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NHRA: Amato, Bazemore, K. Johnson and Seeling winners at Thunder Mountain

17 July 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

MORRISON, Colo. - Joe Amato won for the sixth time in his career at Bandimere Speedway Sunday at the 22nd annual Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals.

Amato, from Exeter, Pa., sped down the quarter-mile in his Dynomax Dragster in 4.837 seconds at 300.53 mph to edge the defending NHRA Winston Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher and his run of 4.913 at 281.36. Before meeting Schumacher, Amato defeated Gary Clapshaw, Bob Vandergriff, and Cory McClenathan en route to his 51st career victory. With the win Amato climbed to fourth in the standings.

"We were really the underdog today," said Amato. "Tony had been running strong all day. He was running 70s and we were running 80s. We just wanted to be steady and not beat ourselves and hopefully they would make a mistake. I don't know what happened to their car but they slowed up enough that we got the win. We have a new mission. We just want to be steady and get down the track. We want to make a move in this Winston points chase."

Amato is still recovering from the laser surgery he had on his right eye nearly three weeks ago. The surgery prevented Amato from driving in last week's Winston Showdown, the NHRA's all-star event.

"I was nursing my eye," said Amato. "But it's feeling good. To bounce back from eye surgery is a great comeback. To me this is one of my better wins because three weeks ago I was sitting in the doctor's office and they told me that I might not be able to drive again. Then to come back and win the next race, to me that's the comeback of my career. Someday I'll write my memoirs and that will be a special chapter in the book.."

No. 1 qualifier and current NHRA Winston Top Fuel points leader Gary Scelzi lost in the first round to the newly licensed Jim Cavalieri. Scelzi has never really had any success at the track known as Thunder Mountain. It was the second time in his career that Scelzi has lost to the No. 16 qualifier. He lost to Doug Herbert in 1999 in Richmond, Va.

Whit Bazemore, Kurt Johnson and Angelle Seeling were also winners in their respective categories at the $1.8 million race, the 13th of 23 events on the $45 million NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series.

Indianapolis' Bazemore made the quickest pass ever at Bandimere Speedway to earn his first Funny Car victory of the season. His pass at 4.990 at 301.20 in his Kendall Oil Chevrolet Camaro was better than fellow Chevy-competitor Scotty Cannon who slowed to a 5.447 at 273.83. Bazemore's pass was the first four-second run ever at Bandimere Speedway. He was the winner of this event in 1997 and was the runner-up last season. Bazemore was not qualified after the first three qualifying passes. He then took over the top qualifying spot and ran strong the rest of the weekend. He drove past Tim Wilkerson, Al Hofmann and Del Worsham before beating Cannon in the final.

"We came out an we qualified on the pole," said Bazemore. "Today Manzer proved that (qualifying) wasn't a fluke. It was just a tremendous effort by the entire team. My driving came around and I'm just real excited about the rest of the season. It is still a long season to go and we have struggled all year. We are not where we want to be. We want to be leading the championship. That's a long ways away but I think if we just work and work and work we can salvage the season. When you're doing well it's easy to be good. You don't find out how good you are until you're at the very bottom. The good teams will shine and come to the front. And these guys on my team proved they had it today."

This was the first win for the Kendall team with new crew chief Terry Manzer who was brought on a few weeks ago by team owner Chuck Etchells. Manzer had was tuning the WWF car earlier this year for Jim Epler who won the inaugural SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas.

"Chuck made a very difficult decision about a month ago," said Bazemore. "It has been an emotional time. We are very tight with (former crew chiefs) Tim and Kim Richards. But life goes on and Terry came over from the WWF team when they let him go. We had something to prove today and I think we all proved it as a team. They worked so good together today and nothing went wrong."

Johnson, from Lawrenceville, Ga., won his first Pro Stock event of the year with his run of 7.356 at 188.04 behind the wheel of his AC Delco Chevrolet Camaro. That was enough to hold off Darrell Alderman and his run of 7.375 at 186.28.This is the first victory for Johnson in nearly a year. After finishing third in the point standings last season, Johnson has had some difficult races this year.

"It's been a struggle," said Johnson. "The first part of the year we were really inconsistent. Our power was off a little bit. The car was fast on occasion but not consistent. This time the car was just consistent all weekend. We ran well enough today to keep lane choice today and I think that was a big factor out here. . Nobody wanted the right lane. I didn't want it. I just tried to make perfect runs and let the clutch out on time."

Team Winston Suzuki rider Seeling, from New Orleans, won her fourth Pro Stock Motorcycle race of the year when her opponent, hometown favorite Matt Hines, left the line early. This was Seeling's 14th career victory, four behind Shirley Muldowney as the all-time winningest female racer in the history of the NHRA. Seeling rode past Michael Pryor, Reggie Showers, David Schultz and Hines for the win.

Seeling now leads Hines by 100 points in the standings. It is the exact lead she had last year after this event before losing the championship to Hines by eight points.

"Man, this is awesome," said Seeling. "When I left home, we had no idea that we were going to win this race. Our expectations were to just come out here and hang in there. We didn't want to get slaughtered by the six-speeds and the Vance & Hines motors that are dyno-tested out here. I think we proved there's not even a chance of us getting slaughtered at any track. The difference between last year and this year is I have a whole different attitude. This has got to be the most optimistic I have ever been at any race. Last year I think we were going down hill when we left here and this year we are going up hill. I want to win the Winston championship as bad as ever but I have a whole new feeling about it and it has helped on the track."

The NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series continues July 28-30 at Seattle International Raceway with the 13th annual Prolong Super Lubricants Northwest Nationals.

Text provided by R. Vizcarra

Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot racing photos and art, visit The Racing Photo Museum and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.