Departments - Missed Races

NHRA at Gainesville

Words by Susan Wade
Photos by Jeff Burk, Ron Lewis, Steve Gruenwald
3/23/04

ational Hot Rod Association icon John Force sat on an airplane several years ago and listened sympathetically as Connie Worsham, wife of Funny Car rival Del Worsham, charmed him with stories of her husband's dreams of someday being a champion.

"I want him to have his dream. I really do," said Force, a 12-time champion now struggling to regain his dominance. "But that means I'd have to give up mine."

Worsham took a step closer to his, beating Force in Sunday's final round of the Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. He and two other points leaders, Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel and Greg Anderson in Pro Stock, each won for the second time this season but for the first time on the storied quarter-mile.

Andrew Hines kicked off the Pro Stock Motorcycle's 15-race schedule by beating teammate G.T. Tonglet in the first all-Harley-Davidson final round.

Worsham overcomes the Force

Worsham, fighting the flu all weekend as much as the track conditions and eager opponents, beat Force for the third straight time in final- round meetings to keep the points lead he grabbed for the first time in his career by winning March 7 at Phoenix.

"It's so early it's ridiculous to talk about, but they are real points," Worsham, who qualified no better than 11th, said. "Any point you win this weekend stays in the bank, and you need a lot of them by November."

He indicated that the impact of winning at Gainesville was stronger because of the caliber of competition.

"Anytime you beat John Force, it's huge," Worsham, whose Checker Schucks Kragen team is $40,000 richer, said. "I talked to my dad (crew chief Chuck Worsham) about what makes John Force such a great champion. It's loyalty to his fans and his ability to rise to the occasion. No matter how good his car is, he never stops working." He added that if he let his guard down, Force could "put a knife through your heart."

He said he didn't know right away that his 4.979-second pass at 296.05 miles an hour with his Pontiac Firebird was better than Force's 4.977 at 304.37 in the Castrol Ford Mustang. "The groove was so narrow that I made sure I didn't take my eyes off my lane."

He said he hardly could believe that he made four passes Sunday under 300 miles an hour "and still won the Gatornationals."

After watching a string of upsets in front of him, just as Schumacher had in Top Fuel's opening round, Worsham went to the line and took out Gary Densham, who had been his closest rival entering the weekend. Drivers in the Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 spots lost in the first round, too.

Worsham then got past Winternationals winner Jerry Toliver and former teammate and unpredictable opponent Cory Lee to advance to the final round.

"We were all calm," he said. "Not cocky, not even all that confident, just calm. We were facing John Force in the final, we'd won seven rounds in a row, and we just put a solid tune-up in it and got ready. Whatever happened, happened. It was like we just winked at each other and went up there. We just wanted to give him a good race and make him earn it if he beat us.

Schumacher Scores Again!

Schumacher extended his season-long points lead by defeating Darrell Russell in the final round. He ran a 4.612-second elapsed time at 312.60 miles an hour in the U.S. Army Dragster to Russell's 4.981/271.98 in the Joe Amato Racing Dragster.

Schumacher added the Gatornationals jewel to his crown that's already studded with the 1999 series championship and three U.S. Nationals triumphs.

"I've wanted to win Gainesville since my dad raced, and he retired when I was five," said Schumacher, 34. "All the races are equal in points and the money's the same, but this is huge." The payoff was, as well, at $40,000.

Schumacher, who captured the season-opening Winternationals Feb. 29 in Pomona, Calif., has won 10 of his last 11 elimination rounds and 10 out of a possible 12. He said he was lucky in the first two rounds, when his car -- nicknamed "The Sarge" -- experienced tire shake. He credited crew chief Alan Johnson, saying, "You can't give that man that many chances."

For Schumacher, the victory has special meaning. In order to understand, one has to recognize that Schumacher is not selling motor oil or beer or razors, auto parts, tools, sunglasses or sport drinks. He's selling a way of life.

His unique partnership with the U.S. Army is more than one of NHRA Top Fuel dragster driver and sponsor. The Chicago resident has parachuted with the Golden Knights, gone through the paces of a boot-camp shift, mingled with generals and rank-and-file G.I.s alike, spent New Year's Eve with troops in cold and desolate Afghanistan and paid respects at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

So he knows what these soldiers think, what they endure, what they do in the name of liberty. They are brave souls such as his friend Matthew, the young man from New Jersey who hung out in his Top Fuel pits at Englishtown last spring, then just months later died half a world away, a casualty in the war on terrorism.

