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Not Finished Yet
Gary Densham had the perfect opportunity to escape and let it slip away. The veteran driver from Bellflower, Ca., had just ended a three year tour of duty with one of the most successful drag racing operations ever, captured eight wins in eighteen finals and doubled up at the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals. Why didn’t he walk away when he had the chance? “I had money in the bank and I could spend it to go racing,” Densham said.
Densham just can’t help himself. It goes beyond an addiction. He has an insatiable love for the sport that has consumed his life for nearly the last two decades. “Life is great anytime you get to go racing,” Densham said. “It’s just that simple. Then as Densham won the IHRA Torco Funny Car crown at San Antonio, his passion grew a bit more. Densham has been a part of the John Force-owned multi-car team and he’s likewise been a critic of the practice. Even when he was involved, Densham was outspoken because of his concern for the “little guy.” He finds himself today, as one of the lesser funded solo operations, in that boat again. “I don’t know if it is good or bad to be where I am now,” Densham said. “I guess in the early days we were swinging at windmills. I guess it didn’t matter back in those days how many cars were on a team. You went to the starting line, you were a drag racer, and you thought you had a chance to win. “Unfortunately a bit of realistic knowledge comes into place and you realize the resources the multiple teams have gives them the advantage. Does it matter? Probably not, as long as you get to race.” a
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Densham lets his love shine through the adverse conditions. The one point that becomes clear. The former school teacher of three decades gleans as much fun from racing for one-third of the budget he enjoyed while running under Force’s umbrella. ‘You like to race as much as you can and stay within your budget,” Densham said. Some might argue that Densham’s time with Force was destiny’s payback for the years of dedication of competing on a minor budget. “It was a great time for me,” Densham said. “John has such an unbelievable operation. Working with Jimmy Prock was an incredible experience and he is extremely talented. He’s one of the bright and shining stars and a great guy as well.” a
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Densham is passionate about the sport, but he knows that perfection at all times is and will always be impossible. “Jimmy has the same philosophy as me and that’s to work as hard as he possibly can and win every event within his power,” Densham said. “He understands that we are racing cars and those cars sometimes fail. We are going to lost some times. Thank God we aren’t trying to cure world hunger and 40,000 people died. “We just lost a drag race and we’ll work harder to win next time.” Densham headed into the Force camp with the understanding this was only for five races. The timing couldn’t have been any better for Densham as his NEC sponsorship had ended. “Being as foolish as I am, we went out there and raced any way without a sponsor,” Densham admitted. “The level of competition that year was tougher than the three years I ran with Force. There were some quality cars out there. “We qualified in the first two races that year and some heavy-hitters failed to make the cut. All I knew is that we had enough funds to run at least seven events.” a
d v e r t i s e m e n t For Densham, his date with Force was a matter of destiny. Almost three decades earlier, Densham and Force had met in the mid-1970s at the Honolulu Airport on the way to Australia. The two were scheduled to run a series of races and over the course of the tour Force blew the engine, caught fire and stopped in a cow pasture.
Densham admitted that he had better help Force or he was going to kill himself. That generosity established the groundwork for Force to repay the favor. “John had the idea that he was going to run a Top Fuel car and had hired Jimmy,” Densham said. “It was weeks before he was going to get the car and he had people on the payroll. “John and Tony [Pedregon] had performed poorly and they got pressure from Ford. The folks at Ford let John know that his Top Fuel dragster didn’t look much like one of their production cars. He was under pressure to improve his program. “John had the crew in place, so we decided to run at least five races to get everyone in synch. We wanted to help John win the championship for Ford.” Densham had already run two races and with the added five events and figured the time would set him well in the points standings when he had to return to his program. “Auto Club stepped up with the money to finish the rest of the season,” Densham said. “We had a lot of hand-me-down parts that year and we did a lot of testing for John. Jimmy, as smart as he is, was learning how to run a car. He had always run a dragster and this was a learning curve for him. As the team jelled into success, the sponsorship followed suit. “Once it looked like it was going to be a long-term deal, John began to get pressure from Ford and the family,” Densham said. “Ford didn’t feel that I fit the demographic to sell Mustangs to 19-year old girls. On the other hand, it’s the fathers who are buying the cars. “I can’t say that I agreed with their marketing, but it was their choice. John fought that for a while ad he even had some pressure from the family to put [Force son-in-law] Robert [Hight] in the car.
