NHRA Lucas Oil Division 2 Gainesville Race Rescheduled

Gainesville, FL - Another rainout at Gainesville has forced the race to be rescheduled (again) to August 5th and 6th. Time trials on Friday August 5th and the race on Saturday August 6th. Some fields are set from the initial race dates.
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2005 Year One Experience

Make plans to attend the Year One Experience
April 22 & 23, 2005 at Atlanta Dragway and Road Atlanta.

Atlanta Dragway
Commerce, GA

Road Atlanta
Braselton, GA

Photos from Year One's 2004 Commerce Challenge

Whit Bazemore photo by Marvin T. Smith

Marvin T. Smith shot this photo of Gatornationals Funny Car winner Whit Bazemore defeating Gary Scelzi.

LaGrange-Troup County Drag Strip

Bird's eye view of LaGrange-Troup County Drag Strip. Photo courtesy of LaGrange-Troup County Drag Strip.

WJ Powers to the Gatornationals Semi-Finals

Contact: Jon Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

Warren Johnson continued his strong 2005 performance at the third stop of his "School's Out" tour, powering his GM Performance Parts Grand Am to the semi-finals of the 36th annual Mac Tools Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL.

Starting from the ninth position, Johnson had one of the quickest race cars on Sunday. In the first round, he used a 6.706-second, 205.05 mph pass to defeat No. 8 qualifier Larry Morgan. This set the stage for a second-round encounter with former crew member and defending POWERade champion Greg Anderson.

Although it was Anderson who captured the No. 1 position in qualifying, Johnson took the measure of his rival on race day with relative ease, gaining the advantage at the starting line and never looking back, pulling away from Anderson with a 6.696-second, 205.99 mph pass, who recorded a 6.702-second effort in the loss.

Standing between Johnson and his 11th career Gatornationals final round was David Connolly, who Johnson had faced in the final round in Pomona earlier this year. Despite facing the warmest temperatures of the weekend, "The Professor" bettered his career marks in top speed and elapsed time with a 6.679-second, 206.70 mph blast.

Unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome his opponent's starting line advantage, with WJ falling eight thousandths of a second shy of advancing. Despite the initial disappointment, Johnson found reasons to be optimistic following his performance in the Sunshine State.

"Overall, we're not going to complain. You have to realize that this car had zero laps on it going in to the first race, and we really haven't had a chance to test since then, so we've basically been doing all our tuning at the race tracks. Obviously, we have a lot of experience to fall back on, but anytime you run a new car, you're going to uncover a few quirks that you have to learn about.

"We've been making incremental changes, and it keeps throwing us a bone. We don't know how fast this thing is going to go – it may go fast enough to turn my hair white.

"The conditions we had here this weekend gave us the maximum power we will probably encounter all weekend, and with the race track being a little different, we didn't really get a handle on it until the third qualifying session. After that, we kept making small changes on it, and it kept going faster and quicker on virtually every run.

"Our GM Performance Parts Grand Am was pretty sporty today. You can't win them all, and it doesn't help when you have an .081 light, but we did all right up until the semi-finals. Some people will say we took out some fast race cars today, but if you check the record, we were the faster of the two cars on the track each time. Hopefully, we will be able to get it to go significantly faster."

BAZEMORE CONQUERS GATORNATIONALS; WINS FIRST NATIONAL EVENT HERE; MOVES INTO POINTS LEAD

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
Contact: Judy Stropus

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 20, 2005) - Whit Bazemore finally conquered the Gatornationals, a POWERade Drag Racing Series event he has never won in his 16-year career as a professional Funny Car drag racer, by capturing his 18th Funny Car title today in the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus R/T.

Bazemore defeated Bob Gilbertson in the Funny Car final round at Gainesville Raceway, with a 4.897-second pass at 315.67 mph. Gilbertson, whose car was quickly repaired after it burst into flames while winning the semifinal round, fouled out and was disqualified.

This marked Bazemore's first win of the 2005 season in his first final round appearance of the year and his first win since Topeka 2004.

The Indianapolis resident and two-time U.S. Nationals champion moved into the Funny Car points lead with this victory, and stands nine points ahead of 13-time Funny Car champion John Force (237-228), who lost in the semis to Gilbertson.

En route to the final round, Bazemore eliminated Cruz Pedregon with a 4.869/316.67, Robert Hight with a 4.917/315.45, and his teammate Gary Scelzi with a 4.920/302.02. These were no stellar passes, but they were consistent and good enough to claim the wins over his tire-smoking opponents.

Bazemore was also beaming over the birth of his and his wife Michelle's first child, Dashiell Aidan, on March 12 - also Bazemore's birthday.

"It's huge," he said of the win at the track he first saw as a 10-year-old and where he attended the Frank Hawley School and earned his Alcohol license in 1986. "The place has a lot of personal feelings for me. It's incredible to win the Gatornationals. It's like a Pomona, an Englishtown, or even Indy. It's right up there. It's one of the classics.

