Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Bazemore remains focused

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 8:57 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

With only 57 points separating Whit Bazemore and NHRA Funny Car points leader Tony Pedregon, Bazemore is putting a premium on qualifying heading into the final six events of the season.

"We go to every race expecting to and prepared to win," Bazemore said. "But the first order of business is to get the car qualified. That's why every run is so important."

Through the first 17 events of the 2003 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season, Bazemore has qualified for every race. He has one pole position and qualified in the top five 14 times.

"You can't take qualifying for granted," Bazemore said as he prepared for this weekend's O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. "You've got to work hard at every single race.

"It's not like other kinds of racing where if you've reached a certain level, then you're guaranteed to qualify at every race. In drag racing, you have to prove yourself every weekend; there are no free rides for anybody."

Although Bazemore has his sights set on Pedregon, he isn't ruling out the possibility of John Force being a factor in the championship as the season draws to a close. Force, a 12-time NHRA Funny Car champion, sits 157 points behind Bazemore and 209 points behind Pedregon.

"Force is 152 points back, which conceivably can be two days of racing," Bazemore said. "He's very much in the fight and so we have to keep an eye on him and an eye ahead of us.

"But if we go rounds and do our job, it will be irrelevant. We have to go rounds; we have to go to the semis and the final round a lot out of these last six races and if we do that, we should be there."

The race will be completed Oct. 3-5.

Test dates for the 2004 test session will be Jan. 28-30 for NHRA Pro teams, while the track also will be open to all drag racers on Jan. 31. The 2004 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season opens Feb. 19-22 with the 44th annual Winternationals.

Chris Naffziger (Super Pro), Alfred Sweeting (Pro), Bill Dudley (Sport Compact), Jason Whitenack (Motorcycle) and Nick Ariotti (Street) won their respective categories in the 2003 Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series. The Outlaw Eliminator championship will be decided following a special double-points race on Oct. 4.

Tristan Craig (Thunder Division) and Justin Lamb (Lightning Division) both won their final rounds Saturday and clinched their respective season championships in the Junior Dragster Series.