Heir Force

A new era in drag racing will unfold this week at the Pomona Raceway when Powerade will replace Winston as the title sponsor of the National Hot Rod Assn. season. It will be the first time in 28 years that the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco brand will not be involved in drag racing.

Funny car driver Whit Bazemore is hoping that another era ends this year--the domination of the irrepressible John Force as funny car champion. Force has won 11 championships, the last nine in succession.

“He’s got to lose sometime, so it might as well be this year, and it might as well be me who does it,” Bazemore said as he prepared his Lee Beard-tuned Matco Tools Pontiac Firebird funny car for today’s first round of eliminations in the 42nd K&N; Filters Winternationals. Pro time trials start at 1:30 p.m.

“The way we’re going at it, we’re looking at this first race as an extension of last year. We had the best record, even better than Force, over the last half of 2001, so we hope to carry our momentum on to the strip at Pomona.”

After car owner Don Schumacher put together a new team last year with two veterans, Beard running the team and Bazemore running the car, it took about half a year for the new group to jell. Things all came together about the time the series reached Pomona for the 50th anniversary meet last July.

Bazemore qualified No. 1 and lost to Force in the finals. Over the next 11 races, Bazemore was top qualifier nine times, won three times and, most significantly, outscored Force, 1,069-967, to finish second in final point standings. He also set the three fastest speeds in funny car history--325.29 mph at Indianapolis, 325.45 at Chicago and 325.37 at Dallas.

When Force received his champion’s award, Bazemore said, “Enjoy it, it will be your last.”

“I was laughing when I said it, but down deep I’d like to think that I was right,” the 38-year-old Indianapolis driver said. “I wasn’t laughing, though, when I said I had some unfinished business to attend to at Pomona. We should have won that final last November, but we let it slip away from us.”

Bazemore had a remarkable series of eight consecutive elapsed time runs in the 4.70s. He qualified at 4.741, ran 4.759 to beat Bob Gilbertson, 4.743 to beat Johnny Gray and set a track record 4.736 in sidelining Gary Densham in the semifinals.

In the finals, against Del Worsham, Bazemore ran 4.757 but lost because he red-lighted at the start and was disqualified.

“We’ll have the same car at Pomona, so we think we’ll be ready. I drove my first pro fuel race there in 1988 and over the years I’ve become more and more impressed with its tradition, so I enjoy more and more coming each year.”

In that first race in 1988, the rookie Bazemore failed to qualify.

“The fastest I’d been before that was about 160 or 170 [mph] in an alcohol [powered] car on a eighth-mile track and there I was in a car capable of doing 260 to 270 in a quarter-mile. I had trouble getting it down the track. I wasn’t as brave as I am now. It was terribly intimidating, so when I had an engine problem I shut it off.”

With Beard as his crew chief, Bazemore may have an edge over other funny car challengers such as Bruce Sarver, Ron Capps and former top fuel champion Gary Scelzi in chasing Force. In 1992, when Cruz Pedregon became the only driver to unseat Force during the ‘90s, Beard was team manager.

“If anybody knows how to beat Force, it’s Lee Beard,” Bazemore said. “He’s taught me an awful lot in one year.”

This year, Bazemore acquired a funny car teammate in Scotty Cannon, best known for his Mohawk hairstyle.

“I’ll admit, I was skeptical about having a second driver because I thought it would dilute my effort just when we were going so strong, but now that Scotty and I have tested together, I see having him alongside as a positive,” said Bazemore. “I was very impressed when he changed his driving style to mine, so that we could better compare notes. It is quite unusual for a driver to adapt to another’s techniques, but he did, and for that I’m very grateful. In the long run, I can’t see it being anything but beneficial.”

In head-to-head matches with Force, Bazemore was 4-6 last year, but won three of the last four.

“I used to think about the guy in the next lane, but the problem with that is that it’s easy to get up for a guy like Force, but if you do, then it’s easy to let yourself down for someone not quite as competitive. And you can’t do that these days when races are sometimes decided in thousands of a second.

“I try to race the lane, making sure I do the absolute best I can in every run. I’m more concerned about myself, about the job I have to do, to minimize mistakes and make every run as perfect as possible. On the other hand, there’s no question the adrenaline runs a little quicker when Force is in the other lane, so maybe I dig in a little deeper, raise the bar a little bit.”

Force has been facing these challengers for years. Capps, in Don Prudhomme’s car, came close in 1998, only to fall back in ’99. In 1995 it was veteran Al Hofmann who crept within 305 points of Force. Three times in the decade, 1999, 1997 and 1996, Force’s closest competitor was Tony Pedregon, his hand-picked teammate and protege.

“This could be the toughest season since Don Prudhomme in the Army car, [Raymond Beadle in] the Blue Max and [Kenny Bernstein in] the Budweiser King raced,” said Force. That was 1981, when Beadle won his third consecutive title.

“I think this will be a year like that. I have to be totally focused. Last year at the beginning [event wins] were from Sarver, to Capps, to Bazemore. It’s all a matter of everyone keeping it together for all 23 races.”

Scelzi is the wild card in funny car ranks. After winning three top fuel championships for owner/tuner Alan Johnson, the team lost its Winston sponsorship this year and decided to make a switch to funny cars.

It won’t be an entirely new experience for the Fresno veteran, as he drove alcohol funny cars for seven years before Johnson chose him to replace Blaine Johnson in the family top fuel car after Blaine was killed in an accident in 1996.

“I think this might be Force’s toughest year,” said Scelzi. “If you beat Force, you know you have done something. And even if [someone] takes the championship from him, you are not going to change his persona. You’re not going to change the fact that he is the baddest man ever to get in a funny car. Period.”

Both Bazemore and Force will have added responsibilities this year.

Bazemore was married to Michelle Mercer Dec. 8 on the island of Anguilla in the British West Indies, and they have purchased a bus to travel from race to race.

Force, in addition to running his three-car funny car team, will also manage the career of his 19-year-old daughter, Ashley, who will run a full season of super comp events.

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Facts

What: 42nd annual K&M; Filters Winternationals, first of 23 events in National Hot Rod Assn’s Powerade drag racing series.

Where: Pomona Raceway.

When: Today and Friday--pro qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday--pro qualifying, 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Sunday--final eliminations, 10:30 a.m.

Defending champions: Top fuel, Darrell Russell; funny car, Bruce Sarver; pro stock, Kurt Johnson.

Admission: Today, $18; Friday, $25 general admission, $35 reserved; Saturday, $45 general admission, $55 reserved; Sunday, $50 general admission, $62 reserved.

Tickets: Ticketmaster and www.NHRA.com or at the raceway.