Bazemore tops e.t. and mph charts at NHRA Tests at Firebird

SCHUMACHER RACING
NOTES AND QUOTES
2003 NHRA TIME TRIALS
NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
FIREBIRD RACEWAY
CHANDLER, ARIZONA
Sunday, January 19, 2003

Contact:  Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501

Schumacher Racing debuted two new Dodge Stratus-bodied Funny Cars this
weekend at the three-day 2003 NHRA Time Trials at Firebird Raceway, with
positive results.  Whit Bazemore, in the Matco Tools-sponsored entry, topped
the Funny Car elapsed time and top speed charts for the weekend with a
4.820-second pass at 320.89 mph, posted on Saturday.  That pass was the
first of four strong runs for Bazemore's new body and chassis, followed by a
4.88/319.00 on Saturday, and a 4.90/320.60 and 4.85/317.84 on Sunday.

Gary Scelzi, driving the Oakley-sponsored Dodge Stratus, posted his best of
eight runs Sunday evening, a 4.85-second lap at 315.64 mph, a personal best
for him in a Funny Car.

WHIT BAZEMORE, MATCO TOOLS DODGE STRATUS FUNNY CAR: "We've had a good three
days, with the new car and the new body and things are different, obviously,
with the Dodge. We've had a really positive three days. We've made really
good progress and we have low e.t. and top speed. That's important, but
what's more important is we have been very consistent. And we've been
conservative with the tune-up. So far we haven't even really explored our
true potential on this race track. That's very positive. We're going to stay
here all week in Phoenix and tomorrow we're going to start working  on some
new technology that we have that will, hopefully, increase our performance a
little bit more and give us even more consistency and make it easier for Lee
(Beard, crew chief) and Dan (Olson, co-crew chief on Bazemore's and Scelzi's
cars) and everybody else on the team to tune the car."

LEE BEARD, CREW CHIEF, MATCO TOOLS DODGE STRATUS FUNNY CAR: "I think,
obviously, from the spectator's point of view the biggest change you see in
Schumacher Racing is running the new Dodge Stratus body. A great of deal of
effort has gone into that body. Chrysler has some extremely intelligent
engineers that worked on that project in developing that body. Our team
acquired one right after the last race and got it mounted and tinned. I have
such a great, dedicated team that we were up in Ottawa, Canada, the day
before Thanksgiving running the thing in the wind tunnel and a couple of my
guys that didn't fly home, who drove the transporters, were traveling on
Thanksgiving Day. And that shows you how dedicated the team is. We try to
look at every detail in the race operation and we do believe there are good
rewards in aerodynamics. So we did put a lot of effort into the aerodynamic
end of our project, which is the Dodge Stratus body. This is a brand new
chassis, it's not the chassis that we ran last year and it's performing
well. We're comfortable with it. To come here and make four very consistent
back-to-back runs shows that we're in the ballpark. We're not going to get
cocky and say that, Gee, we're ready to go race, we're ready to beat John
Force for the championship, but we feel that we're comfortable and we're on
target as far as our schedule of testing goes."

GARY SCELZI, OAKLEY DODGE STRATUS: "This lap was my personal best. With
Zippy (Mike Neff) being the crew chief we ran an .86 at the end of the year
last year after Pomona when I first drove the Oakley Funny Car, so today we
had a little shake and then we had the next run, where I felt the car get a
little bit loose at half track and I shut it off. And we came back tonight
and ran a pretty good run, an .85 at 315. We're pretty pleased with that.
That's a good one to sleep on. It's different looking out of the new Dodge.
It's like you sit further back because the dash area is further forward. But
the visibility is good and the car is really stable on the top end. It
doesn't want to drift around a lot. So, it's a whole new ballgame for me. I
made a couple of runs in last year's car (last year) and then we came back
and we have the Dodges now and it's a whole different feeling. I like the
feeling; it's stable. It's a great sense of security. It's a great
beginning. Now we're going to test here this week. We've got a great
foundation, and we'll start tomorrow and run possibly Wednesday and
Thursday. We're going to run here most of the week, trying different things,
get me more seat time, get me more comfortable and get everybody used to
working together and see what happens."

After three days of testing, SCOTTY CANNON, driving last year's OAKLEY FUNNY
CAR, will continue testing here this week:  "We're fighting a gremlin. It
has nothing to do with the tune-up. The effort for the next four days will
be going back to the basics that (crew chief) Phil Schuler and I know work
and try to get it down the track."

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