"I wondered for a long time if I'd ever win anywhere and there were times when I wondered if I'll ever win again. Honestly, you win when everything comes together. We've been really fortunate this year. We've managed to go some rounds at very race, even though our performance hasn't been where we'd like it to be.

"Even this weekend we went into the last qualifying session 16th and moved ourselves up to eighth, but we could just as easily not qualified.

"The final round was difficult just because Bob Gilbertson had had those problems in the semis, and in a situation like that you almost would rather be racing John Force. I do better as the underdog, so here we are in the final knowing full well they had a major catastrophe over there. Anything can happen. It's drag racing. So to lose a race like that would have just crushed us. Personally I was hoping they wouldn't come up, I'll be honest with you, but we waited as long as we could and they came up. When he 'red-lit' I thought, OK, they have mechanical problems; he'll shut it off, and then he didn't and went on down there and had a problem again.

"The credit goes to our team, Matco Tools and Don (Schumacher, team owner) for putting everybody together. It's a huge effort, obviously. We're expected to win...a lot.

"There's an element of sportsmanship in our sport," he said of his DSR team members helping Gilbertson repair his race car to get it to the line in time. "We have it. It's a great thing to see. I'm glad we were helping them."

On being a new father, he said: "Man, fatherhood. It's the most incredible thing. Everyone has friends that have had children, obviously, and you hear all the time how great it is. I always kind of said, Oh, yeah, I'm sure it is, where's my race car? When it happens it's just the biggest, most joyous moment I think you can experience. I said at the other end on television that it's the greatest week of my life. And if we had not qualified yesterday it still would have been the greatest week of my life. It far exceeds anything else that you can do, just to hold that little bambino. He's the coolest little kid. It's awesome. Now he'll be proud of daddy some day when he goes, Funny Car? you won! Plus he was born on my birthday."

"That was a fantastic win," said crew chief Beard, who won his 51st career national-event title as a crew chief. "I always look at Gainesville as one of the races that has some real value to win. It's one of the major races on the NHRA tour. It has tremendous history behind it and to be able to win here is just outstanding.

"We were very disciplined today," he continued. "We know the Matco Tools Dodge can go quicker and faster and we wanted to turn it loose, but we felt that it would be easy to give this thing away and smoke the tires and that's what all the big guns did. We raced one of the Force's cars in the second round and they smoked the tires and we saw John Force smoke the tires and our guy Gary Scelzi - that's a great team - smoked the tires. We were a very well-disciplined team to not give it away. We weren't the quickest, we weren't the fastest, but we were consistent going down the race track all day and that's what won us the race.

"We didn't take Gilbertson lightly. We didn't want to push it. It was a tremendous effort on their team to get their car back together and get it running. You never know, they could've come up there and run good enough to beat us. The key word was discipline and not give it away and that's what won us the race."

Beard was also proud of his own family today. "I want to congratulate Zak Beard for winning the Mid-State Wrestling championship in the 100 lb. division and Nick Beard for finishing runner-up in the 85 lb. division," he said. "Just a great week in the Beard family. Zak is 14, Nick 12. They wrestle for Avon Middle School in Avon, Ind."

Next up is the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway, April 8-10.

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. Whit Bazemore, 237
2. John Force, 228
3. Tommy Johnson Jr., 178
4. Bob Gilbertson, 176
5. Phil Burkart Jr., 174
6. Eric Medlen, 165
7. Gary Scelzi, 162
8. Ron Capps, 157
9. Robert Hight, 150
10. Del Worsham, 142

TEAM PTI ENJOYS DOUBLE WINS, CONAWAY SCORES FIRST WIN IN SIX YEARS, BROTHER AND SISTER IN FINALS-Atlanta Dragway Results by Tim Glover

FROM: Tim Glover

PHOTOS

TEAM PTI ENJOYS DOUBLE WINS, CONAWAY SCORES FIRST WIN IN SIX YEARS, BROTHER AND SISTER IN FINALS

(Commerce, GA - March 19) Racers enjoyed competing in the Drag News All Star Tour event that made its first 2005 stop at Atlanta Dragway. Todd and Laurie Silvey of Drag News gave away many awards from different performance manufacturers to racers in all classes. Two racers from the same hometown; Russ Glover (Super Pro) and Chuck Conaway (Sportsman) from Cumming, GA, enjoyed wins in their class, and were thrilled to receive custom championship Edelbrock jackets from the Drag News team. Making Glover's win sweeter was that he had never driven the Team PTI dragster before today's race. Conaway was in the finals last week, and won this week with his trusty '66 Chevy II wagon. John Snapp's regular ride, a '68 Charger, is in the process of getting a stroker motor, so he chose to race his daily driver '03 Durango and won Trophy Street. The 13-17 Jr Dragster defending champion, 14 year old Team PTI racer Lauren Turner, enjoyed her first win of the 2005 season against James Marsh Jr. with a holeshot victory. 8-12 year old Jr Dragster winner Ashton Shubert used her .02 second starting line advantage to get the win in a double dead-on final. She then went on to win what was titled the McGee Racing Cams King of the Hill event, which pitted the Jr Dragster class winners in a one round race. Shubert received a custom designed Drag News champions watch for what turned out to be the Queen of the Hill event. A brother and sister made it to their respective class finals, Alton Clements III finishing runner up in Sportsman and Valerie Clements, who runner upped in 8-12 Jr Dragster.

