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NHRA: Bazemore is #1 on Friday in Sonoma

5 August 2000

Whit Bazemore and the Kendall Motor Oil/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 Racing Team 
continued their run of strong Friday night qualifying performances by 
claiming the provisional top spot at the FRAM Autolite Nationals at Sears 
Point Raceway.   Bazemore's 4.955-second pass, which came with a top speed of 
308.21 mph, was the only four-second run made by a Funny Car.  What made this 
accomplishment even more impressive was the fact that early in the run, 
Bazemore was forced to quickly pedal his race car (getting off and on the 
throttle) in order to maintain traction and avoid smoking the tires.

"Since Terry Manzer has come on board as crew chief at Etchells Racing, I've 
wanted to prove myself to him.  Quite honestly, I felt I hadn't done yet, 
because unless it was a perfect run, we had yet to make it down the track.  
Some of that can be attributed to the tune-up. We make so much horsepower 
that it can be hard to recover once it loses traction.  However, I've also 
been slow to pedal it, trying to give the car the benefit of the doubt.  I've 
learned you can't do that with Terry's tune-up.   We talked about it and 
together we decided I should be a little more aggressive if it shook or spun 
the tires.  

"In that sense, it was really gratifying to run that '. 95 tonight after 
having to pedal it.  It just barely rattled to the tires tonight, and in the 
past I never would have touched it.  But now the driver and crew chief are 
working together as a team, and I'm happy that we were able to get it done.  
One thing we've learned in the time Terry's been here is that if the 
Kendall/Matco Camaro can get down the track, it will run a pretty good 
number. That certainly was the case tonight."