To no one’s surprise, Whit Bazemore
passed his much talked-about Top Fuel debut with flying colors. With a
career-best 4.507-second blast and a quarterfinal effort at the season-opening
Winternationals, Baze looked like a seasoned Top Fuel veteran behind the wheel
of his Lee Beard-tuned Matco Tools Iron Eagle dragster. Now the 20-time NHRA
Funny Car winner looks to become just the 14th driver in NHRA history
to card victories in both nitro categories. Never shy for words, Bazemore offers
his thoughts on adjusting to piloting a Top Fuel car, working alongside Rod
Fuller and Beard, and his fitness routine as he prepares for the second race on
the 23-race NHRA schedule near Phoenix, Feb. 23-25.
Q: After completing your first race in Top
Fuel, what are your thoughts?
BAZEMORE: My first thought is that
Pomona was
really good for me in terms of building my confidence as far as my ability in a
Top Fuel car goes and gaining more experience. It answered a lot of questions
for me. I was always very confident in the team and I’ve been incredibly
impressed by the guys on the team and how good they are. It’s virtually a
mistake-free organization and that’s something that’s hard to achieve. That’s
something that’s really hard to achieve. They’ve done tremendous throughout
testing and the first race. Even though we didn’t come away with a win, we came
way with the confidence and knowledge that we are capable of winning races and
we identified some areas that we’re going to work on in terms of both the
performance of the car and driver. That will make us a much stronger team going
forward.
Q: Is there any doubt that you can make
the Countdown for the Championship
and compete for the title this season after what you’ve seen so
far?
BAZEMORE: I wouldn’t say I have doubts,
but at the same time you have to acknowledge that it’s a challenge. Top Fuel,
like all the professional categories, is incredibly competitive and there’s no
room for error. You don’t want to say that you have doubts because we don’t, our
goal is to win a championship and we’re capable of doing that, but at the same
time you can’t take for granted that you’re going to be in the top eight because
there will be some strong cars that aren’t going to make the cut. You need to
work hard all season long to make sure you’re in the top eight come Indy time.
