Former NHRA Vice President of Operations Graham Light once offered a piece of advice that stuck around the dragstrip: “You can’t always trust your optical data.”
That phrase came to mind Thursday when fans rolled through the gates at Brainerd International Raceway and saw former NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car champion Del Worsham parked between two Top Alcohol Dragster teams with what appeared to be a nitro Funny Car.
The eyes weren’t lying. The class designation on the car was the part that required another look.
Worsham was at the NHRA Brainerd Nationals with a Top Alcohol Funny Car powered by NHRA’s new supercharged nitromethane combination, an option he helped develop as a possible bridge between the alcohol ranks and professional nitro racing. Longtime crewman Jacob Slater was behind the wheel.
“We finally brought this car that we’ve been working on for a couple of years into competition,” Worsham said. “We started this whole thing back in 2024 with some testing and then did some more testing last year with it. And finally this year with the break on our schedule, we were able to bring it out.
“It’s a legal Top Alcohol Funny Car built around a nitro Funny Car spec, a blown nitro Funny Car. It would pass tech right now and I could run In NHRA Funny Car with it. It just wouldn’t be very fast.”
The combination showed its potential in the final session of qualifying, running a 5.458, 279.96, to grab the No. 1 qualifying spot in its debut.
NHRA announced the combination in May 2025 for introduction this season, adding blown nitromethane to the existing supercharged methanol and injected nitro combinations permitted in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car. Worsham initially proposed the concept and joined Terry Haddock Racing to test it for the NHRA.
The idea wasn’t to reinvent Top Alcohol racing. Worsham wanted to restore something the sport had lost as Top Alcohol Funny Cars and professional Funny Cars grew further apart.
“So the whole idea of it is just get a gateway. Get away to get from Top Alcohol Funny Car into nitro Funny Car and all the money you spend and everything you learn will help you get closer to being a big show car with what essentially is a little show car,” Worsham said. “I was thinking back in the 80s when we moved our car from a Top Alcohol Funny Car into a nitro Funny Car.
“We used the body, the chassis, the block, the heads, the flow, the injector. We were able to use all those parts, which today is not even feasible. I guess you use a trailer is about all you could use today.”
Worsham knows that path because he traveled it. His family moved from Top Alcohol Funny Car into nitro racing in the late 1980s, when much of what they already owned could make the move with them.
Today, the separation between the two combinations is far greater. A conventional Top Alcohol Funny Car represents a substantial investment, but virtually none of its major hardware transfers directly into a current NHRA nitro Funny Car.
“So it’s a gateway car. Still expensive, but still a blown nitro car,” Worsham said. “I would say if you don’t ever plan on going to the big show, this wouldn’t be the car you’d build for this class. But if your end goal is to be a big show car, that’s a hell of way to get going.”
NHRA’s rules make the car much closer mechanically to a professional Funny Car while cutting back the pieces that produce the enormous power and operating expense of the professional category. The combination is restricted to 85% nitromethane, one magneto and a maximum four-disc clutch with six primary levers and no clutch management system.
The supercharger is also restricted, while the Funny Car body must meet current NHRA nitro Funny Car specifications. The chassis and basic package underneath Slater are therefore intended to prepare more than the driver for a future move into the professional category.
“The rules are the exact same rules as our class as far as cubic inch, blower, but the blower is limited to 16.7 over,” Worsham said. “It has one mag, has 85% maximum as opposed to 90 in our class. And it has a four disc clutch. We can run a six disc clutch with no lockup arms. There’s no clutch management. So you get six arms and four discs is all you get.”
For Worsham, what happens in the pits may prove every bit as important as what happens on the racetrack. The combination allows mechanics to learn the procedures, electronics, maintenance routines and organization required to operate a modern nitro Funny Car without starting their education at the professional level.
“So it weighs the same,” Worsham explained. “Everything else is the same. So essentially in an hour and a half, I could go race John Force with this car or I could go race John Force’s team with this car. But the way it’s set up right now, I can go race Shane Westerfield with it. So again, it’s just a good way to learn how to run this car, how to use the command module, how to use the MSD stuff, how to work on these parts, how to organize your tools, how to be competitive, how to have some fun. And then when you’re ready to go big show racing, it’s not a big guess. It’s not a big game. You already know what you’re doing.”
