NHRA

St. Louis: Whit Bazemore Saturday summary

BAZEMORE MISSES CUT AT ST. LOUIS MADISON, Ill. (May 5, 2007) -- Whit Bazemore has been around this drag racing game for many years. From his early days as a professional photographer through the past two decades as an accomplished nitro pilot, the ...

Published: May 6, 2007, 5:52 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

BAZEMORE MISSES CUT AT ST. LOUIS

MADISON, Ill. (May 5, 2007) -- Whit Bazemore has been around this drag racing game for many years. From his early days as a professional photographer through the past two decades as an accomplished nitro pilot, the longtime Matco Tools racer is well aware of the highs and lows of NHRA drag racing. The world's fastest motor sport, at times, can be quite humbling.

Any time Mother Nature affects the racing weekend, it makes things difficult on all teams. After losing the opening day of qualifying at the 11th annual O'Reilly Midwest Nationals due to persistent rain showers on Friday, Bazemore and his Lee Beard-led Matco Tools team had just two qualifying attempts to make the 16-car field. As many teams battled the hot, tricky Gateway quarter mile, so did the Matco Tools team. Bazemore pedaled his way to a 7.652-second tire-smoking effort on his first pass down the drag strip placing him 17th in the order. With its back against the wall, the Matco Tools rail overpowered the slippery track, causing Bazemore's ride to lose traction and slow to a 6.250-second pass. That failed to make the 4.782-second cut. In 343 career NHRA races, it is just the 23 time that Bazemore won't compete on race day.

"Obviously, we're disappointed," Bazemore said. "We're better than this. We just got behind the eight ball and it was tough out there. Hardships like these make you come back stronger and better, and that's what has to happen. That's what will happen. This Matco Tools team will come back with a strong effort at Bristol (Tenn.) in two weeks."

"We only look back for wisdom, not for regrets," team owner David Powers said. "We will get better because of it because we have the best people, a great sponsor, Matco Tools, and one of the best race cars out here."

-credit: dpm

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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article St. Louis: Greg Anderson Saturday summary

Next article St. Louis: Jerry Toliver Saturday summary

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

NASCAR Cup Homestead finale to feature full field of 40 cars

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

1 h

NASCAR Cup Homestead finale to feature full field of 40 cars

Data reveals severity of Carson Hocevar's brake-check: "There's no denying it"

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

2 h

Data reveals severity of Carson Hocevar's brake-check: "There's no denying it"

Honda Racing US echoes Porsche urgency over unified 2030 rules framework

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 5 h

Honda Racing US echoes Porsche urgency over unified 2030 rules framework

Toto Wolff: Two sponsors left Mercedes after promoting Kimi Antonelli into F1

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

5 h

Toto Wolff: Two sponsors left Mercedes after promoting Kimi Antonelli into F1

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