Worsham Takes No. 1 Qualifier at Pomona

Del Worsham

Del Worsham moved one step closer to his first NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series national title on Saturday as he claimed the no. 1 qualifier spot in Top Fuel for Sunday’s season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Pomona.

Matt Hagan, Mike Edwards and Andrew Hines also secured top qualifier spots in the rain-shortened qualifying session as the 2011 season wraps up with the final race in the Countdown to the Championship.

Worsham moved eight points ahead of Spencer Massey in the Top Fuel standings after moving past his Al-Anabi Racing teammate and defending Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon to lock down his seventh no. 1 qualifier spot of the season and 15th of his NHRA career with a pass of 3.773 at 320.05 mph in the final run of the first – and only – qualifying session of the day for Top Fuel.

“We came into this race with a plan to try to make up a couple of points on Spencer and put a round on Antron (Brown), and we couldn’t have done any better to this point," said Worsham. “Being a two-car team and watching Larry (Dixon) go 3.79 ahead of us, I’m sure that (team manager) Alan Johnson, (crew chief) Brian Husen, and Jason (McCulloch, Dixon’s crew chief) had a pretty good idea of what it was going to do."

Dixon held the second spot with a 3.791/321.12 followed by Tony Schumacher at 3.801/ 322.19. Massey took fourth with a 3.804/325.06, followed by Morgan Lucas at 3.838/317.87.

Mike Ashley took the bump spot and will face Worsham in the first round on Sunday.

Del Worsham

Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan got a major push in his bid for his first NHRA title with his 10th-career no. 1 qualifier spot and fourth of the season, knocking Robert Hight off the top spot with a 4.033 at a track record speed of 315.27, picking up seven bonus points to lead teammate Jack Beckman by 12 points in the Funny Car standings. Beckman qualified eighth.

“We’re all glad as a team to be back here and back in this hunt," said Hagan. “We were looking to get another qualifying run in tonight; unfortunately the weather didn’t allow that. We have to go forward tomorrow and hopefully make some laps and have a long day. I believe in our team and the guys that got us here, and I believe that (crew chief) Tommy DeLago is going to carry us through this thing. I just have to stand on the pedal and have some fun."

Hight held the second spot with a 4.084 at 313.88 mph, followed by Mike Neff (4.087/313.44), Melanie Troxel (4.087/309.70) and Cruz Pedregon (4.087/307.79).

Rain washed out the second round of Funny Car qualifying, but not before Jon Capps raced he way into the bump spot to knock Bob Bode out of the field.

Mike Edwards completed his sweep of Pro Stock qualifying, holding the top spot through all four sessions to score his sixth no. 1 qualifier of the year and 40th of his career.

Edwards time of 6.520 at 211.00 held up through Saturday sessions to put him atop the ladder for the third week in a row.

Greg Anderson was second at 6.537/211.66. Pro Stock points leader Jason Line (6.538/211.20), Rodger Brogdon (6.552/211.06) and Larry Morgan (6.554/210.97) rounded out the top five.

“We just missed the clutch set-up on both of today’s qualifying runs and it was worse in the second session," said Edwards. “We changed engines this evening for the second session to see if it might run any better, but that didn’t happen. We’re struggling in the clutch area right now. We made a real nice run on Thursday, but we’ve just gone backwards since then."

Buddy Perkinson held the bump spot and will open up against Edwards in the first round.

Andrew Hines remained the class of the field in Pro Stock Motorcycle, as no one was able to top his time of 6.820 at 197.54 mph from Thursday’s session, giving Hines his second top qualifier spot of the season and 30th of his career. He’ll face Michael Phillips in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.

“Right now, we’re just working on our consistency," said Hines. “We showed that all through qualifying. I had the quickest bike in three rounds. On that last run, I lost a TPS (throttle position sensor) and the bike was misfiring badly. We slowed up but I’m lucky that happened today and not tomorrow."

Hector Arana, Jr. will start second, posting a 6.832 at 195.39 mph. Points leader Eddie Krawiec was third at 6.850/198.12 with Hector Arana (6.871/194.91) and Shawn Gann (6.878/194.35) making up the rest of the top five.