It was with thoughts of Matthew last Sunday that Schumacher put his Mac Tools Gatornationals victory in perspective. "We're asking them to put themselves in harm's way so that we can have the freedom to come out here and do what we do," Schumacher said.

Schumacher has matured as the driver of the U.S. Army Dragster. The father of two small boys and a gung-ho trouper at and away from the track, he also has matured personally from the wild teenager whose own parents enrolled him in a military academy because they feared he would become a juvenile delinquent.

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Still, he showed a healthy dose of defiance Sunday in beating not only his four elimination-round opponents but also the tricky Gainesville Raceway conditions and psychological pitfalls in this 35th annual Gatornationals edition.

Schumacher said, "The first round was wild. Coming in, everybody knew it was going to be wild" because of the combination of new asphalt and sunshine. We were one of the teams behind the eight-ball this weekend."

He might have been during qualifying (although he was third in the order), but he wasn't Sunday. He beat John Smith, last year's Gatornationals finalist, along with upset-minded Tim Cullinan and Scott Weis, both of whom defied their bottom-half qualifying order to advance.

Schumacher said he took all the Round 1 surprises as exciting yet potentially dangerous to his own chances. Low-budget driver Bruce Litton upset Scott Kalitta, Doug Herbert fell to part-time entry Cullinan, and Larry Dixon lost to Doug Kalitta.

Schumacher said however satisfying it was to watch the exit of some of his keenest competition, he had to be careful to stay focused and not figure anything was a certainty. Then in the very next pairing after he dispatched Smith, Brandon Bernstein startled the considerable crowd with his career-first red-light disqualification, handing Weis the round-win. "It's so early in the season," Schumacher said, recognizing 20 more races remain. "Someone told me, 'You're leading by 66 points,' and I said, 'That's not enough.' "

In the Pro Stock class, Anderson capped a frenzied weekend by winning the 35th edition of the race he said "has always had a special spot in my heart."

He did it by outrunning Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the final round, with a 6.742-second e.t. at 204.91 miles an hour in his Vegas General Construction Pontiac Grand Am. Coughlin drove his Chevy Cavalier to a 6.790 at 204.08.

Anderson improved the track record time he set in qualifying No. 1 to 6.738 seconds in his first-round victory over Steve Schmidt. He beat nemesis and former boss Warren Johnson and Rickie Smith to win for the fifth time in the last six races, dating back to the Dallas event last September. He pocketed $25,000.

He said that during qualifying "we panicked and had to regroup Saturday afternoon. I made mistakes. I'm not a machine, but I wish I could be." He called his stumble at Phoenix, where closest competitor Kurt Johnson was the winner, "a chink in the armor." Johnson is 70 points behind in second place.

Harley's Rule!

In the bike class, Hines said it didn't matter that he won with a 7.076- second e.t. at 189.83 miles an hour to Tonglet's 7.161/182.96. "We decided to put both bikes in the winners circle," Hines said. "He was just as happy for me." Besides, he added, "G.T. put up a good fight. He left on me and I had to run him down."

Hines was in high school when Harley-Davidson laid its foundation for a drag-racing program, and he said he "had no inclination to ride a Pro Stock Bike" at the time. After what the No. 1 qualifier declared was a "monumental" personal feat worth $10,000 and an historic one for his manufacturer, he said his association with the program "is the best thing that's happened to me."

Andrew Hines said he wasn't sure what Harley Davidson's goals were when it established its program last year, "but I know what mine are: I'm out here to win races and win championships. We won't be satisfied until we win a race. That'll be something monumental for Harley Davidson."

Willy G. Davidson, Harley-Davidson's Vice President of Styling, was at Gainesville with Bill Davidson, Director of Product Development. The grandsons of the company founder were so excited about the program's progress through the weekend that they made an impromptu flight to Florida from Milwaukee to watch final eliminations.

"We'd been following the qualifying on the Internet," Willy G. Davidson said, "and we said, 'Hey, our plane is gassed up and ready to go. We'd better get down there. That's a pretty big deal.'"

Hines rewrote his own track record in his second-round victory over Josh Helvie with a 7.051-second elapsed time that was just two-thousandths of a second slower than Angelle Savoie's national mark.

Andrew's older brother, Matt Hines, won three straight NHRA series championships in 1997-99.

Andrew Hines said, "I'm so proud to make everybody proud."

The class will not run at the upcoming Las Vegas race, but Hines will take a 22-point lead into the April 15-18 event at Houston. "We have 118 points," he said. "The only way we could have more is to have the national record," he said.

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