Once He Got the Picture, a Career Developed Fast

Whit Bazemore was 16 when he saw his first race at Atlanta Dragway. He snapped some pictures and, when he thought he had a good one, called the Atlanta Journal and asked if anyone would be interested in seeing it.

Furman Bisher, the sports editor, liked the picture, printed it in the next day’s edition, and a career was launched. Bazemore became an official photographer for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and traveled around the country shooting races and racing personalities.

“One of my first assignments was the Winternationals at Pomona in early 1981,” Bazemore recalled Friday during time trials for Sunday’s 36th Chief Winternationals at the Pomona Fairplex.

“I knew Southern California was the birthplace of hot-rodding and I got a map and found Granada Hills and Fountain Valley and South Gate, all the places where guys like Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwen and Keith Black lived and worked.

“Then I went to the track and I remember taking pictures of Raymond Beadle, Shirley Muldowney, Bob Glidden, Kenny Bernstein and all the drivers I’d read about growing up. It was pretty heady stuff for a kid still in high school.”

The more pictures Bazemore took, though, the more his focus began to change.

“I remember my first trip to Indianapolis Raceway Park for the nationals. I got there early and sat on the guard rail at the starting line and said to myself, ‘Someday I want to race here.’ ”

In 1986 he decided it was time. He turned his back on a successful photography business and went to the Skip Barber road-racing school and Frank Hawley’s drag-racing school in Gainesville, Fla.

“I knew I liked to drive fast--I had enough speeding tickets to prove that--but I had to know if I had any talent for actual racing,” he said. “When I graded out in the top seven out of 50 at Hawley’s school, I was ready to go racing full time.”

It wasn’t all as easy as shooting his first picture. He was 22, had $3,000 in savings and bought into an alcohol funny car.

“I was the truck driver, crew chief, mechanic, driver, everything one guy could do to get to a race track. It wasn’t easy but it forced me to live on what income I could get from racing.

“If you don’t get discouraged and quit, you can learn a lot when you’re an under-funded team. And if you’re persistent enough, it may lead to something bigger.”

This year it led to a ride in the Smokin’ Joe’s Mustang funny car. Instead of the little trailer he had used to haul his car last year, the team now has a state-of-the-art 18-wheeler, complete with a conference room.

Bazemore landed the ride after finishing seventh in funny car rankings last year as a Dodge-driving independent. The high point of the season was a 301.30-mph run at Ennis, Texas, where he joined John Force, Al Hofmann, Chuck Etchells, Cruz Pedregon and Jim Epler as the only funny car drivers to break the 300-mph barrier.

Bazemore moved into third place in funny-car qualifying Friday with a 5.138-second run at 283.812 mph behind the Pedregon brothers, Cruz, 5.064, and Tony, 5.105.