Bazemore looks to match NHRA career best e.t. and win in Reading

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
ROUND 18 of 23
LUCAS OIL NHRA NATIONALS
Maple Grove Raceway
Reading, Pa.
Race Date: Sept. 12-14, 2003
READING, Pa. (Sept. 10, 2003) - Whit Bazemore, who is seeking his first NHRA
Nitro Funny Car championship and is just 57 points out of the lead in
second, returns to Maple Grove Raceway, where, as the song goes, the "air is
rarefied." 

The driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny car says it
just might be possible for him to match his career low elapsed time,
established here in 2001 of 4.732 seconds, or even better it at the Lucas
Oil NHRA Nationals this weekend at the track famous for its record-braking
capability.

Because of the number of trees that surround this track and the oxygen they
emit, the air quality under the cooler conditions which are often present in
September, make the Funny Car engines which can produce 6500-plus horsepower
even more powerful here.

"It's a really good track," says Bazemore, who has been runner-up twice here
in 2001 and 2002, but never a winner. "It depends on the conditions. Right
now if the overcast conditions that the local weather reports are calling
for arrive, there's no telling what kind of performance we could see here.
Lee (Beard, crew chief) has our Matco Tools Dodge running very well, and
we're capable of running low 4.70s right now, especially with the Goodyear
tires we have, which are different from what we had in '01. It would be
great to be able to get that kind of performance out of the car, but we'll
just have to wait and see what the conditions allow us to do."

Going for the championship is the key goal at this stage of the season for
Bazemore, with six races remaining, but the Indianapolis resident who has
two event wins this year just wants to enjoy himself and not let the
pressure overwhelm him.
"Every race from now until the end of the year is critical," he says, "but
our approach is going to be the same. We're going to go in and enjoy racing
and put no extra pressure on ourselves to do well. We always try to get the
best out of the race car and the best out of ourselves every single time and
that's what we're going to try to do.

"It would be nice to win this race," he adds. "We've been runner-up a couple
of times; we've had good performances here in the past. We have a decent
history at the track and hopefully that will repeat itself and we can have
some success this weekend."

Last year at Maple Grove Bazemore qualified No. 1 with a 4.806-second
elapsed time, and was runner-up to Tony Pedregon, whom he's pursuing for the
Funny Car crown this season.

An avid cyclist, Bazemore will have as his guest this weekend at the Lucas
Oil NHRA Nationals 2000 Olympian gold medalist Marty Nothstein, who lives in
Trexlertown, Pa., and competes regularly at Lehigh Valley Velodrome.