Worsham defeats teammate Dixon in Sunday’s Top Fuel final round
Del Worsham, Jack Beckman and Greg Anderson all won in their respective division's during Sunday's final round action at zMAX Dragway in Concord, NC.
Courtesy: NHRA Media Relations
CONCORD, N.C. – Top Fuel driver Del Worsham nosed out Al-Anabi teammate Larry Dixon by four thousandths of a second to win the Second annual VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway Sunday.
The other winners at the fourth of 22 races in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Jack Beckman (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock).
Worsham gave up four thousandths to Dixon at the starting line (.064 to .068), but he was eighth-thousandths quicker than Dixon (3.813 at 3.821) on the track for a net win-margin of .0048, or about half a foot.
“I told (team manager) Alan (Johnson) it would be only a matter of inches … and it was,” said Worsham, who won for the second time this season and opened up a 77-point lead over Dixon in the Top Fuel point standings.
The Funny Car final was also a close finish with Beckman (4.120, 309.63) crossing the stripe in his Aaron’s Dodge Charger just in front of Bob Tasca’s Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang (4.137, 311.05) for his first win this year and 10th of his career.
“Del talked about peaking too early. I’m not worried about that … I just want to peak,” said Beckman, who won for the first time in more than a year (Phoenix, 2010).
In Pro Stock, four-time and defending Series champion Anderson, from nearby Mooresville, N.C., chased down runner-up Greg Stanfield (6.559, 211.10) right at the stripe with a 6.556-second pass at 211.39 mph to win (by .005) for the first time this year.
“I love this race track and the best part of it is it’s home for me. Just a great, great day. I’m a very happy person,” said Anderson, who extended his NHRA-best streak of consecutive seasons with at least one win to 11.
Also of note for Anderson, who drives the Summit Racing Pontiac GXP, this was his 66th career win, pulling him within one of Tony Schumacher (67) for fifth place on NHRA’s all-time wins list and within three of Kenny Bernstein (69) for fourth place.
The 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Series resumes in two weeks with the 24th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Raceway Park in Houston.
