NHRA: Epler wins another for WWF and Camaro
10 April 2000
JIM EPLER WINS ANOTHER ONE FOR WWF AND CAMARO; CAMAROS HAVE WON THREE OF THE FIRST FOUR FUNNY CAR RACES OF THE 2000 NHRA SEASON JIM EPLER, WWF RACING CAMARO Z28, claimed his first win of the season, the third of his career (his last win was at the 1993 Winston Finals at the Pomona Raceway. It was another Chevy-vs.-Ford, Camaro-vs.-Mustang confrontation, as Epler defeated Tony Pedregon in the final round with a 4.983-second pass at 302.21 mph to Pedregon's 5.417/197.02. WWF Racing has now won three of the four events of 2000. Jerry Toliver, in the other WWF Racing Camaro, won the other two. "I couldn't have done it without the Camaro body," said Epler. "The car has been on a string every run. It just takes a good team, a good tune-up and that's what we have now. We saw those odds (at the Sports Book Betting Line) -- 25 to 1 against us. Unfortunately I never bet on a drag race; I hope I won a lot of money for somebody." RON CAPPS, U.S. TOBACCO CO. CAMARO Z28, was eliminated in the second round by Dean Skuza. Skuza's 5.053/294.69 bettered Capps' 5.338/217.88, although Capps had the advantage on the starting line with his .478 reaction time to Skuza's .502. CAPPS: "It left great, then it shook. I pedaled it and his car poked its nose out in front of our Camaro. then it started to make up some ground and I thought I would get around him, but for some reason the car just quit running. So it didn't give me a chance to make a run at the finish line." WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/MATCO TOOLS CAMARO Z28, lost in the first round to Al Hofmann: 5.134/287.11 for Whit, 4.951/302.69. Both had identical reaction times: .523. BAZEMORE: "Even though we are mired in this slump, this Kendall/Matco Camaro team continues to make the effort, which as a driver is all you can ask. I know how good this team is, and wouldn't trade these guys for anyone else. We were simply outrun. That was an outstanding pass on their (Hofmann's) part. I know we weren't trying to run a .95. We don't like it, but it's a part of racing. Nevertheless, we did manage to make some progress this weekend. The best part about today is that we have a race next weekend, so hopefully we an take what we learned this weekend and build on it in Houston. It's imperative for us to get our season turned around." PANELLA CLAIMS HIS SECOND PRO STOCK TRUCK TITLE OF SEASON; CHEVY S-10s CONTINUE TO DOMINATE BOB PANELLA JR., in the PANELLA MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, defeated RANDY DANIELS' Bailey Trucking Chevy S-10 in an all-S-10 final round of the Pro Stock Truck category. Daniels had a better reaction time, .416 to Panella's .432, but he couldn't outrun the Panella power at the top end. Panella defeated Daniels with a 7.680-second pass at 176.24 mph, the lowest elapsed time and highest speed of the weekend. Daniels posted a 7.719-second pass at 175.75 mph. PANELLA: ON 'SLOW' REACTION TIME: "Everybody gets me at the light. I can't seem to get out first, no matter what I do. That's all part of having that bulls-eye on my back. It kind of looks bad in the NATIONAL DRAGSTER when you see the percentage of times I left first, it's like zero. I won two races, I guess I'm doing something right." ON THAT FINAL RUN: "I saw him pretty much the whole way until probably three-quarter track. It was the closest race of the day, and in the final that's the way it's supposed to be." WHAT WAS THE ADVANTAGE? "It was probably a little bit of lane choice. We just made some awesome runs today. The first couple of runs everybody was getting used to the track. From the third qualifying session until now we made six pretty awesome runs. I just had to be there and take advantage of it." ON RUNNING AGAINST RANDY: "I think that's going to be a regular thing now. I hope to be in some more finals and I know they will be too. It was hot and cold last year. This year it looks like he's going to be there in the end, for sure. I think the left lane may have been a hair better, I was lucky to stay there. Our S-10 was the truck to beat and I had to do my job." DANIELS: "He's had a couple of hundredths (of a second) on us all day long. I couldn't get that race track figured out." WHAT DID YOU NEED TO BEAT HIM? "We would have had to have a near-perfect light. But a perfect light wouldn't have beat him. We did all we could do. We don't know if the motor is getting tired or what. I just tried everything I knew to try for that run and it wasn't enough. Today we came up short with our Chevy S-10." WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU LOST? "At the one-eighth mile. He had already driven up beside me at the one-eighth mile. I was riding with him the rest of the way hoping his plug wire would come off or something. Otherwise, we had a nice weekend. To come out here in these conditions to run like we did (was not a bad weekend). Bobby and I were pretty dominant over the field, but he was just a little more so than I was. We're happy with a runner-up coming off a win."