NHRA
Gainesville: Whit Bazemore Friday summary
Bazemore Takes No. 1 On Friday In Gainesville GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2004) - The speeds set in today's two Funny Car qualifying rounds for the Gatornationals barely came close to 300 mph, let alone 330 mph, the record speed that Whit ...
Published: Mar 20, 2004, 9:58 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Bazemore Takes No. 1 On Friday In Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2004) - The speeds set in today's two Funny Car qualifying rounds for the Gatornationals barely came close to 300 mph, let alone 330 mph, the record speed that Whit Bazemore had suggested might be reached here at Gainesville Raceway. But the man who first broke the 325-mph Funny Car mark and holds the track record speed here, qualified No. 1 under hotter conditions than expected.
Bazemore posted the lowest of only two 4-second passes in the second round, a 4.909-second elapsed time at 291.82 mph, beating out Eric Medlen's 4.930/292.49 on the newly-paved track.
"It's hotter today than it's been here in quite a while," said Bazemore. "That's part of it. But the big thing is the track surface. It has no rubber on it yet. It's coming around, but I'd say my prediction is a little off. The potential is there. I felt that this track historically has been a big speed track. I thought this would be the first good opportunity of the season for a Funny Car to break the 330 mph mark.
"I'll stick with driving. My crystal ball was a little cloudy, apparently.
"The track will definitely get better," he added. "For some reason the last couple of years we have really struggled in the summer in higher heat conditions like we have here. (At) tracks like St. Louis, Columbus, Seattle, Sonoma, we've just really struggled a lot. I don't know if it's a combination of tires or the horsepower we're making or the traction compound they're using these days, I don't know. It's been something we've seen over the last several years.
"We're at the Gatornationals. It's only 80 degrees. It's not like it's 95. So I don't know. It makes it a challenge for all of us and it's the same for everybody; it's no big deal.
"The track is very smooth," he continued, "we have a great crowd, it's awesome, and it's great for the Matco Tools team to be low qualifier, at least tonight."
-dsr-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Gainesville: Gary Scelzi Friday summary
Next article Gainesville: Cruz Pedregon Friday summary
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Whit Bazemore
Tommy Johnson Jr. aiming for big win in Las Vegas for Make-A-Wish
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Tommy Johnson Jr. aiming for big win in Las Vegas for Make-A-Wish
Ron Capps looks to extend final round streak to five
NHRA
NHRA
Ron Capps looks to extend final round streak to five
Ford Looks For 200th NHRA Funny Car Win At Joliet
NHRA
NHRA
Ford Looks For 200th NHRA Funny Car Win At Joliet
Latest news
McLaren retains Leonardo Fornaroli in F1 as Italian adds WEC programme for 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 6 min
McLaren retains Leonardo Fornaroli in F1 as Italian adds WEC programme for 2027
GT2 European: Maserati ends on a high note at Portimao, with titles for Hartling/Thilenius and Gialdini/Njor
Sponsored
Sponsored
Portimão
1 h
GT2 European: Maserati ends on a high note at Portimao, with titles for Hartling/Thilenius and Gialdini/Njor
Inside the competition building F1’s future engineering talent
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Inside the competition building F1’s future engineering talent
Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
9 h
Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe