Bazemore No. 4 with second-quickest e.t. of final session in Sonoma

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 15 of 23
Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals
Infineon Raceway
Sonoma, Calif.
Race Dates: Aug. 1-3, 2003

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

BAZEMORE STAYS NO. 4 WITH SECOND QUICKEST E.T. OF FINAL ROUND

SONOMA, Calif. (Aug. 2, 2003) - Paired against Tony Pedregon in the next to
final pass of the final qualifying session, Whit Bazemore served notice by
putting down a quicker elapsed time than his rival for the POWERade Drag
Racing Series Funny Car championship. Bazemore's Matco Tools Iron Eagle
Dodge Stratus performed another strong run, posting a 4.920 at 310.20 mph to
Pedregon's 4.922 at 302.75.

Although he didn't advance in the field, Bazemore set the second fastest
e.t. of the round (to Del Worsham's 4.909) and remained No. 4 on the Funny
Car charts, based on the 4.845/290.70 recorded last night. This final
qualifying effort was held in the early evening, and few cars benefited from
cool temperatures, as the sun was still shining on the Infineon Raceway
dragstrip.

In today's earlier third qualifying round, Bazemore smoked the tires to a
7.925/101.16 pass.

"We were the second quick e.t. of the final session," he said. "The track is
tricky when the sun's out and the heat's on it. It was a great rebounding
effort by the Matco Tools Dodge team because of the problems we had last
night (a failed attempt to qualify No. 1 when a tire came apart at the
finish line). Super job, super job.

"Lately qualifying hasn't really gone our way. We've had little problems.
They're just freak occurrences that could happen. Even if we prepared better
or we paid more attention to our car - which we can't -  these things would
still happen. It's kind of a test, I guess. The team is tremendous and (Lee)
Beard (crew chief) and the guys did a great job reading the track today, and
to come out second low e.t. in this session is good."

Bazemore will face Arnie Karp in the first round of eliminations tomorrow,
and, if he wins, has the opportunity to meet up with his teammate Gary
Scelzi in the second round.

###