“If anything takes the sting out of it is that Robert is a great young man. I am happy that he has the opportunity to drive. I wish him nothing but the best of luck out there.” The change, although rumored for much of the 2004 season, didn’t become official until the end and that left Denham chasing funding for the upcoming tour. “That left me and my longtime crewchief Greg Amaral scrambling for funding to race,” Densham said. “We had a crew of kids that didn’t know to spell Funny Car much less ever having worked on one. We struggled for a bit and we got behind the eight ball in trying to make it work. “We reached the top ten a few times and even raced in a few finals with that limited budget. When I left Force, I was very fortunate that Greg was still available for me.” “We didn’t have any parts to try and test. It got a bit discouraging for a while. Things slowly came round. My only regret is that I never had enough of a budget that I could allow Greg to shine. I firmly believe he’s one of the most talented individuals in the business. Densham obtained additional help when Torco Race Fuels and Evan Knoll stepped forward with sponsorship. a
d v e r t i s e m e n t Densham’s 2006 season has started off a lot better than it did in 2006 and the victory and subsequent points lead confirms that. The one thing that is most encouraging for Densham when it comes to running the IHRA eMax Series is that the tour provides a competitive playground for single-car teams.
Just before Densham accepted the ride with Force, he was an outspoken critic regarding the potential formation of a third Funny Car team. “Even in all the years I raced with John, I told him three cars in the same class was stupid,” Densham said. “A two-car team with the same sponsor is a great idea. It doubles their chance of winning, their gathering of data and their exposure. I still don’t believe, and I told John this, I don’t believe multi-car teams with multi sponsors is a good thing for our sport. “Unlike NASCAR, where if you’re lucky to own four cars, you are always going to have favorites,” Densham said. “It goes from your personal like of a driver to whoever pays the most money. “I guess I was kind of talking myself out of a job, but I told John he needed to keep the two Castrol GTX cars and make the Auto Club car a dragster. When the smoke clears from all of this, we will see if they multi-car teams help or hurt the sport. Densham has found a home on the IHRA side and admitted that if someone offered him a 16-race deal that he’d do the 11 on the IHRA side and five of the NHRA’s west coast events. “As much as I like virtually everyone,” Densham said. “It gets tough to watch a Force, Schumacher and Kalitta final over and over every weekend. No offense to those guys because they have to fight hard to get there. You just have to wonder if that is getting disturbing to the fans.” Densham feels that the media needs to push the drivers as opposed to the team concept. “We are doing our sport a major disservice,” Densham said. “Not only does it throw everyone into the pot, but it is not good for the sponsor. I think when Robert Hight goes to the starting line that it needs to be known as the Auto Club car driven by Robert Hight more so than it needs to be Team Force. “Wally never envisioned how large this was going to grown, especially the corporate side of it,” Densham said. “Even though he was the great founder of the sanctioning body, he got in way over his head on the financial end of it.
“Wally brought in a bean counter in Dallas Gardner and he looked at it all and said, ‘We have a pie. How do we get a bigger slice instead of trying to grow the pie so we could all get more? “It grew the sport and I realize we had to do it, but it ran a lot of people out. If we could have grown it for everyone, we might be in a better position than we are now. Densham may be a drag racer at heart, but he has three decades of teaching under his belt as an auto mechanics teacher. In the late Seventies and early Eighties, Densham pushed for an involvement of the youth school programs to get involved with the NHRA. “We had to do something to spark interest in the auto mechanics future,” Densham said. “This was during a time when there was no real emphasis on cars. The general selling point was, ‘Buy my box, this ugly thing that gets 35 miles per gallon. It not fast and it doesn’t look good but it does get 35 mpg. We had done away with the factory super cars that used to come out. “I saw that and that’s the reason I started the whole career fair thing. I went to Wally and Dallas and reminded them that we were going to get old and die and that the sport would dry up. The kids were not getting the information just how cool our sport was and still is. We have to tie it in with the school and spoon feed the administrators if we have to. “When we involve them more with career fair type events we immediately show them that there’s more to our sport than just being a driver or a mechanic. It shows them other avenues such as the hospitality, marketing and public relations. We have a chance to show a younger demographic just how exciting our sport is.” “We are all worried about the gas prices but it’s rare in today’s advertising world that we see an ad touting miles per gallon. I think it’s 1965 all over again and it’s exciting. I think if we could run with that we could do some huge things with the sport.”
Densham feels that drag racing has a lot of inherent disadvantages working against it. “We’re loud and noisy and we take up a lot of room,” Densham pointed out. Densham used to have three tracks within 45 minutes of his house. Even if he wanted to drive two hours, he had as many as three more facilities to choose from. Those days are long gone. Densham sees the big picture, “When you cannot keep the local contingent interested in the sport, it’s tough to sell the sport to mainstream America. “Sometimes we need to realize the facts – we are entertainers to those sitting in the grandstands. That means we have to give them the best show we can to make sure they come back the next time we are in town. “I truly believe if we went back to the format we had in the Seventies we would appeal to more fans. You need those wheelstanders, the guy on the kite cycle and stunt shows jumping cars. I realize there are fans that love watching the cars. I am sure we lose people that leave feeling that haven’t been entertained. “As great as a hundred Super Comp dragsters may be, these people want to see some guy just a half of a dozen cars to see if he can do it without killing himself.” Or they want to see someone like Densham taking home the trophy in an arena where he has a legit chance to win.
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