Tue, 22 Nov 2011, 22:55 PM Del Worsham Wins the Top Fuel Championship and Retires

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Del Worsham and Alan Johnson

Del Worsham is the 2011 Full Throttle Top Fuel World Champion. Ok, so that's not exactly earth shattering news but it does have a nice ring to it, especially if you are Del Worsham. What is an earth shattering announcement was the news that Del has decided to retire from driving. "I've driven for a long time and I'm ready to move on to the next chapter in my life," he said. Now nothing is etched in stone, but according to all the stories that were circulating around Pomona that next move may be as a tuner in the Funny Car class, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Whatever he does we all wish him good luck. "It was 100% my decision. It wasn't easy, it was sad, but at the same time I'm comfortable with it." As I often say, in life timing is everything, and how many people in any sport get to go out on top? Even though he won't be driving next year I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the 2011 Top Fuel Champion. Did you know that after he won the World Championship in 1979 Rob Bruins only competed at three races in 1980 which virtually took him out of title contention? But other than that the Top Fuel champ has always returned to defend his turf. Always, that is, until now.

Worsham at the 1990 Finals.

Winning the championship was nice for Del and it's also nice if you are Alan Johnson or any part of the Al-Anabi team that was involved in the championship season. We'll get to Alan and that team shortly, but for right now let's celebrate a very popular win in the Top Fuel class, at least that's what I took away from the 2011 awards ceremony. It seemed that everyone in the room was happy for Del and for what he accomplished. Let's face it, he has been one of the more popular drivers for a while and a guy who always was competitive while racing in the Funny Car class with his father, Chuck Worsham, before he teamed up with AJ. He is one of the drivers who always had a car that was competitive, who came back from a nasty fire early in his career, who qualified in both fuel classes at several races and who made a serious charge for the championship on more than one occasion. But, as he said in his acceptance speech, "John Force took a lot of those championships away from me." Well, nobody took this one away from him, and for Del it has to be the highlight of a career that began back at Auto Club Raceway even before it was Auto Club Raceway. Did you know that Del's first national event came at the NHRA Finals in

Worsham vs. Massey

1990? That's right, he debuted at the same race where one of the great Top Fuel battles in history was decided, the 1990 "winner takes all" final round between Joe Amato and Gary Ormsby. At that race, young Del was just an afterthought, but in 2011 he was center stage, and his semi-final race with Spencer Massey was as exciting as anything we had seen before or may see for a long while. It's the race that officially gave Del Worsham the Top Fuel Championship.

Even though Del wasn't a factor at that final 1990 race (he lost in round one to Ed McCulloch), it wouldn't be long before he picked up his first national event win. In fact, in just his sixth race in the Funny Car class he won the Southern Nationals in Atlanta. Did you know that his opponent in the final round was Mark Oswald, the same Mark Oswald who, along with Brian Corradi, was part of the tuning tandem on Antron Brown's car this year? And did you know that when Del won the Atlanta

Worsham celebrates first win at Atlanta in 1991.

race that year he was the youngest Funny Car winner in NHRA history? And in typical Del Worsham fashion he won the race after starting from the bottom half of the field. Did you know that in his Funny Car career Del won twenty-five races and a dozen of them were won when he started in the bottom half of the field? How's that expression go, "if you're in you can win!" Apparently Del subscribes to that theory, or at least he did before this year. In 2011 Del only qualified in the bottom half of the field one time and that was at Gainesville, a race he just happened to win....After that initial victory it didn't take Del long to win again in 1991. Just four racers later, in Englishtown, he again started in the bottom half of the field and he again won the race beating that same Mark Oswald in the final round. Just ten races into his rookie year the young California driver was the hottest thing in the class. But as is often the case in sports, he cooled off just as quickly as he got hot and it was a long time until his next win. Did you know that Del went all the way to the Seattle race in 1999 before he won another race? Between wins he had the fire in Englishtown that put him in the hospital for three weeks and kept him off the track for a lot longer, a few DNQ's, a couple of runner-up spots and the usual struggles that face every team. Still, along with his dad, he kept coming back and now he is the Top Fuel World Champion. What a great story for a great competitor!!

Worsham at Indy in 1993

Even though Del competed in Top Fuel for the full season for the first time in his career in 2011, it wasn't the first time that he ever drove a Top Fuel car in competition. In 2011 he competed in twenty-two races in the dragster class, well did you know that prior to that, between 1993 and 1995, Del competed in exactly twenty-two races in the Top Fuel class? At the 2011 Auto Club Finals Del won four rounds in the dragster, and that's the exact same total that he had won in all of his previous twenty-two Top Fuel starts before this year....But enough of the past. At the end of the 2010 season when it was announced that Del would be driving a second Al-Anabi dragster, everyone knew that it could change the face of the class. Let's face it, with Alan Johnson operating the team, and with all the resources of team owner Sheik Khalid Al Thani, it didn't take a genius to know that this was going to be a formidable team. Just look at what that same combination had done a year earlier with Larry Dixon. They had a great season, went 12-0 in final rounds and won the championship, and while that would be hard to duplicate, everyone in the class knew that if one Al-Anabi dragster was tough, two would be even harder and that's exactly how it played out. Larry had another good season and even had a shot, a long shot but a shot at the championship coming into Pomona. Del on the other hand, had a career year, one that saw him go to eleven final rounds, win eight races and win the championship. And for drag racing fans everywhere, the way the championship battle played out at Pomona is the stuff that legends are made of.

