Texas, Torrence, Wind, and Fire

National Drag Racing Association

AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals

October 4 – 8, 2018

Dallas, TX

When the seasons change to Fall, that means one thing for Litton Racing, another chance to get back to Texas. Competing in Driver Litton’s home state of Texas is always a special event not only for the Team, but for the many family members, friends, and fans of Litton Racing that look forward to getting out to the track every year. First up, the Worsham Racing and Litton Racing Teams headed to Dallas for the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex October 4th – 8th. At this very competition back in 2015, Driver Litton took home the Wally in the Top Alcohol division.

Driver Litton, Co-Crew Chiefs Chuck and Del Worsham, and crew members James, Todd, Mike, Glenn, Trey, and Seth were ready to give it another go and hopefully score a Wally in the prestigious Top Fuel category.The team was ready to get in the action early during the 2nd round of qualifying on Friday night. The first run had Driver Litton straight down the groove to clench the number 10 spot. Per Co-Chief Chuck, “First one, we ran a 4.07 ET.  We were running well but broke the blower belt at seven or eight hundred feet. Coasting through for a run of 4.07.”

The team was in high spirits after a decent first shot and worked on the Blue Thunder into the evening to make another run during qualifying on Saturday. “We started out a great weekend with Bill on Friday night. The car came out and left decent. It slowed at the top end when we lost the blower belt. It would have been enough to qualify us, in the long run, but we took it out again Saturday afternoon”, said cylinder head tech James.

During the next qualifying run, Litton was straight down the groove to move up one spot and get off the bump spot with a 3.903 @ 318 MPH. Bill left great once again, he reached an outstanding speed of 318 MPH which is his top speed in this car.

“It was looking really good going in Sunday morning,” said James. Driver Litton was moving on to the elimination rounds with a great showing in qualifying, placing him in the 15th spot. It was a familiar feeling for the team on Sunday morning. They were up against the goliath, Steve Torrence again, for the 1st round of eliminations for the 5th time this season.  Both cars launched hard, unfortunately, Litton had a fireball early in the run.

“In the first round, we had a piston that had too much compression in one cylinder. It broke leaving the starting line and blew up. It was a bit of a fiasco run. We are going to work on that and get ready for the next race,” said Chief Chuck. Crew member James details the run, “The car started up with a great burn out, he got it backed up, got lined up in the groove. By 100 feet, the engine was not cooperating with Bill. He had to lift and get out of it after a small fireball from some rod and piston issues. He did a great job getting it shut off. We will go out next week and give it another shot.”