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Rte.66 NHRA Chevy Sun. Elim. Note #1

6 June 1999


CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES
ROUTE 66 RACEWAY
JOLIET, ILL.
FRAM NATIONALS
NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES
SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 1999

FINAL ELIMINATIONS

FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28

Both WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, defending event
champion, and RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, were eliminated in the
first round:  Bazemore to Tim Wilkerson, 5.131/277.09 for Whit,
5.060/292.65 for Tim; Capps to Randy Anderson, 5.181/282.90 for Ron,
5.014/295.34 for Randy.

CHUCK ETCHELLS, SICKLES MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z28, defeated Tony Pedregon
(5.210/273.88 for Chuck, 6.162/176.37 for Tony) in the first round, then
was eliminated by Dean Skuza in the second (4.984/292.84 for Skuza,
11.745/74.19 for Etchells).

ETCHELLS:  "We were really optimistic going into race day, but for some
reason in the first round it shot a head gasket.  I had to leg it out the
back to beat Tony, and I knew it was going to kill the motor and it did.
That meant we had to change engines between rounds, and even though this is
a part-time crew, they did manage the change in time to make it to the
lanes for the second round.  We were pretty confident of being able to do
something to put out Skuza, but it was absolutely dead at the hit.  I think
the fuel pump is probably out on it...So we've had two solid qualifying
efforts with this car, and if some sponsorship would show up for it, it
could race more and be more competitive.  I'm not sure when we'll be
running it again.  This Camaro is just too good to not have some support to
keep it out here.  I know we have a match race in Atco, N.J., June 30, and
we'll be able to do the Winston Showdown in Bristol, and I know were
running in Indy"

CAPPS:  "We had a tough match with that Pontiac and we really felt
comfortable going up there first round and really tried to run a mid to low
5.0.  We're still trying to get back to the basics.  We changed back to the
4-disc clutch before we came here, and we're slowly working the motor back
to what it was last year.  We didn't want to smoke the tires and Roland
(Leong, crew chief) set up the Camaro a little softer than we expected to.
We were just trying to race the race track, but we ended up getting beat.
It actually left pretty lazy, it was lazy all the way down.  It never had
any get up and go.  I saw Randy pulling away from me; it put a cylinder out
at about four seconds and he drove away.  We expected them to run good.  It
doesn't matter who's in the car, it's going to be a tough car all year
long.  We will rebound, I promise." ON ETCHELLS BEING THE ONLY CAMARO
DRIVER TO ADVANCE TO THE SECOND ROUND:  "It's nice to see Chuck Etchells
come back out.  We miss racing Chuck. It's nice to see him keeping up the
Chevrolet tradition and taking the Camaro to the next round."
BAZEMORE:"The Kendall Camaro was on an excellent run in the first round
against Tim Wilkerson, but when we got off the concrete pad it just blew
the tires off.  It was just a case of not knowing exactly where we are with
this different combination Tim (Richards, crew chief) has in the car.  It
was still a good round, and I feel very confident about this team, because
the car was on a very good lap.  That doesn't win you anything, but the
fact is there's a ton of potential here.  We have a car back that we can
race, and I think Tim feels very happy with it, and so do I.  From the
driver's seat, it was a very easy car to drive this weekend, which makes it
easier to win rounds and races, which is what we're looking for."

PRO STOCK -- CAMARO Z28

KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, No. 1 qualifier, lost to the No. 16
qualifier, John Nobile, in the first round.  Kurt's ACDelco Camaro went
nto severe tire shake and made a hard right turn toward the centerline.
K.J. muscled his machine back to the middle of the lane, but by then it was
too late.  He slowed to a 7.427-second elapsed time at 191.10 mph, while
Nobile took the win light with a 7.089/195.39. "I shifted into second
gear, the tires started shaking, and it was out of control.  I don't know
why.  The computer graph in first gear was identical to the 7.00 run we
made yesterday.  It's got me baffled.  We made 21 consecutive runs in
testing and qualifying, and then when it counts in the first round of
eliminations, we're flat on our back.  I was excited this morning.  I
thought if we could make a good run today, we'd be in good shape for the
rest of the season.  Obviously we're going to have to change our plan
again.  We changed it once, and that put us back on top in qualifying at
least.  There's no reason that we can't change it again and get back on top
on race day."

MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO SALES CAMARO Z28, defeated Mike Thomas in the first
round, on a holeshot advantage, 7.123/195.39 for Edwards, 7.096/195.17 for
Thomas.  In the second round Edwards faced Jim Yates, losing to Yates when
he redlighted with a .396 reaction time.  Yates won with an e.t. of 7.057
seconds at 195.05 mph to Edwards' 7.155/196.22. "We had some clutch
problems and it rolled the lights.  When I brought the RPMs up, the Camaro
just took off rolling.  It pulled me through the beam.  It's some
malfunction in the clutch.  We've got to fix that."

PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10

Five Chevy S-10 drivers advanced to the second round:  BOB PANELLA JR.,
BRAD JETER, MARK OSBORNE, JERRY HAAS and JOHN COUGHLIN.

In the second round PANELLA defeated Craig Eaton with a 7.670-second pass
at 175.43 mph to Eaton's 7.816/173.23; JETER eliminated Rick Jones with a
7.674-second lap versus Jones' 7.836/174.14; OSBORNE was ousted by Dale
Eaton on a holeshot advantage, 7.761/174.17 for Eaton, 7.753/174.77; and
HAAS defeated JOHN COUGHLIN, 7.757/174.91 for Haas, 8.230/138.74 for
Coughlin.

LARRY KOPP, SPEEDCO TRUCK LUBES CHEVY S-10, defending series and event
champion, lost to Jerry Haas in the first round."We didn't have lane
choice, we think that hurt us a little bit.  We didn't run real fast, we
just didn't get a handle on the track this weekend, with the heat and
everything, and we didn't run like I thought we should have.  As far as the
S-10 goes, I think we figured out some of the troubles we had.  The heat
threw everybody a curve here.  We will just have to rgroup and go to
Columbus."  ON THE RUN AGAINST HAAS:"I was out ahead of Jerry.  At the
1250-foot mark I was winning, at the 1300-foot mark I was winning.  I'd say
it was probably two feet (margin of victory) at the end.  I don't think
Jerry would have known who won until his crew told him."

RANDY DANIELS, DANIELS MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, winner of two titles in '99,
went out in the first round against Craig Eaton."We went out on a limb
this weekend trying to figure out something for this bad air, and we went
the wrong way.  I tried some real wild stuff with gear ratios and it didn't
like it at all." ON THAT RUN: "We felt like we had him covered first
round, but with the changes we made, we didn't.  We slowed down enough and
got  beat.  If we stayed where we were yesterday afternoon we would have
had enough to beat him.  We're in the process of finding out what works, we
already know what doesn't work."

TIM FREEMAN, BLUEGRASS TRANSPORTATION CHEVY S-10, was defeated in the first
round by Rick Jones.  WHO GAVE YOU AN ENGINE TO USE?  "We got one of Don
Smith's."  ON THAT RUN: "The transmission mis-shifted, it skipped a gear
and went from second to fourth and started slipping the clutch and that was
it.  When it mis-shifts like that it just doesn't want to go any place.
That's one of those things, along with the rest of my racing bad luck this
weekend."

MARK OSBORNE, RCL COMPONENTS CHEVY S-10, two-time winner in '99 and points
leader coming into this event, defeated JOHN LINGENFELTER, SUMMIT RACING
EQUIPMENT CHEVY S-10, in the first round, then was tossed out by Dale Eaton
in the second. "This weekend has not been fun by any means.  It has not
been a fun weekend for Mark or Tim (Freeman, Mark's Kessinger Motorsports
teammate).  I had a .480 light, which wasn't great.  I was later than he
was, he beat me on a holeshot.  It didn't run good the first 60 feet, so
we've got to straighten that problem out.  We'll test somewhere this coming
week and see what happens.  This team has got to do better, not just one of
us, the pair of us."