Cannon eliminated in first round in Bristol

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Mac Tools Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals
Round 6 of 23
Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway
Sunday, April 27, 2003


Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501, cell 203-243-2438

CANNON DEFEATED IN FIRST ROUND IN BRISTOL

BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 27, 2003) -- After two days of cloudy, cool, and even
wet weather, Sunday morning dawned bright and warm after an early morning
low fog was burned off by the sun. With the sun came new conditions for the
quarter-mile Bristol Dragway nestled between two mountains, and new
challenges for the Oakley "Elite Special Forces" Funny Car team.

After qualifying No. 11 in the sixth round of 23 in the 2003 NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series, Scotty Cannon, from nearby Lyman, S.C., a fan favorite
here in Bristol because of his days as an IHRA champion, faced Johnny Gray
in the first round of final eliminations in the heat of the day. Both
drivers left the starting line clean and fast, but it was Gray all the way
to the finish line for the victory with a 4.930/301.07 pass, while Cannon
smoked the tires, slowing to a 5.807/179.16.

"Everything was going good until I spun the tires," said Cannon, the 1999
NHRA Rookie of the Year. "We're still a new team. It's going to happen and
happen again until we get some runs under our belt, so we can have something
to go back and look at.

"We have never been here with the sun out," he added. "For us this morning
was like the first round of qualifying. We had nothing to look at. We didn't
know where to run the clutch, where to run the motor. We had to take a shot
at it. Our motto is, 'We ain't going to back it down and get outrun just
because we backed it down too much.' We kind of had it jacked up, had too
much power for the track, and it just spun the tires.

Drivers in the top half of the field had selected the right lane for
eliminations, with the win/loss results 5-3 in favor of the right lane.
Without lane choice, Cannon was relegated to the left lane. "I'm pretty sure
the right lane is better. Would it have helped our car? Probably. I would
think so."

Next race is this weekend, May 1-4, at Atlanta Dragway, in Commerce, Ga.,
the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.