Norwalk: Whit Bazemore Saturday notes

BAZEMORE MOVES UP TO NO. 10 SPOT SATURDAY AT NORWALK

NORWALK, Ohio (June 30, 2007) -- Whit Bazemore piloted one of the more consistent Top Fuel dragsters Saturday afternoon at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park to qualify his David Powers-owned Matco Tools rail 10th at the Inaugural Norwalk event.

Entering the final day of qualifying at the Norwalk race in the No. 12 spot on the strength of a 4.617-second effort on Friday afternoon, Bazemore raced his Lee Beard-tuned rail to a pair of consistent passes in front of a full house at the first-ever NHRA national event at Norwalk. On Saturday's first effort, Bazemore clocked a performance of 4.631 seconds at 318.80 mph. It was the fourth quickest run of the session. On his final effort, he drove the Beard-tuned dragster to a pass of 4.607-seconds to improve to the No. 10 qualifying position. It again was the fourth quickest run of the session.

"Things are turning around," Bazemore said. "We were consistent today. We went down the track twice. Anytime you run in the top five in a session is good and in conditions that we'll be racing in shows promise. There's no doubt we've been battling some demons with the car, but hopefully we're starting to overcome those."

Bazemore will face off against No. 7 qualifier Doug Herbert in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday. They have yet to meet this season during eliminations.

-credit: dpr