Bazemore goes to final at Vegas

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 4 of 23
SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, April 6, 2003


Cool weather, horsepower and crew chief Lee Beard are meant for each other.
And The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a sweetheart of a race track
for this combination. Throw driver Whit Bazemore into the mix and you have a
winning effort. Unfortunately, the effort came up short in the final round
today.

Bazemore, driving the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car for
Don Schumacher Racing, claimed No. 1 qualifying spot for the second time at
this dragstrip with a 4.788-second run and was on a fast track to the front
of the point standings.  He eliminated Jack Wyatt in the first round with a
4.812-second lap at 323.58 mph, the fastest speed of all elimination rounds,
then benefited from his teammate Scotty Cannon's problems in the second
round to take the win light with a 5.230/250.78 while his supercharger was
self-destructing.

In the semifinals, the two-time U.S. Nationals champion faced Tommy Johnson
Jr. Baze was off the line first, with a .044 reaction time to Johnson's
.055, but it was Johnson ahead by a car's length until the top end, when
T.J. faltered and the legendary Lee Beard horsepower took over to bring
Bazemore home at the finish with a 4.899/319.22 pass, giving him lane choice
for the final.

The final round brought together two rival camps: Don Schumacher Racing
versus John Force Racing; Whit Bazemore versus Tony Pedregon. The two were
meeting for the fifth final-round of their careers, with their win/loss
record tied at 2-2.

The atmosphere was electric at the starting line. Team owners Schumacher and
Force stood at friendly distances willing their drivers to the victory
podium. As the starting lights flashed, the red light that shone in
Bazemore's lane ended his day, as Pedregon took the win with a 4.916/283.07.

It was a major disappointment for Bazemore, but there is good news. He moved
into third in the point standings, just 19 points out of second and 44 less
than first place. With 19 races remaining in this long season, it's still
anyone's crown to win.

WHIT BAZEMORE, MATCO TOOLS IRON EAGLE DODGE STRATUS R/T FUNNY CAR:

ON REDLIGHTING: "It's just driver error. That's all you can say, and it's
very frustrating. I made a mistake. Our team did an outstanding job today,
especially recovering from the second round. I feel like we had the car to
beat. We ended up having problems in the final that would have made it
difficult to beat them with what ended up happening, anyway. But the fact is
that we're not going to win, no matter what, when I red-light. It's not
acceptable. Mistakes happen sometimes, but we have to keep them to a very
real minimum, and we will."

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING AT THE START? "I was ready to go and I was very
focused. I don't know. My leg went down and my brain didn't tell it to. But
it did. I don't red-light that often. I'll think about it, and analyze it
some and go from there."

TALK ABOUT WINNING THE OTHER ROUNDS: "They're all very hard. And we were
fortunate in the second round against our teammate Scotty Cannon that he had
problems before we did (Bazemore had a blown supercharger), so we were
fortunate there to win, and the same against T.J. (Tommy Johnson Jr.) in the
semis. We were behind there. Lee Beard and this Matco Tools team gave me the
horsepower that carried us around when T.J. had a problem. It's just so
brutally tough to win right now in this class, but we had a good day. All in
all, we had a very good day. We're making good progress. They've (Pedregon)
got a great team over there; they're hard to beat; they're the team to beat
right now. As for John Force's team; you can't count those guys out. We put
some distance between us and them. They're going to come back strong at some
point this year, it goes without saying. In that regard, it was a good day
there too."

POINT STANDINGS:
1. Tony Pedregon                348
2. Gary Densham                323
3. Whit Bazemore                304
4. Ron Capps                        287
5. Del Worsham                    234
6. Johnny Gray                        216
7. Tommy Johnson Jr.            210
8. Frank Pedregon                190
9.  Gary Scelzi                            169

13. Scotty Cannon                    146