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NHRA: Bazemore, Cannon advance to final round

16 July 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES
NHRA MILE HIGH NATIONALS
NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES
BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY
MORRISON, COLO.
SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2000

FUNNY CAR: ALL-CAMARO FINAL ROUND

WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/MATCO TOOLS CAMARO Z28, continued to advance. He defeated Al Hofmann in the second round and disposed of Del Worsham in the semifinal.

JIM EPLER, WWF RACING "BIG RED MACHINE" CAMARO Z28, was defeated in the second round by SCOTTY CANNON'S CAMARO Z28, and Cannon dismissed Bruce Sarver in the semifinals (5.188/289.57 for Cannon, 5.205/291.26 for Epler).

Cannon will face Bazemore in only the third all-Camaro final in NHRA history. The first was in 1998 in Phoenix when Chuck Etchells defeated Ron Capps. This year in Gainesville, Fla., was the second, where Jerry Toliver, in the WWF Racing Camaro Z28, beat Ron Capps' U.S. Tobacco Camaro Z28.

EPLER: "We're disappointed. We had a problem with the fuel system and it was real rich in the first round. And it was the same in the second round. I look at that as a missed opportunity. We are making headway in points, however. The two I'm worrying about are (Ron) Capps and Tony (Pedregon). I'm a little disappointed we didn't run better in eliminations, especially in the first round. We were looking at being the first to run a 4-second lap at Bandimere. Its on to Seattle; we cant complain. At least we have two Camaros in the final."

RON CAPPS OUT IN FIRST ROUND

RON CAPPS, U.S. TOBACCO CO. CAMARO Z28, didn't have lane choice going into the first round, and was defeated by Al Hofmann in a fiery run, which resulted in his losing 10 points and earning a $1,000 fine for oiling down the track.

CAPPS: "At about eight tenths of a second into the run I had a cylinder go out, which was caused by a broken rod in the motor. It was quite weird; the Camaro was rattling and shaking a lot earlier than it usually does. I didnt know I had a broken rod so I gave it a pedal. It jumped further to the right towards the guard wall and got out of the groove. The engine went sour and almost immediately had an explosion. It kind of lifted the body up and lit it on fire right away. I got it out of the groove to keep the oil off the track until the fire went down. The fire was on my left leg, and also my right leg. It went away on the right but stayed on the left leg. My main concern was to get it stopped; it was sliding around in oil. We only have two spare Camaro bodies, so I wanted to make sure to keep the damage to a minimal amount. I don't think it got burned too bad; it looks like we will be able to run it again in Seattle. It could have been a lot worse. It's unfortunate. We saw (John) Force go out in front of us. We thought we could gain some points on him. (Jerry) Toliver (points leader) won, unfortunately. If there is a silver lining we will stay in third place no matter what happens. Well see if we can gain some momentum in Seattle and move up in the points."

Note: Ron was premature saying he would stay in third place. The 10 points he was penalized for the oildown cost him that position, as Tony Pedregon moves into third by eight points over Capps.

Text provided by Judy Stropus

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