Johnson & Bazemore Collect Fifth for Mopar in Englishtown
Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series K&N Filters NHRA SuperNationals Old Bridge Township Raceway Park Englishtown, N.J. Final Qualifying Notes & Quotes Four Mopars Make Quickest Pro Stock Field in History Bazemore & Scelzi Take Each Qualify in the Top Half ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (May 17, 2003) Allen Johnson heads a contingent of four Hemi-powered Pro Stock machines into tomorrow¹s 34th annual K&N Filters NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. With a bump spot of 6.741 seconds, it¹s the quickest field in Pro Stock history. Johnson took home the fifth-qualifying position with a career-best 6.718-second elapsed time at 205.26 mph also a career mark. The Greeneville, Tenn., resident will face off against Troy Coughlin in round one. Johnson also ran in the first round of the King Demon Crown, falling to No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson. Johnson completed the second-quickest pass in round one of the KDC at 6.751 seconds and 204.91 mph, but red lit at the start to end his day. ³The worst run we made all weekend was in the King Demon Crown,² Johnson said. ³It really didn¹t matter on the track because I red lit, but this team has done an awesome job. (Teammate) Darrell (Alderman) hasn¹t really made a good run all weekend. They have been trying some stuff, so I think they can learn from us and put together a good set up. ³We can really run out of either lane,² Johnson continued. ³We¹ve been working with the transmission ratio and trying to get it to where the motor likes it. We¹ve made probably the best runs we can make this weekend.² Three-time POWERade Pro Stock World Champion Darrell Alderman wielded his Mopar Parts Dodge Neon R/T into the 11th-qualifed spot. The Morehead, Ky., resident logged a career best 6.734-second elapsed time at a career best 205.26 mph, setting up a first round match with Mark Pawuk. ³We were looking to run a 6.73 on that last one,² said Alderman, after posting a 6.760-second elapsed time in his last qualifying effort. ³We tried some things on that last run and it didn¹t work. We had a different set of tires and different set of headers, so we¹re going back to our original set up for tomorrow. ³The lanes seem to be pretty equal out there,² Alderman continued. ³Who knows what the conditions will be like tomorrow with the sun shining. It may end up changing them quite a bit.² Mopar¹s Gene Wilson placed his new Dodge Stratus R/T Pro Stocker into the field. A career best pass of 6.714 seconds at 205.44 mph (also a career best) qualified Wilson in the 15th position. The Georgia resident, will face Jeg Coughlin, Jr., in round one. ³We made a real nice pass on that last one,² said Wilson, who was on the outside looking in heading into the last-qualifying session. ³We¹ve been struggling for the past two races to find out what the problem has been with our car. We finally hit on a chassis tune up this weekend that¹s really going to help our program. All of the guys on my team have been working extremely hard. It just seemed like it wasn¹t getting any better. All of a sudden, we made some changes that were Œiffy¹ if they were going to help us, but they did. It was what we¹ve been looking for. The car was awesome. It went straight down the track like it should and the elapsed time showed it with a 6.741. ³We¹re proud to run that Stratus,² Wilson added. ³We¹ve just been struggling in the set up area. I know it¹s taken a while to get there but this weekend especially -- we¹ve made some big strides in the set up department. It takes a team effort. We¹ve put our minds together and worked on this thing and everyone is following in the same direction.² Greg Stanfield and his DBP Enterprises Dodge Neon R/T squeaked into the field with a 6.741-secomd elapsed time at 205.04 mph, but both were career bests for the Bossier City, La., resident. His pass also represented the anchor for the quickest Pro Stock field in history laying out a first round match with No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson. ³We ran well in the first part of the pass,² said Stanfield, of his last qualifying outing. ³The track is simply awesome out there. We¹re in Œlala¹ land. It¹s incredible. You still have to make good runs to make it happen. This was such a herd field to qualify for so were just happy to be in it.² Larry Morgan wound up outside the top 16 with his Hemi-powered Dodge Neon R/T. But the Newark, Ohio, resident, was pleased with his performance over the weekend after posting a 6.777-second elapsed time at 203.34 mph. ³We need a little more time to run this new car,² said Morgan, on his Dodge Neon R/T entry. ³We got out of the groove pretty bad on that last run. We shook pretty hard too. We went 203 (mph) on that run and the car was all over the place. So we¹re happy because we know we have something left. I think we¹re on the road to recovery.² Both Mopar Funny Cars Qualify in the Top HalfŠ Bazemore Grabs Fifth; Scelzi Tops Funny Car Speed Chart for the Weekend Rain shortened qualifying for the Funny Car this weekend so both Schumacher Racing Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Cars had to scramble to get into the show within just two sessions. Bazemore, who was not qualified heading into the last session, ripped off a 4.836-second elapsed time at 313.44 mph to collect the fifth-qualifying position. The Indianapolis resident, will line up against Cruz Pedregon in the first round of competition. ³The Dodge Stratus body has always helped this year, especially over what we¹ve had in the past,² Bazemore said. ³It¹s simply a better-engineered, well thought out design. And it¹s better aerodynamically for a Funny Car. In this sport, every little advantage works in your favor because we¹re winning and losing races by one, one thousandth of a second. If one percent of a drag coefficient equals one, one thousandth of a second, then that¹s an improvement we definitely want to have. ³I think the racing tomorrow should be spectacular,² Bazemore added. ³I really believe qualifying today would have been unbelievable if we had all made at least one run yesterday. But with the weather we¹ve had and the fact that everyone just wanted to qualify today, no one could really roll the dice. We did roll them a little bit in the first round and we weren¹t in the show when we came up for our second run. When you put yourself in that position, you really leave yourself open for a potential disaster if you have a mechanical failure of any type. The team did a great job, and all of our equipment was really good, and we ended up fifth.² Gary Scelzi rolled his Matco Tools-backed Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car through the timing lights with a 4.851-second elapsed time at 322.65 mph. It was the fastest recorded speed thus far this weekend and allowed Scelzi to match with Schumacher Racing teammate Scotty Cannon in round one tomorrow. ³We put it back exactly the way we ran it at the beginning of the year except for the body,² said Scelzi, who ran a special body this weekend for sponsor Matco Tools. ³We¹re going to put the Oakley Dodge Stratus R/T body back on. The body we ran this weekend had been repaired and seemed a little heavier so we¹re putting the tried and true Dodge Dealers body back on it for tomorrow. ³We were just a little bit too aggressive on that second run,² Scelzi continued. ³I got it out of the groove, and you just can¹t do that during one of those runs. I¹m going to sleep tight and worry about what I have to do for tomorrow tomorrow. We have top speed of the meet so that¹s great for Dodge. All the hard work that (Lead Aero Engineer) Terry DeKoninck and all of the guys in the Mopar engineering department have put into this Stratus body is starting to show. We¹re pretty proud of that. ³They call it a Œmineshaft¹ here,² Scelzi added. ³The air is so heavy here it¹s below sea level. I can¹t believe what the Pro Stock cars have been running this weekend. But when you see that with their naturally aspirated engines it¹s a pretty serious deal out there. We didn¹t try to get too crazy, but we had it set up to run better than a 4.79 which is my career best. We¹ll just pull it back a tick tomorrow and see what it will do.² -Mopar.com- For more information, contact: David Harris, Cox Marketing Group Public Relations Manager Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series davidh@coxmarketinggroup.com (704) 799-2114 office (704) 756-9301 - mobile