Bazemore aims for No. 1, settles for No. 5 in Bristol

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Mac Tools Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals
Round 6 of 23
Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway
Saturday, April 26, 2003

AIMING FOR NO. 1, BAZEMORE SETTLES FOR FIFTH

Defending Bristol Funny Car champion WHIT BAZEMORE, MATCO TOOLS IRON EAGLE
DODGE STRATUS R/T, and crew chief Lee Beard had their sights set on the No.
1 spot tonight, after a five-hour rain delay cooled the track conditions.
The effort came close, but not close enough. The run looked straight and
strong, but the resulting 4.807/317.57 was good for only No. 2 at that
point. By the end of the session, Bazemore had fallen to No. 5. In today's
first session, before the rain, Bazemore posted a 4.863/314.46 lap.

"It was a good run. We were trying to be No. 1 qualifier and we came up a
little short for any number of reasons. That's the way it goes. We're
disappointed, but we have a good running car and a great team and what's
important is that we've gone down the track twice today and we had a few
problems yesterday. We made good progress today, so we feel pretty good
about things. We just have to get it all together and tomorrow's a new day.
We plan to come out, win one round at a time and hopefully we can repeat
here."

Bazemore joined most of the other drivers in praising this track. "It's a
very refreshing experience when you come to a track that's run totally
professionally, where everyone is friendly and they treat you like a
customer. And you know when you bring sponsors here, or friends or family,
that they're going to be treated right. It's a model for our sport that
needs to be looked at and followed more often, I think."

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Rain delay:  "It changs things. We;re going to be racing in the afternoon,
depending on the weahter. Ideally you want to run in those same conditions
so you knkow what you're doing in those conditions because these cars are so
sensititve to the weather and atmospehr,. The fact that we made this run
tonight and it was kind of overast . We;re in good shape. We';re
competitive. We;'ve been very consistent so far this year and we keep doing
thaqt we'll have a good day."