The look on his face on Thursday at the NHRA Auto Club Finals said a lot about the season Del Worsham has had.

Worsham used to get all of the breaks at Pomona, but the last two times haven’t been
kind to the hometown favorite from nearby Chino Hills.

The first day of
qualifying at the NHRA Auto Club Finals was indicative of the season he’s
experienced. When Worsham’s car failed to fire for the first qualifying session
and nearly failed in the second, it seemed like a continuation of the fate he
experienced last year when a parachute failure sent him careening into the
shutdown area.

“It’s been a crazy
season,” Worsham said. “You know when I look back on the season at all the runs
and all the races, from June on we had a pretty good running car.  We didn’t win any of the races but we made
some nice runs and got dropped from those races.  We get to the Pomona and it’s a home race and all the
problems are back.” 

This kind of fate is what
had Worsham puzzled, because he’s had usually good fortunes at Pomona. At least the plusses have outnumbered
the minuses.

David Baca
did an admirable job of filling the Whit Bazemore vacancy at David Powers
Motorsports [DPM] for two races and if he has his way, he’ll be back to drive
the third car for them possibly in 2008.

Baca said the experience
greatly differed from the days when he ran his own independent team.

"I’ve been out here
doing this for quite a few years and I finally made it to the elite class,”
Baca said. “Did it a little on my own, finally got a corporate sponsor for a
year or two and then finally had to pull the plug on it because things didn’t
work out in the 2006 season as we had hoped.”

Baca said he was at his Brentwood, Ca. home when he got the call from Powers
asking if he’d be interested in filling the seat.

Last year’s NHRA Auto Club Finals marked the final national event that
“Big” Mike Aiello ever attended. Yesterday a group of friends honored
the spirit of his life.

Aiello was injured in 1999 while working as a deliveryman for Federal
Express and eventually lost the feeling in his lower extremities
becoming wheelchair bound. He was always a source of inspiration and
because of that 1320tv.com created an award in his honor.

John Medlen was named the first-ever Mike Aiello Award winner for his
positive outlook throughout the death of his son. Medlen, through John
Force Racing, has labored tirelessly to bring safety to a new level for
Funny Cars. He also served as a pillar of strength for the team and
members of the racing community.

“Big” Mike would have been proud. His longtime friend and Funny Car racer Jack Beckman presented the award in a small ceremony.

“The shame about most people is you don’t know how people felt about
you until you are gone,” Beckman said. “I hope Mike had an inkling what
everyone’s opinion was of him before he left. He’s a guy that gave most
of his life to the sport; the people involved in it and also helped
Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com along the way since he wasn’t going to be
able to drive a car in his condition. Here’s a guy that gave up his
health because of an accident on the job.

How can a driver light up the motor in flames several times in the
lights and lose his 13th career final round and still smile. It's
really not that hard if you have something brighter down the road.
 
There’s a part of Bob
Vandergriff that hears the song by Timbuk3 playing in the back of his mind. Now
that band might not be a household name, but their song “The Future’s So Bright
I Gotta Wear Shades” is commonly known.
 
Vandergriff’s optimism is
fueled by the progress his team has made with a new engine combination comprised
mainly of internal components fabricated in his Alpharetta, Georgia-based racing
shop.
 
Today’s 333 mile per hour top speed during Saturday qualifying
in Pomona only confirms that he’s on to something.
 
“We just felt they would be
better,” Vandergriff said. “We started testing them the last five races and of
the [initial phase] Countdown deal and that kind of put us in a bad spot.  I
mean we knew that we had better parts but we didn’t have enough information to
race it so we kind of threw them in there once in a while trying to get data on
it but we didn’t feel comfortable enough racing it. 

It seems NHRA heard a rumor that some of the Pro Stock cars may have
been using wheels an inch or so wider than permitted, so an effort was made to
do some spot measuring.  In more than one
instance, when inspectors arrived in the pits and teams were hard at work they
announced their intentions, and said they’d return the next day!  Like someone who might have been using
illegal wheels couldn’t have switched them overnight?  And people wonder why we write, “What were
they thinking?” more than a half dozen times each year.

Already maintaining a comfortable points lead, Mike Slowe's Mickey Thompson Pro
Street championship campaign got a big boost in round 1 of eliminations of the
AMA/Prostar Orient Express U.S. Motorcycle Nationals at Atco Raceway when points
rival Kent Stotz went down hard on a holeshot. "After that there was no
pressure," said Slowe. "The championship was already locked up."
 
It is
Slowe's second straight AMA/Prostar Pro Street championship, and along with his
three MiRock 60-inch championships and Pinks TV win makes him the currently most
successful no-bar motorcycle drag racer on the planet.
 