Del Worsham

Del Worsham becomes just the twenty-sixth Top Fuel Champion in NHRA history. Since NHRA went to the points system in 1974, instead of awarding the title to the driver who won the last race of the year, there have been seventeen different drivers to win the title. Did you know that of those seventeen drivers eight, including Del, have only won one title? And there are some very impressive names in that group including Richard Tharp, Kelly Brown, Rob Bruins, Jeb Allen, Dick LaHaie, Gary Ormsby and Eddie Hill. Of those who were declared Top Fuel champ before the switch to a points system in 1974 only Bennie Osborn won the championship more than once and he did it in consecutive years of 1967 and '68.

Worsham and team.

Del will be the first one to tell you that nobody wins a championship alone. You win as a team and you lose as a team and that's the way it should be. In 2011, led by Alan Johnson, he was very fortunate to have a great team around him. I'm glad that the Full Throttle folks acknowledge the "Hard Working Crew" after each race and at the end of the year because the men and women behind the scenes and in the pits do a great job and they often go unrecognized. Along with Alan the guys on Del's championship team included Brian Husen, crew chief; Rod Centorbi, assistant crew chief; Josh Adams, blowers; Nate Archambault, bottom end; Jordan Harry, tires and assistant on the clutch; Ryan Pethtel, clutch; Shawn Ford, engine builder; Thomas Whybrew, cylinder heads and Matt Korol, body/fuel. While you may not recognize a lot of the names or even the faces these are the guys who helped the Al-Anabi team win the championship and they all deserve a great deal of credit....Of course Alan, as team manager, is the guy who heads up the operation and he has done that very well since he and his brother, Blaine, ran the alky dragster from 1988 through the 1993 season. And while they struggled a little bit when they switched to Top Fuel, it wasn't long before the Johnsons were one of the most feared cars in the class. Did you know that Alan won four World Championships in the Top Alcohol Dragster class with his brother Blaine? When you add those to the ten he has won in the Top Fuel class it's easy to see why he is rated as one of the best in the history of the sport. It's also easy to see why any driver would want to drive for AJ and I'm sure the résumés are already pouring in.

Massey vs. Worsham

Since I mentioned the Al-Anabi team I thought I would answer one or two questions that I often get about the operation. First of all Al-Anabi really does mean "Go Team Maroon." I said that several times this year and even mentioned it in my column and people thought I was making it up but I'm not. Sheik Khalid Al Thani is part of the ruling family in Qatar and he owns the team while Alan Johnson Racing manages it. And as for the letters "KH" that appear on the cars of Del and Larry, the "K" is the first initial for His Highness, Khalid, and the "H" is the first initial of his father, the Emir (Hamad).

Del won the championship this year by having the best car, and while that may be up for debate for some, it isn't to me. In 2011 Del won more races than anyone else, went to more final rounds, qualified number one more times than anyone else in the class and generally had the best performing car in 2011. He set top speed five times this year and that was second best in the class. Did you know that Tony Schumacher and his Army team set top speed ten times this year? And here's an interesting little tidbit. In which of his championship seasons do you think Tony recorded the most top speeds? Everyone who guessed 1999 raise your hand. Just what I thought, I don't see a lot of hands. With all he has done with his Army car the "Sarge" never set top speed as many times with that car as he did in his first championship season, the season where he won one race. In that year, 1999, Tony had the fastest car on the property an amazing fourteen times....One of Del's losses came in the finals at Maple Grove and that's the one race where he thought he let the title slip away. Spencer Massey beat Del on a holeshot at that race and that had to make winning the title by beating Spencer in the semi-finals at Pomona even more special. Did you know that in 2011 Del only lost twice on holeshots and they both happened against Spencer and they both happened in final rounds? In addition to the loss in Reading he also lost that way to Spencer in Englishtown. Del also had two holeshot wins this year and one of them came against Spencer while the other one came against Larry Dixon. Losing to Spencer on a holeshot is nothing to be ashamed of, after all, he leaves ahead of almost everyone. Did you know that for his career Spencer has left first 83% of the time?

Worsham and his family.

Not bad, huh?....In the performance department Del made five runs in the 3.70 range this year during eliminations and that was tied for second best in the class. Spencer did it seven times, Tony Schumacher five while Antron Brown and Larry Dixon both did it four times. Looking at that it's no surprise that those four were all in the championship hunt all year long.....Tony Schumacher didn't win a race in 2011 and that's rare for him and it's rare for a defending Top Fuel World Champion. Did you know that this was the first year since 2001 that Tony failed to visit the winner's circle? And it's only the fifth time since 1974 that a defending TF champ did not win a race in the next year. Still, with seven final rounds, a record that most drivers would love to have, it wasn't a bad year for Tony. Ok, so he isn't "most drivers" but you get the idea. Did you know that of those seven finals this year six were against either Del or Antron Brown?

Those are just a few Top Fuel tidbits for the end of the year, and with three months off I'm sure I'll have more. For now let me just congratulate the class as a whole for a great year and a tremendous battle for the championship. And to Del and his team, nice going, you deserved it. And I would also like to congratulate Del's wife, Connie, and their two daughters, Katelyn and Madelyn because they're part of the team too, a very big part. Now we just have to wait for Del's next announcement, or Alan Johnson's whichever comes first.

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