Bazemore sets track record in Topeka, qualifies No. 3

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 9 of 23
O'REILLY SUMMER NATIONALS
HEARTLAND PARK TOPEKA (Kans.)
Race Date: May 23-25

Contact: Judy Stropus 203-438-0501, cell 203-243-2438

BAZEMORE DOESN'T MAKE HISTORY, BUT SETS TRACK RECORD, COLLECTS THE NO 3
QUALIFYING POSITION IN TOPEKA

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 24, 2003) - There's no question the Schumacher Racing team
has the inside line on horsepower. After all, it is team driver Gary Scelzi
who remains the fastest Funny Car driver in the world after posting his
326.95-mph run at Englishtown, N.J., last week. And Whit Bazemore is no
slouch, as he's performed consistently fast runs this season, including his
track-record breaking 326.48 mph pass tonight, fourth fastest ever, coupled
with an elapsed time of 4.802 seconds to place him No. 3 for tomorrow's
O'Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. It's just another
stellar qualifying performance for Bazemore and crew chief Lee Beard, who
have qualified in the top half all year.

It "shoulda" been faster, Bazemore said. "We had a problem. We went up there
to run a lot better than .80 flat. But we had a small problem that affected
the performance of our car, so we ran .80 flat at 326, with the fourth
fastest speed ever. Our intention was to be a lot stronger than that, but we
had a very small, small, small mechanical issue that robbed our car of some
performance.

"The important thing was," he added, "is that we moved up into the field
(from No. 8). We're just not in a position to make history yet. We've tried
to make history a few times this year, and the sun came out once and kind of
got us, and tonight we had a small little problem that got us. It's just not
meant to be yet, but we're knocking on the door."

Schumacher Racing's results tonight, with each Funny Car qualifying in the
top half of the field, can only help Bazemore's goal to move into No. 1 in
points from No. 2, he believes. "It's good for the entire team to have our
teammates running strongly. Ultimately, it benefits us. We're very happy,
especially with Scotty, who has been struggling a lot this year. For them to
go out and rip out an .81 was pretty cool. And Scelzi's car seems to be
repeating easily enough. They went down the track a lot this weekend. They
look pretty strong. We don't want them to be too strong because we're still
going to have to beat them, but the fact that they're running a lot better
is very encouraging."

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