Driver spared serious injury

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005 | 7:24 a.m.

National Hot-Rod Association driver Whit Bazemore escaped serious injury when his Matco Tools Funny Car erupted into flames during a testing run Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Bazemore's car was almost a total loss. But he said the incident could have turned out far worse had it not been for the quick response of The Strip's safety crew.

"It was a pretty big fire," Bazemore said. "That's always a concern, especially when testing, because the NHRA Safety Safari is not on hand. But the local track officials did an excellent job of responding."

Bazemore and numerous other NHRA pro teams remained in Las Vegas on Monday to test after the weekend's ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip. Bazemore lost to Cruz Pedregon in the first round of Sunday's eliminations.

According to Chris Blair, senior director of drag racing at the speedway, Bazemore was testing a new oil pump in his Dodge Stratus R/T when the engine exploded into flames near the 1,000-foot mark on the track.

"It was a pretty dramatic scene," Blair said.

"It burned the tires completely off of the car and burned the chutes. It was a major fire; it destroyed the car."

According to his spokesman, Bazemore was running close to 300 mph when the engine blew.

Blair said the speedway safety crew reached Bazemore's car even before it had come to a stop near the top end of the track.

"Our crew did a really good job," he said. "They were on the scene really quickly and helped him get out of a bad situation. (Bazemore) was rolling to a stop and he was in the process of bailing out of the car just as soon as (the safety crew) was pulling up."

Blair said he considers his safety workers among the best in motor sports because of their training and their experience in the sport as competitors.

"All of our safety employees go through a training session in conjunction with NHRA," Blair said. "In addition to that, our crews also go through a lot of training with NASCAR, so our guys are probably some of the most well-rounded safety workers in the business."

Blair won't get an argument from Bazemore on that point.

Brian Hilderbrand can be reached at 259-4089 or at bh@lasvegassun.com.