Worsham Hopes Sponsorship Puts Him Back on the Fast Track

Hard to believe, but the only thing Del Worsham raced before strapping himself into a nitro funny car was a BMX bicycle.

Worsham, from Orange, then went out and won the 1991 Rookie of the Year title with a sixth-place NHRA Winston Series finish.

He followed that with a fourth-place finish.

But his last victory was in 1991. His last appearance in a funny car finals round was 1992.

Worsham, armed for the first time with corporate sponsorship enabling him to race on an even playing field, is hopeful the fast times are back.

Worsham, 27, is coming off a semifinal appearance at the ATSCO Nationals in Phoenix two weeks ago in the season’s second race. He reached the semis five times last year, and the next two events were two of his best in 1996.

He heads into this weekend’s Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., with high hopes and a heavy foot.

“Absolutely, I’d be disappointed if I don’t win a race this season,” Worsham said. “I was disappointed last season.”

Worsham’s seventh-place finish last year--not quite matching his first two seasons--was the only top-10 showing by an independent team in the series. And after a 16th-place finish in 1995, it was welcome.

“There’s usually one round in every event where you have to get lucky,” said Worsham, who finished 13th and 19th in 1993 and 1994 while splitting time in a top fuel dragster. “I had good luck when I started racing. Then, of course, I paid it back the next few years.”

Worsham became the youngest funny car driver to win an NHRA event when he won the 1991 Fram Southern Nationals at the age of 21. He was also the Summernationals winner that same year.

The corporate backing, from Checkers, Schuck’s and Kragen Auto Parts, should close the competition gap. Previously, his family and cast-iron foundry owner John Fink had footed most of the bill for the Worsham & Fink Racing team.

“Financially, we didn’t have the money to test or buy a bunch of new parts,” said Worsham, who lives with his dad and stepmother. “We had to run on a budget. Now I have new engines, new clutches--things have definitely turned around. It’s a little bit like being in a candy store. It feels good to finally be able to financially afford to do this.”

Racing was a natural for him. His father, Chuck, has been a race car owner since 1977. Del spent 10 years as a crew member on alcohol cars and a few more on a nitro car.

When Chuck and his partner/driver, Art Hendey, broke up, Del volunteered to drive. There were several options--a driving school, a lower level of racing.

They decided instead to go to the highest level and see if it came naturally to Del. They rented the Texas Motorplex for consecutive weekends in 1990.

“We started out doing burnouts, staging the car, trying to go 50 feet, 200 feet, then half the track,” Chuck Worsham said. “By the end of the second day, after six or eight partial runs, Del asked, ‘What do you want me to do if it’s going straight?’ He ran 5.60, 240 mph.

“The next week, when [Don Prudhomme and Kenny Bernstein] were there, he ran 5.43, 270 mph on his second run and they signed his NHRA competition license. Prudhomme said it was only the second license he signed in his life.”

Prudhomme had won the Chief Nationals on the same track a year earlier with a run of 269.31.

The last time Worsham reached a final round in a funny car event was 1992--though he reached a top fuel dragster final in 1993. But obviously, it has been a long dry spell for a guy whose career started so swiftly.

Worsham obviously has some talent. His average reaction time in 1996 was .494 seconds--faster than five of the six drivers who finished ahead of him, including champion John Force (.500). But the lack of financial wherewithal made its mark. Force’s average speed was 298.66 mph, Worsham’s 281.59.

“I try not to complain,” Worsham said. “I’m pretty fortunate to be 27 and doing what I’m doing.

“I’m a drag racer. It wasn’t hard to figure that out growing up. No one would define me as anything but a drag racer.”

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The big winner Sunday at the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami was Swift Engineering of San Clemente--which is owned by driver Hiro Matsushita (who finished 21st). The chassis Swift built for race-winner Michael Andretti--in its debut, no less--was the first-American built chassis to win an Indy-car event since 1983.

Matsushita, driving an Arciero-Wells/MCI Racing Reynard-Toyota, was still racing when he was informed by radio that Andretti’s Swift 007.i was leading the race.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Matsushita, who quit 88 laps into the 147-lap race because of an oil pressure problem. “The last five laps of the race, I had my fingers crossed the entire time.”

Matsushita praised the Newman-Haas Racing team and the 60-plus Swift employees, who were pretty pumped up at work on Monday.

Although Swift has built six different chassis for four other racing categories, all of which won in their debuts, none quite match Sunday’s performance.

“Today’s Indy-car racing is super-competitive,” Matsushita said. “Winning is very prestigious. Everybody is pretty happy.”

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The 11th SCORE Tecate San Felipe 250 will be run in San Felipe, Mexico, beginning Friday. San Clemente’s Jeff Lewis, who drives the Chevrolet 4x4 Trophy Truck for Team MacPherson, especially excited.

The first truck in its class using four-wheel drive--Team MacPherson calls it “all-wheel drive”--uses a revolutionary system that allows its axles 60 degrees of angulation (up and down and side to side), helping it to maintain traction over treacherous terrain. It has 30 inches of wheel travel in the rear, and 25 in the front.

It also has some races under its belt. The truck has finished two of its five races, including last year’s Baja 1,000. It failed to finish the recent Palmer (Ariz.) 400.

“The experimental phase has pretty much worn off,” Lewis said. “The teething pain is over.

“We’re on the threshold of letting everybody know what advantage we’re going to have with our four-wheel drive. [This] race is the one where we’re finally going to shine.”