There is another difference that can be measured without a time slip. Worsham said the operating expense and maintenance requirements have been considerably lighter than what his professional Funny Car demands.
“You can just learn how this is done spending a quarter of the amount of money, really,” Worsham said. “The maintenance on it is a little less. So far, I haven’t had to pull it apart every run. We check the bearings, we put a clutch back in and we go. Run the valves. We pull it apart every night, take pistons out, take a look at it. But I started off with eight pistons. That’s my 13th run. I’m still using the same eight pistons.”
That might be the strongest sales pitch for a racer who eventually wants to move up. Instead of buying an alcohol car, learning one combination and replacing nearly everything for a professional Funny Car, the racer can start with equipment designed around the destination.
Worsham doesn’t pretend his combination should replace the traditional Top Alcohol Funny Car. He sees it as an alternative for racers whose ambitions extend beyond the category.
“Learn how to tune it, learn how to run it,” Worsham said. “That’s the whole… it’s just a gateway. And if your end goal as Top Alcohol Funny Car, this isn’t the car for you. If your end goal is to be a big show Funny Car racer, this is probably the avenue you need to go.”
Slater may be the best example of what Worsham is talking about. His path began at 16 when Peter Gallen brought him into racing. Slater came through Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars, later built and drove a Nostalgia blown-alcohol altered and eventually became part of Worsham’s operation.
At Brainerd, the longtime crewman became the first driver to race the new blown-nitro combination in Top Alcohol Funny Car competition.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Salter said. “The guy that got me into racing was second in the fives in Alcohol Funny Car in 1989. So to be running the class here in a car owned by Del Worsham is just beyond some people’s wildest dreams, including my own. I didn’t grow up in racing. I got pulled into it by Pete Gallen when I was 16. So to be here driving, it’s just hard work and loyalty.”
Slater’s previous experience made the car considerably less foreign once the body came down. The controls and procedures carry plenty of familiar Funny Car DNA.
“I got into racing with a Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car, so it’s always been Nitro Funny Cars,” Slater said. “Then I built a Nostalgia Blown Alcohol altered and got my license and my Super Comp license and that. So I drove a little bit in that, but it runs. Your procedures are the same as a funny car. The reverser’s in the same spot, center steer, a little butterfly wheel. It’s got a blower. So I’ve kind of just gone through racing with all similar setups. And I mean, I got introduced to nitro, and once you go into fuel, there’s really no turning back.”
The first run offered some evidence the concept can work. Slater came out of the the swinging as he ran a 5.58 elapsed time at 282 mph, quicker than Worsham’s 5.62 during early testing following the 2024 Las Vegas event. NHRA said that earlier 5.62 would have been quick enough to qualify at that race.
Worsham even found a little old-school efficiency while servicing the car. He left the Funny Car body in place rather than repeatedly wrestling it on and off.
“That thing weighs too much and it hurts my back to lift it on and off,” Worsham said. “So I just left the body on it. It’s just easier. Twenty years ago, the body didn’t bother me. Today, the body is just a pain, a pain in the butt. So I love them. They’re cool, but we just do the work with the body on it. It’s just one less step for an old man.”
There is still plenty to learn about where the combination fits and whether other teams will embrace it. Worsham has moved the idea beyond private test sessions, however, and put one into an actual NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car field.
For Slater, the larger purpose of the experiment isn’t difficult to understand. He is already living it.
“There was a hope to do this and it might’ve felt like small hope back in the day, five, six years ago, but we’re here now,” Slater said. “So who knows what kind of surprises might come out in the future? Money runs the world and I’m just a crew guy, but I’m here doing it in Top Alcohol with the new combo, the first one to ever drive one in the class. So that’s pretty neat. But like I said, it’s just great to be here. And Del’s just an amazing guy for letting me wheel it and play around with this new combo that he put together.”