After winning the
Prostar opener at Valdosta in March, Slowe runner-upped in Atlanta and
Indianapolis, and won Memphis and Columbus before racing at his home track at
Atco, New Jersey. All the Pro Street competitors at Atco had a difficult and
disappointing track surface to deal with in perfect air. "I went testing
Thursday, rolled off the trailer and went 7.332 and put the bike away," said
Slowe. "But on Saturday, I almost blew it up 'cause it was on the rev limiter so
hard. The fuelers and Super Street bikes didn't seem to have near as much
trouble as the Pro Street bikes, so I couldn't get it through my head how bad
the track really was. The first part of the track was real good. It was when you
hit third gear that it started spinning. It took me 'til Sunday morning to make
the decision to shorten the bike to 65 1/2 inches, same as the slicker tracks
like Columbus and Memphis." By this time, Slowe was uncharacteristically fifth
in the qualifying order.

Troy Ladd, founder and president of Hollywood Hot Rods in Burbank, California was
presented with the 2007 Goodguys Trendsetter award, Wednesday evening, October
31st in Las
Vegas. Ladd accepted the award during the Hot Rod
Industry Alliance awards reception here at the SEMA
show.

The Goodguys Trendsetter Award is presented annually at
SEMA to rising young talents in the realm of rod & custom car
building.

The Huntsville Engine "King of the Coast" Bracket Series
visits State Capitol Raceway in Baton Rouge, LA with Event 5 of 7 slated as the
Championship Points Battles could not be any tighter in all classes of
competition as racers vie for the coveted "KOC" Championship.

The Pro Electronics Category has Baker, LA veteran bracket
racer Wayne Henry holding on to a slim one point lead over Long Beach, MS native
G.O. Fennell. Fennell had a strangle hold on the points lead all season long
until Event 3 at State Capitol when Fennell was only able to produce 2 points on
the weekend, and Henry struck for a seven point weekend and thus a one point
lead going into Event 4 back in August which was a rain out both days. All
racers only earned race competition points that weekend. With Event 5 coming up
this weekend, Henry holds the top spot with 26 points and Fennell 25 points.
James Page of Slidell, LA who until late last year was a highly decorated
Footbrake Racer, 2007 MS State Bracket Championships Pro Footbrake Champion,
stepped into the Electronics world and did not skip a beat with numerous final
round appearances around the Southeast. Page has earned a tie for the 2nd
position in the standings with Fennell also with 25 points. David Reynolds of
Petal, MS and 2007 "KOC" Champion Tadd Gates of West Monroe, LA hold the tie for
the 3rd spot with 24 points. The remaining current "KOC" Top 10 are Kris Morris
Pride, LA & Lester Bernadas Jr with 22 points, Alan Jordan of Canton, MS
with 21 points, Mike Buchwald, Wade Ellis & Wade White round up the Top 10
with 20 points.

Eddie Krawiec has signed a contract
extension and will continue to be part of the Screamin' Eagle/Vance
& Hines Motorsports Pro Stock Motorcycle team for the next two
seasons.

Krawiec joined the team in February – just in time for the March season opener in Gainesville, Fla.
Krawiec earned a trip to the semifinals in that first race with the
team. He went on to finish in seventh place in the 2007 NHRA POWERade
Pro Stock Motorcycle standings, making two final-round appearances this
season.

"Eddie was a great addition to the team this year," Harley-Davidson
Racing Manager Anne Paluso said. "He had great riding capability before
he joined the team, and they just improved each race. He was a great
asset to the Screamin' Eagle team, and we're excited about him staying
with the program for the next two seasons."

Krawiec set many goals before the season began, including making the
first cut of the new Countdown to the Championship points system. The
top eight riders competed for the championship after the first 11 of 16
events, and Krawiec and teammate Andrew Hines were both part of that
first group.

Castrol GTX Ford Driver Joins List That Includes Bernstein, Line, Hight and Todd

Ashley Force, 24, applied a measure of positive energy to a difficult
season Monday when she accepted the Automobile Club of Southern
California’s 2007 Road to the Future Award as the professional
Rookie-of-the-Year in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

The daughter of injured icon John Force accepted a check for $20,000
from the Auto Club before crediting her father, her family and her
team, especially crew chiefs Dean “Guido” Antonelli and Ron Douglas,
for a history-making first season at the wheel of the Castrol GTX Ford
Mustang.

Although she missed two races, one following the death last March of
teammate Eric Medlen and the other after her father suffered the most
serious crash of his 32-year career, the graduate of Cal
State-Fullerton made history last month at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway where she became the first woman to race in a Funny Car final
in a national series.