Motorsports

Semifinal very hot, final not

Bob Gilbertson's Funny Car catches fire, still makes the final but loses by DQ to Whit Bazemore.

By SUSAN WADE
Published March 21, 2005

GAINESVILLE - Call the Funny Car final of the Gatornationals the Battle of the NHRA's Bad Boys.

But Whit Bazemore, who like opponent Bob Gilbertson recently was fined $15,000 and put on two years' probation (for separate incidents), displayed his best behavior Sunday in winning the final.

Bazemore said he first saw Gainesville Raceway at age 10 or 11 when his family visited his grandmother in Orlando for Thanksgiving. "I'm going to race here," he said then. He attended Frank Hawley's driving school at the drag strip in 1986. And he took advantage of Gilbertson's red-light disqualification to triumph with a 4.897-second effort at 315.67 mph on the quarter-mile in a Dodge Stratus R/T.

He said the Gatornationals, the third of 23 events of the NHRA season, is "right up there with the classics."

Gilbertson's car caught fire in the semifinals, and volunteers from at least eight Funny Car and Top Fuel teams helped him prepare for his first final since October 2001. And that concerned Bazemore.

"I do better as the underdog," Bazemore said. He's top dog after his 18th career victory made him the class points leader and third different Funny Car winner this year.

Jason Line defeated Dave Connolly by 0.0012 seconds for the Pro Stock victory, and Steve Johnson chased down Craig Treble to win the Pro Stock Motorcycle final by 0.0142 seconds (about 4 feet).

The Top Fuel final was as ugly as the ones for Pro Stock cars and bikes were thrilling, but Doug Kalitta won the tire-smoking race against Larry Dixon.

The victory was a relief for Kalitta, the 2000 event winner, who hadn't advanced past the opening round in either of the first two races this season.

Kalitta and Dixon lost traction about the same spot on the track and Kalitta powered to a winning 5.182-second elapsed time at 296.24 mph. Dixon's car wiggled back and forth to a 5.925/169.81.

"I was pretty nervous, but it gathered itself up good. I thought he was going to go blowing by me. Larry's a heck of a driver," Kalitta said after improving from ninth to fifth in the standings. "(Crew chief) Rahn Tobler and my whole team had a good thing going.

"I was wondering what it was going to take to get caught back up," he said as his 4-year-old son, Mitchell, played at his feet with the winner's trophy. "This is definitely a good start. I was real humble coming into this thing."

Line is the third Pro Stock winner in as many races. He drove his Pontiac Grand Am to a winning elapsed time of 6.716 seconds at 205.90 mph over Connolly's 6.749/205.66. "There's parity in the class, and we're trying to get rid of it," Line said, smiling.

Johnson, running in his 200th race, was unable to fully appreciate and celebrate his only other victory. It came in June at St. Louis the day popular Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell was killed.

"This is the one I will treasure as my first win," Johnson said after using a better reaction time and a 7.139-second pass at 187.26 mph to overtake Treble (7.161/185.95) in the all-Suzuki final.

[Last modified March 21, 2005, 01:50:19]