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NateDogg
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Whit Bazemore avoided potential disaster when the throttle stuck on his Matco Tools Dodge Stratus Funny Car during a 300-mph-plus testing pass at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
The two-time U.S. Nationals champion, who is second in the 2003 POWERade Drag Racing Funny Car point standings, was caught by surprise when he tried to shut down his car at the finish line after a 4.99-second pass at 308 mph only to feel his car continue to accelerate.
"I went to shut it off before the finish line and the throttle was stuck wide open," Bazemore said. "The throttle didn't come back at all. It was open for about seven or eight tenths (of a second) past the finish line. It's the first time that has ever happened to me ever in my career, so it was a different experience. I hit the fuel shutoff and the parachutes and kind of grabbed the brake and the fire bottles all at the same time. But it was no big deal. If you do everything right, it's pretty easy to stop; it's pretty straightforward."
Bazemore's quick reactions got the car stopped safely long before it reached the sand pit at the end of the track. Crew chief Lee Beard and Schumacher Racing teammate Gary Scelzi watched from the starting line is shocked disbelief.
"He got that thing stopped without going off the end, which was incredible," Scelzi said. "He did a hell of a job, especially because it was getting dark so I'm sure he couldn't see as well as normal."
Bazemore, however, dismissed the event as part of a day's work, although he did give a generous nod to his Goodyear tires.
"It's like, 'Wow, this is neat, this is fast,' " Bazemore said. "I think a couple of years ago the NHRA was talking about shortening the track to 1,000 feet. Now I think they should lengthen the track. They should add 500 feet to the 1,320 because it's kind of fun to go that fast. I bet we went 340 mph or something. The Goodyear tire did a great job. Goodyear has expressed concern in the past that the tire is not designed to go 350 mph or whatever. It probably went 340 and we had no problems at all."
Beard was equally non-pulsed: "We had a new fuel injector on the car and the linkage on it wasn't properly adjusted so when he went to close the throttle at the finish line basically the linkage had gone a little over center and caused the throttle to stick," he said. "We were pretty fortunate that we didn't do more damage or have some type of major catastrophe. We got back to the shop and investigated everything. We put our finger on what the problem was, and we'll go from there.
"The car ran 4.99, and it ran only for one more second; it ran six seconds. When you're on the start line you can hardly tell what's happening, and it was dark too. We knew that he ran it a long ways past the finish line. He had it stopped in plenty of time. He still had a long ways before he was going into the sand.
"We kind of figured the throttle was stuck on it, because normally Whit doesn't drive it that far. Well, he did what he had to do. He pulled the fuel shut off and that shut the engine off. It had a little backfire when he did, not any big deal. He got it stopped fine. Obviously, when you're driving it gets your attention when the throttle sticks. He didn't go into panic mode and put it in the wall. We were pretty lucky in some respects."
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Thats wild. I like the part about putting 500 more feet on the end, heh heh. It takes me 1 sec just to say shoot, let alone all that quick thinking, hehe. Glad nothing happened to him or the car. I can just see the look on the faces ofthe insurance guys when they found about this.
The two-time U.S. Nationals champion, who is second in the 2003 POWERade Drag Racing Funny Car point standings, was caught by surprise when he tried to shut down his car at the finish line after a 4.99-second pass at 308 mph only to feel his car continue to accelerate.
"I went to shut it off before the finish line and the throttle was stuck wide open," Bazemore said. "The throttle didn't come back at all. It was open for about seven or eight tenths (of a second) past the finish line. It's the first time that has ever happened to me ever in my career, so it was a different experience. I hit the fuel shutoff and the parachutes and kind of grabbed the brake and the fire bottles all at the same time. But it was no big deal. If you do everything right, it's pretty easy to stop; it's pretty straightforward."
Bazemore's quick reactions got the car stopped safely long before it reached the sand pit at the end of the track. Crew chief Lee Beard and Schumacher Racing teammate Gary Scelzi watched from the starting line is shocked disbelief.
"He got that thing stopped without going off the end, which was incredible," Scelzi said. "He did a hell of a job, especially because it was getting dark so I'm sure he couldn't see as well as normal."
Bazemore, however, dismissed the event as part of a day's work, although he did give a generous nod to his Goodyear tires.
"It's like, 'Wow, this is neat, this is fast,' " Bazemore said. "I think a couple of years ago the NHRA was talking about shortening the track to 1,000 feet. Now I think they should lengthen the track. They should add 500 feet to the 1,320 because it's kind of fun to go that fast. I bet we went 340 mph or something. The Goodyear tire did a great job. Goodyear has expressed concern in the past that the tire is not designed to go 350 mph or whatever. It probably went 340 and we had no problems at all."
Beard was equally non-pulsed: "We had a new fuel injector on the car and the linkage on it wasn't properly adjusted so when he went to close the throttle at the finish line basically the linkage had gone a little over center and caused the throttle to stick," he said. "We were pretty fortunate that we didn't do more damage or have some type of major catastrophe. We got back to the shop and investigated everything. We put our finger on what the problem was, and we'll go from there.
"The car ran 4.99, and it ran only for one more second; it ran six seconds. When you're on the start line you can hardly tell what's happening, and it was dark too. We knew that he ran it a long ways past the finish line. He had it stopped in plenty of time. He still had a long ways before he was going into the sand.
"We kind of figured the throttle was stuck on it, because normally Whit doesn't drive it that far. Well, he did what he had to do. He pulled the fuel shut off and that shut the engine off. It had a little backfire when he did, not any big deal. He got it stopped fine. Obviously, when you're driving it gets your attention when the throttle sticks. He didn't go into panic mode and put it in the wall. We were pretty lucky in some respects."
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Thats wild. I like the part about putting 500 more feet on the end, heh heh. It takes me 1 sec just to say shoot, let alone all that quick thinking, hehe. Glad nothing happened to him or the car. I can just see the look on the faces ofthe insurance guys when they found about this.