Rte.66 NHRA Race Notes and Quotes, Chevrolet Drivers
7 June 1999
CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES ROUTE 66 RACEWAY JOLIET, ILL. FRAM NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1999 FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28 -- FINAL QUALIFYING WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, defending event champion, is No. 2 qualifier, 4.956/306.53, set in Friday's evening session. BAZEMORE: "We feel really good about qualifying, because our Kendall Camaro is responding to the tune-up changes that Tim's (crew chief Richards) making. We had come here with an unknown setup, because even though the Camaro has been competitive, it hasn't been consistent. All in all, we haven't performed the way this team wants to, so we made a lot of changes. We came here with a question mark, much like we did in Gainesville, when we went there with a totally new setup. So to run so consistently is great. The motor also seems to be running a little easier. On that last run, it dropped a cylinder at the hit, and it was a decision I made to carry on. Hindsight being 20-20, maybe it wasn't the right decision. But the car was still running fairly well, and ran an .06, which was the fourth quickest of the session, so it ws still a good run with the hole out, and the engine didn't kill itself. It's not beautiful, but it's not murdered. I feel really confident that we have a car we can race with." RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, is No. 11, 5.096/287.84, also set Friday evening. CAPPS: "We came out this morning and decided we were going to try to set the car up not only to go faster and get a better qualifying position, but to try to set it up for Sunday, which will probably have the same conditions as today. Unfortunately, it dropped a cylinder in the first run and Roland (Leong, crew chief) thought he had it figured out for the second run. We went up there trying to be a little more aggressive on the first half of the track, it shook the tires and I just lifted. I think we learned a lot when it shook the tires, hopefully we can take that into the first round and do well." WILL YOU EVER GO BACK TO THE 5-DISC CLUTCH? "No. Right now we're trying to go back to our old tuneup and we got rid of the 5-disc (clutch). But the engine is a little different from last year. Right now Roland is massaging the engine and trying to get it to where it was last year. We thought it was going to happen today. Unfortunately we had a few glitches, but we should be good tomorrow morning. Roland always struts his stuff on Sunday and we should be all right." JIM EPLER, EASY CARE CORVETTE, failed to qualify. He was No. 17, 5.299//251.77. PRO STOCK -- CAMARO Z28 KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, is No. 1 qualifier for the second time in 1999 and the 13th time in his career, with a track record e.t. of 6.95 seconds at 197.94 mph. His Camaro turned its pole-winning e.t. on Friday evening. Heat and humidity hampered Kurt's performance on Saturday; he ran 7.002/197.25 in today's first session and 7.923/130.49 in the second. KURT: "The track's really not too bad for as hot as it is. The track temperature is 120 degrees, and the motor doesn't like the 4,000-foot relative altitude. I think we've got it tuned as well as we can under these conditions. I've just got to make a straight run tomorrow and we'll be OK. Actually, the bad run this afternoon was my fault. I was looking at the cones at the eighth mile and just kind of drove over there. I hit a bump and it disturbed the car. In eliminations I probably would have steered it back, but on a qualifying run I just lifted. The car ran two thousandths quicker than this morning to 330 feet, and didn't shake or do anything wrong. I think it would have run 7-flat, so we're fine." MIKE EDWARDS, DEWCO SALES CAMARO Z28, is No. 3 qualifier, 6.985/197.08, established Friday evening. EDWARDS: "We ran really good yesterday, but we went backwards today. I'm a little concerned about that. But we're qualified; that's all that matters, so we'll see what happens tomorrow." DOES THE HEAT AFFECT THE RESULTS? "I just think we never caught up to the track, we had too much clutch all day long. We made some big changes to the chassis in the last run and that didn't help. We will work on the clutch and see what happens, change some gear ratios and see if it responds. The track is not that bad, but the starting line is pretty slick." WHAT IS YOUR GAME PLAN? "Hopefully to turn the win light on four times tomorrow. We're just going to try to make some changes and see if we can make the Camaro better. I think we have a good chance of doing good tomorrow, but you never know. We're happy with the way we're running, qualifying good. If we keep running like this, sooner or later something good will happen out of this."
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