Bazemore No. 10 in final Pomona qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 23 of 23
AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NHRA FINALS
POMONA (Calif.) RACEWAY
Race Dates: Nov. 11-14, 2004



POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 13, 2004) - Whit Bazemore improved on his No. 12
qualifying position from Friday with a powerful run in today's third
qualifying round under sunny and warm conditions, posting a 4.769-second
elapsed time at 326.95 mph in the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny
Car. That was the fourth quickest pass of that round, the second fastest and
placed him in No. 6 for that session.

Bazemore, crew chief Lee Beard and the entire Matco Tools team were
encouraged by those results and were looking forward to running under cooler
conditions in the final round to improve their position by topping the
quickest field in NHRA history (4.698 to 4.854) that had just been
established. Unfortunately, the car went up in smoke at the hit of the
throttle and Bazemore coasted to a 10.751-second pass at 72.77 mph, which
dropped him to No. 10.

"We had a mechanical problem," he said, "where the car dropped a cylinder
from the hit. 

"We were pretty pumped up after running our .76 in the heat of the day,
which was a very important run for us given how things have been. So the
Matco Tools team did a great job.

"We were going for low qualififer tonight. We were all pretty confident that
we were going to run our career-best numbers, so anytime you really have
your mind set to do something and it doesn't happen there's disappointment.
We feel good about the race car and we'll be fired up for tomorrow.

"Lowering the nitromethane percentage from 90 to 85 percent has helped the
cars in a certain regard because they seem to run easier sometimes," he said
about the quick times set this weekend. "You still have to make power, but
you make it in different areas and it puts a premium on different components
of the car, so you just have to skin the cat a different way.

"If we were running 90 percent I think it's fair to say we would be running
quicker than we are now and I think the excitement of the fuel cars would be
more than it is now, and the fans would be happier.

"But NHRA dictated 85 percent so that's what we all have to do."

Bazemore faces Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round of eliminations on
Sunday, which begin at 11 a.m.