Bazemore out in opening round in Vegas

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
No. 21 of 23
ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nev.
Race Dates: Oct. 21-23, 2005


LAS VEGAS (Oct. 23, 2005) - Whit Bazemore described his mood today as "very
disgusted" after losing the first round of Funny Car eliminations at the
ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to Cruz
Pedregon.

The driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car, winner
here in April from the 12th position, had strong hopes of another solid
finish here despite qualifying 14th.

But a mechanical problem in the opening round prevented him from advancing,
as he tried to recover after losing traction early. Pedregon had his own
problems with grip, as both of them pedaled their cars to the finish, with
Pedregon taking the win with a 6.631/253.42 to Bazemore's 6.889/241.37.

"Last week, when we smoked the tires in Dallas, we had a problem when the
throttle stuck shut. It wouldn't open again when we pedaled it," said
Bazemore.

"After the second time we pedaled it today the same thing happened. The
throttle wouldn't open again and, 10 out of 10 times, we would have beaten
Cruz in that situation. It's just very, very frustrating.

"Even though we smoked the tires it was a round we normally would win and
nothing happened for a good second and a half to two seconds. The throttle
wouldn't open again. We have something wrong in the barrel valve or
somewhere in the linkage mechanism that something's happening where it's not
allowing the throttle to open again after we smoked the tires.

"I hit it three times and on the third time it opened. I don't know what
happened.

"They had a problem with the track last night. They changed it and we saw a
lot of people smoke the tires (in the first round), but that wasn't the
issue here. The issue here is that that round was ours to win no matter what
happened.

"Before we pedaled it the second time we almost caught Cruz. We definitely
had the momentum, even though we smoked the tires. The Matco Tools Dodge was
going to go down the race track and run about a second quicker than it
went."

Bazemore fell to eighth in the Funny Car point standings.

Next up is the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona,
Calif., Nov. 3-6, which will close out the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series.