Al-Anabi Racing team Funny Car driver Del Worsham was in Doha, Qatar earlier this month when His Highness Sheik Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Thani won his first race as a driver. While on vacation with his wife Connie, Worsham attended the second race of the season at the Qatar Race Club and then accompanied Al-Thani to the Williams Formula 1 facility in Oxford, UK where both drove the Formula 1 simulator. Worsham’s description of the trip is below.

“Connie and I usually take our annual vacation in late November, once we wrap up the NHRA season. This year, we had booked a Caribbean cruise and were really looking forward to some much needed R&R.  When the race season began in Qatar, Sheik Khalid had a great first event, and I called him to congratulate him on his successful first event as a driver. During the call, he invited me to attend the second race of the season so we cancelled our cruise and made plans to travel to Doha, Qatar to attend the race. We were both really excited about it because we had heard so many great things, and wanted to see Qatar for ourselves.

Worsham visits Williams Formula 1 Facility and Drives Simulator

Al-Anabi Racing team Funny Car driver Del Worsham was in Doha, Qatar earlier this month when His Highness Sheik Khalid Bin Hamad Al-Thani won his first race as a driver. While on vacation with his wife Connie, Worsham attended the second race of the season at the Qatar Race Club and then accompanied Al-Thani to the Williams Formula 1 facility in Oxford, UK where both drove the Formula 1 simulator. Worsham’s description of the trip is below.

“Connie and I usually take our annual vacation in late November, once we wrap up the NHRA season. This year, we had booked a Caribbean cruise and were really looking forward to some much needed R&R.  When the race season began in Qatar, Sheik Khalid had a great first event, and I called him to congratulate him on his successful first event as a driver. During the call, he invited me to attend the second race of the season so we cancelled our cruise and made plans to travel to Doha, Qatar to attend the race. We were both really excited about it because we had heard so many great things, and wanted to see Qatar for ourselves.

“We left for Doha on a Monday morning, and neither one of us was looking forward to the 21-hour trip we had ahead of us. Much to our surprise, the flight on Qatar Airways was actually like a mini-vacation in itself. The cabin, the amenities and the service lived up to its 5-star ratings. We arrived on Tuesday night and while waiting for our luggage, bumped into Matt Smith, who was also in town to help out a new pro stock motorcycle rider from Qatar. After gathering up my two bags and Connie's four, we were shuttled to our villa on the beautiful Persian Gulf. We were both amazed at the amount of new construction going on in Doha. Our view from our balcony across the bay resembled many major cities' skylines that we have seen on our travels here in the United States. We made our phone calls home and tried to get some sleep in anticipation of what the next several days had in store for us.

“The next day Sheik Khalid came by and drove me to his home and treated me to an authentic Qatari an feast before to heading to the drag strip. The Qatar Race Club is a very impressive facility from the buildings to the race track to the equipment; the track is as nice as anything we have here in the United States, but we really didn’t expect anything less.  The race was Dec. 3-4, and it started with qualifying.

“Sheik Khalid made his first qualifying attempt on Thursday, and I was impressed.  He really did a great job. He told me he could drive, but I saw it with my own eyes.  He was very calm and looked like a veteran out there.  When the car misbehaved, he stayed calm, shut it off perfectly and didn’t try to make the car do something it wasn’t set up to do.  The guy can definitely drive; his reaction times were really, really good, too.

“On race day he told me he hadn't fallen asleep until 6 a.m. that morning. I asked ‘What was the problem?’ When he replied that he didn't know, I said ‘well, welcome to the world of being a race car driver…we deal with that all the time.’  The anticipation is the same for everybody, and I saw it happen to him.

“In the first round, Sheik Khalid ran a 3.69-second pass and became the first driver in Doha to make a run in the 3.60s.  He finished the race running a 3.67 in the final round. It was quite an experience to see the fans' reactions. I was excited to be a part of his Highness’ first win as a driver and Frank Manzo's first win as his crew chief. Frank and Sheik Khalid have great chemistry, and I expect to see many wins from them in the future.

“The next day was our last day in Qatar, and we spent it sightseeing. We stayed at a great hotel, did some shopping and learned a lot about the culture. The people of Qatar were very hospitable, and Connie and I felt at home the entire time we were there.

“We traveled to London with Sheik Khalid, Frank Manzo, his wife Michelle and Howard Moon, the crew chief on the Von Smith-driven Barwa pro-mod car. The first day we were there, we went to the Williams Formula 1 facility in Oxford and got a first class tour from Patrick Head who is the director of operations.  Sir Frank Williams greeted us and joined us for lunch.  Sheik Khalid was there to drive the simulator because he was getting ready to drive a Formula 1 car later that week.

“Sheik Khalid was in the simulator for the first time, and all of us watching could tell how hard it was. I had never done anything like this before, and I was thinking I would probably struggle if I had been in there.  I think Sheik Khalid might have heard some people talking about his performance, so he came out and said, ‘Why don’t one of you give it a try?’  I said I’d do it.  I knew it would be difficult, but I didn’t think it would be that hard; Sheik Khalid did way better than me.  I noticed right away that those guys are a lot smaller than I am because I had a hard time fitting into the cockpit.  It was a full Formula 1 cockpit that’s just like the one in the car.  It was like the ultimate video game; you feel bumps in the track, and the landscape flies by you at real-time speed. You really feel like you’re driving the car. I know that’s the point, but I was amazed at how realistic it was.

“Being at the Williams facility was a big deal; I heard that more people have flown on the Space Shuttle than have driven F1 cars.  I’ve never followed F1 racing that closely, and I don’t know that much about it.  But it was a very impressive facility.  To get a chance to be in the simulator was a full-on bonus that I never expected.  It was a great experience, and I have a new found respect for F1 Racing.

“Once Sheik Khalid was comfortable and learned how to handle everything in there, his performance in the simulator improved dramatically, he was ready to drive the car.  (Three days later at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, Sheik Khalid became the first Qatari to ever drive a Formula 1 car; he drove five laps and did a really nice job from what everyone said.)

“The next day, we started our London sightseeing. We stayed in a great hotel and had some great meals. It was my first trip to London, and it was a very cool experience. I hope we have the chance to visit there again. We stopped in Paris for a few days and then headed back home to California for the holidays.  It’s great to be back home with our family, but we were treated to a fantastic journey earlier this month.  We feel very fortunate to have seen all we did.  On behalf of our family and everyone at the Al-Anabi Racing team, Happy New Year.”

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