NHRA: Capps, Camaro No. 1 Friday night in Brainerd
19 August 2000
CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES THE COLONEL'S NHRA NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES BRAINERD INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY FRIDAY, AUG. 18, 2000 FRIDAY NIGHT QUALIFYING: RON CAPPS, CAMARO TOP THE LIST IN FUNNY CAR RON CAPPS, U.S. TOBACCO CO. CAMARO Z28, put together two strong runs today to put him at the top of the qualifying list. In the first session his 5.027/295.66 was good for third place. He improved in the second session with a 4.901-second pass at 305.98 mph, knocking Del Worsham out of first place by one hundredth of a second. CAPPS: "It's kind of cool because we had already seen (Jerry) Toliver and especially (John) Force appear in front of me in the left lane. We felt like the right lane is a better lane. The first run was the best run in the left lane; hardly anybody else got down it. I thought, boy, we know the track is pretty good, these guys are good. Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) reached in there before the run and said, look, we got after it pretty good, so hang on; you may have your hands full. If it makes it it will be OK. From the get-go it was a scary kind of fun. It went out and lifted the front end up. It did something it hadn't done in a long time. It kicked all the clutch dust inside the car. It was so thick, at about 2.5 seconds it was so hard to see. At the same time it was lifting the front end and moving right. It was heading to the guardrail, but away it went. It went hard at the finish line. It put a cylinder out at the other end; otherwise it really would have run better. I was surprised it ran low e.t. with the cylinder out. We're excited about what it will do tomorrow." TRADITIONALLY FRIDAY NIGHT'S E.T. STANDS THROUGH FINAL QUALIFYING, CAN YOU HOLD ON TO IT? "I think we can run better if the conditions will stay cool. I don't know if there will be cloud cover or be over 80 degrees. The more the race goes on and the more rubber we have (the better the track will get.) This track has held it's composure real well when the sun is on it." WHIT BAZEMORE, KENDALL OIL/MATCO TOOLS CAMARO Z28, held on to 15th place, after two less-than-stellar passes. His first was a tire-smoking 9.011/92.81, the second nearly identical except that Whit pedaled it to the finish to assure him a spot in the field with a 6.883/129.28. BAZEMORE: "We're floundering at the bottom of the lake, like many of the lake flounders here. If they don't have flounders around here they have one now because we are one. We're struggling, we're smoking the tires. The car doesn't want to recover. It all happened so quickly in that run. It was a little loose leaving and then it rattled a tiny bit and then I thought it was going to make it. It got smooth, got the front end up and was charging. It all happened in 1.8 seconds. If I had pedaled it the first time it rattled which was about nine-tenths (of a second) it may have made it. The bottom lie is that we've got a gremlin with the Camaro and the car just doesn't respond to what Terry (Manzer, crew chief) is trying to do with it. We have got to make it right. Hopefully we can do that tomorrow." JIM EPLER, in the WWF RACING 'BIG RED MACHINE' CAMARO Z28, is No. 6, 5.036/304.80; BOB GILBERTSON, TRICK TANK CAMARO Z28, is No. 8, 5.118/298.73; SCOTTY CANNON, MAD SCIENTIST CAMARO Z28, is No. 13, 5.518/191.24. PRO STOCK: KURT JOHNSON, ACDELCO CAMARO Z28, is No. 2, 6.951/197.57; RICKIE SMITH, BUCKS COUNTY KAWASAKI CAMARO Z28 is No. 5, 6.988/196.62; V.GAINES, WESTERN MOTORSPORTS CAMARO Z28, is No. 7, 6.990/196.73. TOM HAMMONDS, WINNEBAGO/GM PERFORMANCE PARTS CAMARO Z28, is not qualified. He's 19th, 7.035/195.56. # # #