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However, his concern is that his team is losing its aerodynamic
edge. "The other aggressive companies caught up. It shows you how quick
things change in this sport."
Pontiac's contributions, Bazemore conceded, would have
been only one factor in a championship-run equation. "But to compete
with Force, you have to have all the parts in place. We need the same
and more that they get (from Ford)."
Qualifying third with a 4.857 e.t. at 316.67 miles an
hour hardly sounds like cause for panic. But Bazemore knows going rounds
is what counts. And he wondered, "What could we be doing?" with Pontiac
support.
Team owner Don Schumacher said, 'I will not sit still.
The status quo is unacceptable." But just what he's doing about it isn't
for sharing.
Schumacher said, "We will go forward with a new body program,"
adding he has been talking to foreign, as well as domestic, manufacturers.
He declined to name any of them. He also denied that dropping the names
Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi and Ferrari in his conversation indicated
which engineers he had consulted. "I talk to a lot of people a lot of
the time," he said coyly. "The reality is that in all motorsports, you
can't afford to turn away" manufacturers interested in investing. --
Susan Wade
ONE THING AT A TIME
Ron Krisher, 54, defeated Darrell Alderman in the final
round of Pro Stock, after taking out JR Carr in round one, Jeg Coughlin
Jr. in round two and Jim Yates in round three.
"Getting by first round was like the biggest win I've
ever had. I almost had tears in my eyes," Krisher said. "It was the
biggest relief I've had since I've been drag racing. Once we won the
first round, I was pretty confident that things were going to work out.
You need some confidence to be successful in this sport and I didn't
have any after what had happened the last three races, much of which
I took the blame for, but really it wasn't anything I was doing. I think
we showed them that we do know what we're doing. We have good engine
builders, we have a good racecar in this Chevy Cavalier and we've made
a lot of improvements to the racecar drive-ability-wise - the clutch
system, the brake system; it's all been a problem. We've been attacking
it one issue at a time and finally the most important issue became the
brake system. We took care of that, got the car to where it staged properly
and didn't drift, and we were able to race it without a mishap." --
Jeff Romack (photo by Zak Hawthorne)
MEAN TO GENE?
"It's hard switching sanctioning bodies," said Gene Wilson,
the reigning IHRA Pro Stock champion hired last month to replace Mark
Osborne in the Mopar Parts Dodge Neon of David Nickens. It was even
harder with IHRA Vice-President Aaron Polburn taking a pot-shot at him
in a magazine article Wilson said he never has seen.
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