Whit Bazemore drove his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster to a semifinals finish Sunday at Texas Motorplex. With his effort, the veteran Matco driver vaulted to sixth in the Countdown to Four standings.
After clocking low elapsed time of the day on Saturday, 4.586 seconds, to qualify 10th, Bazemore defeated Alan Bradshaw and 29-time Top Fuel winner Cory McClenathan, before losing traction in the semifinals against Bob Vandergriff, Jr.
As the first pair of drivers to do battle under overcast skies in the Lone Star state, Bazemore drove the Matco Tools rail to the win in the right lane. The veteran racer used Lee Beard horsepower to power to a run of 4.557 seconds at 327.19 mph to edge Bradshaw’s run of 4.693 at 320.01. Bazemore’s run was the third quickest of the round.
In the quarterfinals, Bazemore got the jump at the start and drove the Matco-backed rail to a wire-to-wire victory. The Eugene, Ore. resident raced his Beard-tuned rail to a pass of 4.592 at 327.74 to score the holeshot victory over McClenathan’s quicker-but-losing run of 4.571 at 328.06. It was Bazemore’s first holeshot win this season and advanced him to the semifinals for the fifth time in 2007.
Bazemore used a slight jump at the start in his semifinal battle with Vandergriff, but the Matco Tools rail lost traction and slowed to a pass of 5.572 at 195.85. Vandergriff cruised to a run of 4.597 seconds to advanced to the final round.
“It was a pretty decent weekend, ” Bazemore said. “That was a very important round, but it didn’t happen. The shaft speed was too high on that run. We still have a great team and a great group of guys. We still have a shot, but we’ll have to be perfect at Richmond. ”
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