Houston Raceway Park's Drag Strip Gets an Extreme Makeover After Hurricane Ike
John Force Racing News
03.26.09: John Force Spring National Preview
03.24.09, ESPN Video: Quarter Mile Profile - Ashley Force Hood
FlA's Personal High Notes from 2008 Spring Nationals
You know there's going to be a party when Houstonian "Reverend Willie G" a.k.a. Billy Gibbons is in the house. It always fantastic when Billy attends the NHRA Spring Nationals in either an official capacity as last year, or comes out on his own to see the nitro action. For 2009,
ZZ Top is celebrating being together and performing for forty(40) years. They are playing the best live concerts since the 80's. The last two times we saw the home bros live, Billy, Dusty, and Frank, were incredible. It was 1 +1 +1 = 12. ZZ usually does a U.S. tour every year. Hardest working international touring band I've ever seen for their age. Do not miss seeing ZZ Top live if they play anywhere close to where you live. Last year, ZZ came out with their first ever live DVD entitled
ZZ Top - Live From Texas -
DVD Announcement. Eleven bucks and it kicks serious butt. It was filmed at the Nokia Theatre in Dallas(Grand Prairie), Texas on November 1, 2007.
Last September, both Dusty's home/estate in San Leon and Frank's home/ranch in Richmond were damaged by Hurricane Ike when it devastated Galveston-Harris(Houston) Counties and several adjoining counties. Billy said his home in Houston was undamaged. San Leon is on Galveston Bay and received significant damage.
I FR posted about this with before/after photos of the legendary Balinese Room, Galveston that Ike wiped off the map. ZZ Top wrote a song about the "Balinese" room in 1975 that was on their Fandango! album.
Del Worsham ~ Alan Johnson Al-Anabi Racing Funny Car
2008 NHRA Spring Nationals Winner
NHRA Profile | Del's '09 Spring Nationals Pre-Race Team Report
FlA Says: 2008 Spring Nationals -- It was an incredible win by my main man Del Worsham. Del winning his first "Wally" since 2005 made the Spring Nationals my favorite NHRA event attended last year. Del had a great and consistent Spring Nationals qualifying fourth, 4.881 @ 313.66, and his low E.T.'s gave him lane choice in 3 of 4 elimination rounds on Sunday. And, man-o-man did Del, and his team run by his father Chuck, put a one-two K.O. on Team Force to earn the honor to hug the NHRA trophy girls as part of his big payday. On Sunday, Del took down John Force in the Semi-Finals, (.086) 4.917-313.37 to John's losing (.063) 5.005 303.57. In the Funny Car Finals, he sent Ashley Force packing with another great pass of (.033) 4.933-316.60 to Ashley's losing (.142) 4.971-302.62. Even if Ashley had not been so late on the tree, she still didn't have the car to beat Del. Worsham's reaction time of .033 was the second lowest in eliminations. He left nothing to chance against "Princess". Here's a good background article that O'Reilly Auto Parts did last year on Del and Chuck Worsham entitled Just Me N' Dad.
2009 Spring Nationals -- Del is an excellent driver and very level headed. The problem with he and his father's nitro Funny Car team was they didn't have the big bucks to be a serious championship contender. They couldn't afford to blow up a bunch of parts, to get a win, like many of the other top teams. Del doesn't have this problem for 2009. Al-Anabi Racing has the big bucks to give him the opportunity to step it up and run for a NHRA World Championship. His teammate, Top Fuel dragster jockey Larry Dixon - previously with Don Prudhomme Snake Racing - won at the Gatornationals two weeks ago. It would be incredible if Del could win the Spring Nationals again this weekend.
