Funny Car winner is only one point behind Tim Wilkerson, so the Countdown is still well within his reach. This rocky weekend only made Worsham more focused on the goals he made at the beginning of the season.
“I have the same goals. Qualifying for every single event, trying to compete to win an event, and if everything works out perfectly I would want nothing more than to race for a championship and make the countdown,” Worsham said.
The next NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event, the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is scheduled for March 31-April. Worsham will be looking for his first Funny Car win at the spring NHRA national event to join his two wins, one each in Top Fuel and Funny Car from the fall national event.
