Cannon roars to career-best top speed of 325 mph for No. 9 in Joliet qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 20 of 23
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
Race Dates: Sept. 26-28, 2003


JOLIET, Ill. (Sept. 27, 2003) - And the beat goes on. The third car in the
Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car stable had a stellar evening tonight as well
in final qualifying. Scotty Cannon joined his teammates Whit Bazemore (No. 1
qualifier) and Gary Scelzi (career-best elapsed time), with a personal-best
achievement of his own, a career-best 325.22 mph run which put him No. 9 in
the field, with a 4.810-second elapsed time.

Cannon, driving the Oakley Funny Car, scored back-to-back 4.810-second runs,
with a 4.817-second pass in the first round of qualifying at 321.19 mph, a
fine accomplishment considering he didn't qualify last week in Memphis,
snapping his streak of having qualified for 56 straight races.

"We just missed the amount of clutch we put in it. In the second run we were
trying to run better. We'll give it another shot tomorrow. It's better than
a DNQ. We'll see what happens tomorrow," he said.

He'll face Phil Burkart Jr. in the first round of final eliminations
tomorrow.