After winning eight consecutive rounds of competition resulting in
back-to-back national event victories, guess what Del Worsham did?

If you guessed made more runs, then you are correct.

Worsham, 39, of Chino Hills, Ca., and the Alan Johnson/Al Anabi team
packed up the hauler one day after their NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
victory and headed south to Commerce, Ga., for two days of extensive
testing aimed at preparing themselves for the impending hot weather
months of the 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing tour.

“After winning eight straight rounds, we tested for two days right
after Bristol to work on some different set ups,” Worsham explained.
“That showed the commitment to winning this team has, and it’s great to
be a part of it. We learned a lot in those two days, and we are
confident about the rest of the season.”

If you’ve seen how potent a Cobra Jet engine can be in a Mustang and
wondered how lethal the legendary engine could be in a dragster, your
curiosity will be quenched at this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA
Summernationals in Topeka, Kan.

Noted fuel system and fuel pump specialists Aeromotive have taken a
stock 5.4 liter Cobra Jet engine, joined it with an aftermarket ECU,
and installed it in a traditional Super Comp dragster.

The crash and the rehab were hell on the soul, but the missing wins were worse on the spirit.

It had been almost 10 months since John Force’s last visit to winner’s
circle. That’s a long time for anyone to wait, much less a 14-time
world champion.

For Force, a man that has the most world championships, most round wins
(1,021 currently) and most event wins (126) in NHRA history, the wait
was almost unbearable.

“I didn’t know if I could win again,” Force said. “I believed it, but
we just couldn’t get that magic to win a race.” That all came to an end
when Force drove past runner-up Tim Wilkerson at the 20th annual
O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals in Heartland Park Topeka just one year
ago and grabbed his first win since Brainerd 2007.  

Don Wootton got more publicity than he anticipated over the off-season and for the driver of a ADRL injected, nitro-burning doorslammer the attention wasn’t always positive.

Away from the scrutiny of the rules makers and the sanctioning body,
Wooten and his gang are working low key to find the right combination.

A 4.190 elapsed time at 190 miles per hour isn’t exactly a barn-burning
lap in the ADRL’s Pro Extreme division but what it is – is a very good
start in a bid to become competitive.

“The run was pretty soft and we really wanted to go from Point A to
Point B with it,” Wootton said. “We accomplished that and we also
discovered some gremlins with the car. We’re going to get it worked
out. We have it going straight now.”

Antron Brown hopes that what worked well for the boss will eventually funnel down to the employee.

In 2007, team owner Mike Ashley won his first national event at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kan.

Brown has yet to win in Topeka but a semi-final finish last year has
success so close for the sophomore Top Fuel driver he can taste it.

"I'm excited to get back out there to Topeka. We came up just short
last year,” Brown said. “I always like performing at Topeka because one
of the guys I looked up to growing up, Gary Ormsby, has a great legacy
at Heartland Park. Topeka is a fun little town and we're ready to get
back to racing and to keep this Matco Tools dragster up there in the
standings."

Unless you’re the lead dog the scenery never changes.

In the dog-eat-dog world of NHRA Pro Stock, five-time world champion
Jeg Coughlin Jr. has grown fond of the view as his 714 championship
points ranks the highest of any NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
professional category.

Coughlin has reached the final round in five of the first eight of the
10  national events of 2009. He’ll be looking for more as he enters
this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Summernationals in Topeka, Kan.

Coughlin, 38, of Delaware, Ohio, is one of only four professional
competitors who has qualified for every race this season and advanced
past the first round of eliminations.

Morgan Lucas believes the Top Fuel program at this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Summernationals will heat up both literally and figuratively.

This weekend’s event, 10th on the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series tour, is expected to present the warmest conditions the
tour has faced thus far in 2009. That factor is certain pose a tuning
challenge to even the most seasoned decision makers.

Lucas speaks with authority when he says the weather will separate the contenders from the also ran operations.

"Topeka is going to be the first consistently hot conditions we're
going to face this year," said the 25-year-old from Indianapolis. "As
we've seen in the past, the teams that transition the best from cool
weather racing to hot weather racing are usually the ones in the hunt
for the championship at the end of the year. We want to be in that
group.

 
He’s been racing a long time, and has returned to quarter-mile action after taking some time away from the sport.
 
Driving his 1957 Chevy in the new Quick 32 Sportsman Series, Paul
Martin said he is looking forward to the six-race series which began
May 15-17 at Cayuga Dragway.
 
“This deal is real sweet,” he said. “It will be great with no travel involved and a group of high-caliber guys to race with.”
 
Qualifying his Shoebox Chevy eighth in the 12-car field on the doorcar
side of the series, Martin went to the second round in the opening
event. After this first of six events for 2009, he is sixth in points.

Jason Hamstra had two clearly defined goals headed into qualifying for the ADRL Quarter-Max Memphis Drags. He wanted to first ensure
he qualified safely within the sixteen car Pro Extreme field. Once
there he wanted his team to be the first to run over 200 miles per hour
in the eighth-mile with a torque converter-equipped doorslammer.

Hamstra succeeded on both counts, which came as a pleasant surprise.

“We had it set up pretty lazy because of the forecast for Saturday,”
Hamstra said. “We are pretty happy that it ran 200 miles per hour.”