Championship Drag Racing

Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
Reading, Pa.
(Oct. 8-10)

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Whit Bazemore Matco Tools Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car

Reports: Sunday Saturday Pre-race 2 Pre-race

Reading, Sunday: By the luck of the draw, if you will, and qualifying 12th, Whit Bazemore found himself squaring off with his teammate Gary Scelzi in the first round of Funny Car eliminations for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals today.

They were both on their games as the competitive duo launched at the light nearly identically, with Bazemore a tick quicker with a .091 reaction time to Scelzi's .092 (.000 is perfect). Bazemore's Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus struck the tires, however, at about 300 feet in the less-desirable right lane, and Scelzi took the victory with a 4.807/305.63 pass to Bazemore's losing 7.678/109.24. This final effort topped a weekend of disappointing results.

"It's extremely frustrating today," said Bazemore, driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus, "because you're teammates and you're friends. But sometimes there's more pride involved than at other times because you have to live with these people day in and day out and you want to be better than they are. And I'm speaking for everyone on the Matco Tools team.

"We knew going in that there was going to be one guy who was going to be the winner and one team was going to win and one team wasn't. Unfortunately, the Matco Tools Dodge went out and shook the tires and we got beat.

"Having said that, if this sport wasn't challenging and difficult, we certainly wouldn't like it. You expect hurdles in your career and you expect some tough times and some times when you can't get the car to run properly.

"We're just in a position right now with our team that our car is not performing how Lee (Beard, crew chief) and the team and I and everyone expects it to. We're working hard to make it better, but it's just throwing us curve balls run after run.

"The great thing is we have a tremendous team, tremendous people, and we have a team owner who is a very motivating individual. Because of all those factors, ultimately this team will be very, very successful."

Although John Force didn't clinch the championship today, when Scelzi won the final round, Bazemore remains in the chase for second place among Scelzi, Del Worsham, Eric Medlen and Gary Densham with two races left. Bazemore is in fourth, 105 behind Scelzi in third, and 141 behind Worsham in second.

Reading, Saturday: Whit Bazemore overcame some equipment issues to qualify No. 12 for the re-scheduled Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals today in the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car. Bazemore posted his best pass of four in the final qualifying session, of 4.871/294.43, following a 4.970/281.95, a 4.910/312.42 and a 4.927/296.57. Each was a respectable pass when you look at the numbers, but they do not compare to Eric Medlen's No. 1 qualifying pass of 4.741/324.12.

"The car has something going on with it," Bazemore said. "It's very unstable near the finish line. It's a little bit uncomfortable. We don't know why it is. It was on a much better pass than the numbers show in that last run.

"It hasn't been a great weekend for us. On the bright side it's been a lot better than last year was for us," he said of his DNQ in 2003.

"The run this afternoon was tough because we were only qualified 14th going into it and we had a chance to not be in the show. We were forced to make a decision to run the older Goodyear tire. The NHRA had just made available the new tire an hour or so before that round. Due to the efforts of the Matco Tools team and our car owner Don Schumacher, NHRA released a supply of the new tire, the 1430.

"Unfortunately we couldn't run it because of the situation we were in regarding our qualifying position."

"We're excited that tomorrow we will be on the new tire. It's a better tire and apparently it seems to be safer. We want to thank Goodyear for making the effort to develop something that works better for us and I'll be a lot more at ease running the new tire tomorrow than I was this afternoon, knowing that we had one more run to make on a tire that we had had problems with this weekend, both on our car and our teammate's car (Johnny Gray).

"It's a tense situation and we appreciate the effort Goodyear and the NHRA are making to get it resolved."

Bazemore will face his teammate Gary Scelzi in the first round. With Scelzi's and Bazemore's teammate Johnny Gray meeting Del Worsham in the first round, it will be an interesting scenario as to who will leave here in second place in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. Worsham (qualified sixth) is in second place to John Force (qualified second). Force needs to leave here with 277 points more than Worsham to collect his 13th Funny Car championship tomorrow.

With Worsham, Bazemore, Scelzi, Medlen (qualified No. 1) and even Gary Densham in the running for second place, the first round results could make a major difference.

Reading, pre-race 2: A lot has happened since the postponement because of Hurricane Ivan to this weekend of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals originally scheduled for Sept. 17-19. Two racing events have been held and three remain (including this weekend's), the Matco Tools Funny Car team debuted the Rat Fink theme on the Dodge Stratus in Chicago for that one race, and driver Whit Bazemore is in fourth place and knee-deep in a battle for second in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series among drivers Del Worsham, Gary Scelzi, Eric Medlen and Gary Densham.

And with no hurricane in sight, it looks like the weather will be good for this weekend's event. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 60s, low 70s and the foliage will be transforming its colors from summer green to the reds, oranges and yellows that cause many leaf-watchers to flock to the Northeast in the fall.

"Reading should be pretty good this time of year," said Bazemore following the event at Route 66 Raceway last weekend in Joliet, Ill. "Maple Grove Raceway is a little bumpier than Rte. 66, so we may not be able to push it quite as hard. Still, this time of year, in early October, it should be really good.

"Hopefully, we will not be behind the eight-ball like we were at Rte. 66," he said of his first-round loss after qualifying 12th at the super-quick, ultra-fast track outside of Chicago.

"The situation in Chicago was we made a change going into that race which affected the car in a way we didn't anticipate and it actually cost us two qualifying runs," he added. "Hopefully now we'll be able to come to Reading with some new knowledge that we gleaned from Chicago and we should be stronger here."

Reading, pre-race: Whit Bazemore can boast of scoring one No. 1 qualifying position (2002) and two Funny Car runner-up finishes (2001, 2002) at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in his 16-year NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series career. A first win at this track this weekend, however, to add to his 17 career victories, is what he'd really like to crow about.

The driver of the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus from the Don Schumacher Racing camp has won twice this season after reaching five final rounds and stands third in the Funny Car points rankings. Bazemore reached the semifinal round at the last event, the U.S. Nationals, and is within striking distance of his teammate Gary Scelzi in second place. Just 21 points behind, Bazemore could make a push towards leader John Force, 227 points ahead, with a good result here.

"Maple Grove Raceway is a decent track for us," said the two-time U.S. Nationals champion. "We've been runner-up here a couple of times and we've run well here. It's been a good place. We're getting ready to give it our best and hopefully we can improve our performance and come away with the trophy."

This weekend's event is also the start of the fifth three-race, back-to-back swing of the season (the season-opener in Pomona was rained out and re-scheduled for the following weekend. The Phoenix race followed the next week.)

"It's a challenge on many fronts," said Bazemore, whose 4.713-second run at 333.25 mph in Joliet, Ill., this year set a national elapsed-time record and was the quickest and fastest pass in Funny Car history. "It's the fifth set of three in a rows that we'll have, so it's no different than being out West earlier in the year, but it will certainly take its toll on everyone on the Matco Tools team. We're ready for it.

"We have a Marathon coach that can criss-cross the country at warp speed," he laughed. "That's how we get to where we're going. We'll be in our home-away-from-home for the next couple of weeks."

Knocking John Force out of the championship lead with five races remaining is a difficult task, conceded the Indianapolis resident who is seeking his first Funny Car championship after two runner-up finishes. "He'd have to make a lot of mistakes and miss his flights to all the races."