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NHRA: Two all-new 1999 Camaro Z28 Funny Car bodies are poised to debut in the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series.

10 July 1999

RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, was expected to introduce his new Camaro
body at this event, but its appearance has been postponed until the Prolong
Super Lubricants Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Wash., on July 30-Aug. 1,
as the team works to adapt the body to a new chassis as well.

CAPPS:  "Of course, we're chomping at the bit to run the '99 Camaro body,
but we didn't want to go out before we were actually ready for the body.
It takes quite a bit to mount these bodies on the chassis.  We're having a
new chassis built at this moment.  And we wanted to make sure we had
everything right before we ran it.  We figured we would have the new body
mounted for the new chassis, and both should be ready to run in Seattle.
It's no use coming out and mounting it on the old chassis then doing
everything all over again, there's quite a bit of work involved.
Unfortunately, we have to wait a few races, but we know it will be ready.
We're looking for more downforce on the new body and also a lighter body.
The body we have now is pretty heavy.  We did so much work on this body,
and that keeps adding weight to it."  ON YOUR FIRST RUN HERE AT BRISTOL:
"It struck the tires as sooon as I hit the throttle.  I'm sure Roland
(Leong, former team crew chief now an advisor) and Todd (Okuhara, crew
chief) will make the proper adjustments and get the Camaro down the track
tonight.  This is last year's chassis.  It's one we wheelstood in Houston
at the end of the year and it had to have the front end 'front-halved.'"

WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/SUPERWINCH CAMARO Z28, had his new '99 Camaro
body in the GM wind tunnel in Warren, Mich., last week and expects to debut
it at the Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals, in Denver, Colo., July 15-18.
The wind tunnel tests were considered a success, with comparisons made
between the older '98 body and the new '99 body.

BAZEMORE:  ON THE WIND TUNNEL SESSION:  "It was a very good experience.
The Camaro is definitely better.  And the Kendall Camaro team, along with
Tim and Kim Richards (co-crew chiefs) and the people from Chevrolet and GM
Raceshop worked on the car in the wind tunnel to maximize the possibilities
for it.  There is much more to go.  It's definitely going to be a help to
this team to have more rear downforce.  It needs some tweaking, but that's
part of racing.  All the cars do.  I'm excited that we're going to have a
better Camaro in Denver.  The GM Raceshop folks and the team worked hard to
get the '99 Camaro ready in time.  The team also put in a big effort to get
the '98 Camaro ready so we could race it (in St. Louis) then bring it to
the wind tunnel and compare it to the new '99 body."

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