BASS WINS FIRST SCSS STREET CAR SHOOTOUT SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP!

Laurence Bass was crowned the 2004 Southside City Speed Shop Street Car Shootout Series Champion during the 38th annual Gateway International Raceway Awards Banquet held in the Grand Ballroom of the Millennium Hotel in the shadow of the Gateway Arch. Bass, whose supercharged 1988 Ford Mustang qualified at sixteen events in the twenty-one race series, received the first SCSS Championship trophy from the reigning Miss Gateway International Raceway, St. Louis Rams cheerleader Michele Patrick.

Bass only failed to qualify for the sixteen-car field once during the season, falling into the seventeenth position on the roster by a mere forty-four thousandths of a second at the May 11th event. During the season, Bass won an SCSS event championship on August 3rd and scored two runner-up finishes on August 10th and September 28th.

Gateway International Raceway officials decided during 2004 to award the first SCSS Street Car Shootout Series Championship to the driver who qualified the most times during the season. By mid-year, the Lebanon, Illinois, racer had already amassed twice as many qualifying points than his closest rival. Bass shifted his five-speed, street-legal machine to a best of 11.25 seconds, 128.33 miles per hour during the series, but later ran as quick as 11.02/129.08 during a late-season test
session.

SCSS SHOOTOUT RESULTS -- 10/5/2004

WIN:	Faisal Merghelani St. Louis, MO 2002 346 Camaro 0.110 10.575 131.33
RU:	Derrick Roeslein Fenton, MO 2002 346 Camaro 0.019 11.285 119.70

Faisal Merghelani returned to Gateway International Raceway for the first time since July 27th and earned his second 2004 Southside City Speed Shop Street Car Shootout Series title. Astonishing atmospheric conditions, possibly the best to be seen this season, resulted in a remarkable number of personal-best performances. The event opened with a corrected elevation of 306 feet above sea level and that number plummeted to a mind-boggling 892 feet below sea level when the finalists, (both of whom recorded their best-ever runs), staged up for the trophy battle.