Brainerd: Gary Densham final notes

Densham misses advancement by a nose

BRAINERD, Minn. (August 12) - Funny Car driver Gary Densham had tongues wagging and eyebrows raised as he gave hard-charging, 13-time Funny Car champion John Force a run for his money during Sunday's final eliminations at the 26th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.

Piloting the Torco Racing Fuels / Racebricks Collectibles Impala SS Funny Car, Densham jumped in front of Force with a .012-second starting line advantage. It wasn't until the 1,000-ft. mark that Force caught him and beat him to the finish line by a mere .040-seconds with a speed of 319.37-mph to Densham's 317.64-mph in 4.869-seconds.

"We gave it our best shot," Densham said. "But we came up just a little short at the finish line. I think we've finally got this thing figured out and it's beginning to show. The match-up with my old boss could have gone either way at the finish line. I think it says a lot to give the best in the business a run for his money all the way down the track."

Although the result wasn't what the former school teacher from Bellflower, Calif. was looking for, overall he felt pretty good about the weekend.

"We came up here to win," Densham said. "This track has always been one of my favorites and will continue to be at the top of the list but we're not doing this just for the heck of it.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to Evan Knoll at Torco Racing Fuels and Marty Yacoobian over at Racebricks Collectibles. They deserve more than we've been able to give them so far this year, but we're not done yet. We may not be in the Countdown but we can sure play the spoiler role and that's exactly what we intend to do."

The POWERade Drag Racing Series continues next weekend in Reading, Penn. with the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals.

-credit: gd/ekr