Bazemore struggles to qualify 15th in Seattle

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 14 of 23
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
Race Dates: July 22-24, 2005


KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2005) - Whit Bazemore and the Matco Tools Iron Eagle
Dodge Stratus Funny Car team struggled through four qualifying rounds for
the CARQUEST Auto Parts Nationals, to earn 15th place. Bazemore remained
upbeat, nevertheless.

Bazemore's 5.004/312.57, 4.999/310.55, 17.291/81.70 and 6.730/125.10 passes
were not characteristic of the progress the "new" team has made since
Englishtown, N.J., in June and after qualifying No. 2 in Denver last week.

"Sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back to take a couple
forward," said Bazemore, two-time winner this season and Funny Car points
leader early on. "We've had some really weird mechanical problems this
weekend on the Matco Tools Dodge that have kept us from going down the race
track. 

"The fact is we still qualified and we've got a car that has a potential to
run extremely well, so we're just working hard to reach that potential.
Tomorrow we may reach it.

"The first day we had a problem with the fuel system and we had a computer
issue the first run that kept us from finding that problem. The first day
was basically a write-off, and this morning we had an electrical short that
cost us that run. We went into that last session with basically no runs down
the race track, with full power. So, you have to find the parameters of what
the race car and the track will take in the given conditions. Because of our
earlier errors we had only one run to do that in today.

"Like I said, the potential is there, it's making good power; it's just a
matter of finding the sweet spot where the car is happy and it's going to go
down the track a lot."

Bazemore faces his teammate Gary Scelzi in the first round of eliminations
on Sunday.