Some of the awards given out by the Drag News team were:
Torco Low ET, 4.944 seconds: Dan Bytnar, dragster
Torco Low ET door car, 5.273 seconds: Bubba Rich, '02 Firebird
Hughes Performance Master: Dickey Forrester
Shogun Best Appearing Car: Thomas Bell
Shogun Best Engineered Car: Bill Boomhower
Shogun Best Appearing Jr Dragster: Thomas Davis-Cox
Best Reaction Time: Doug Smith (Green Weenie car)
Torco Racing Fuels bounty: Mike Holman
Edelbrock Class Champions: Russ Glover (Super Pro) and Chuck Conaway (Sportsman)
McGee Cams Jr Dragster: Ashton Shubert

Super Pro racer Russ Glover from Cumming, GA has not raced since June 2004 due to college and the subsequent lack of funds. Last week he received an offer from Team PTI to race his own car, and he gladly accepted. Since Glover's car was not ready, and the seat was open in Team PTI owner George Turner's car for the weekend, Glover jumped into their '95 Undercover dragster. Turner was already happy with Glover's performance after time trials, but was thrilled to watch him go on to the winner's circle his first time out in the car. Glover, whose last win was in 2002, met Lawrenceville, GA racer Keith Fuller in the finals, and took advantage of a better reaction time to take the win, lifting to a 5.05 at 134.20mph (5.03 dial in time). Fuller's '96 MW dragster was a little closer to the dial, running 5.47 at 124.68mph on a 5.46 target, but crossed the finish line .017 seconds behind Glover. Tommy Motes (dragster - Loganville, GA) and Henry Snelgrove, Jr. ('95 Spitzer dragster - Dahlonega, GA) finished in the semi-final round. "What a day," exclaimed car owner George Turner, who had just witnessed his daughter win Jr Dragster a few minutes before. Turner immediately thanked Glover's former car owner, Bill Gillen, for suggesting he take on Glover a couple of months ago. Glover added, "I sincerely want to thank God, my new PTI team, Tara Fine Jewelry, Fain & Mitchell Properties and Bill Gillen. That was sweet. A great team effort." He then added with a quiet smile, "I think I earned my keep."

The Sportsman final featured two ex-NHRA stock class race cars. Sportsman racer Chuck Conaway of Cumming, GA finished in his first final since 1999 last week, and enjoyed taking the win today with his ex-M/S '66 Chevy II wagon. Conaway met the former D/SA '71 Mustang, driven by 17 year old Alton Clements III, in the final. Conaway's .020 reaction time and a close 11.41, 114.35mph pass (11.40 dial) would most likely have won anyway, but Clement's too early leave of -.065 seconds lit up the dreaded cherry colored bulb, handing the win automatically to Conaway. After seeing the race was over, Clements chose to lift off the throttle and coasted to a 13.44, 72.58mph pass (10.73 target). Joel Carey ('72 Nova - Dewey Rose, GA) was the lone semi-finalist. Conaway said this was his first Sportsman win at Atlanta Dragway (he won Super Pro in 1999 with the same car). He received a scare when five cars were left in competition after his battery suddenly expired. Thanks to some quick action by friends Joe Haddon and Larry Barefoot (the previous two 2005 Super Pro winners), Conaway made the call for the next round with a few seconds to spare. He made sure to thank them after the race was done. "This feels good," he added. Clements enjoyed his best "big car" finish to date, and was also happy his sister made it to her final round in Jr Dragster.

Dodge Durangos seemed to be the vehicle of choice for Trophy Street racers. Conyers, GA racer John Snapp's regular ride, a '68 Charger, is currently getting a stroker motor installed, so he chose to use his daily driver, an '03 Durango. He met Terry Turpin's Maysville, GA based 2005 Mustang in the final, and used a large holeshot advantage to take the win with an on the brakes 16.62, 75.45mph pass (16.40 dial). Turpin, a former Friday night champion, was happy with his decision to move over to Saturday night's action. "Just luck. That's all it is. Luck," stated Snapp after the event. John Oliver ('99 Durango - Buford, GA) finished in the semi-final round.

Defending 13-17 Jr Dragster champion and Team PTI racer Lauren Turner enjoyed her first 2005 win. Turner met the faster car of James Marsh (15 - Anderson, NC) in the final, and took advantage of her reaction time lead to trim the car to an 8.00, 80.02mph win (7.94 dial). Marsh's car was closer to his target, running 7.91 at 80.02mph (7.90 dial), but second across the stripe by .018 seconds. "Wild Kyle" Denton (15 - McDonough, GA) was the semi-final finisher for the second week in a row. Denton, who won the first race of the season, has not finished worse than the semifinals in 2005. Turner thanked her sponsors, Fain & Mitchell Properties, Tara Fine Jewelry, her dad George and the entire Team PTI, Lennon Martin and Bill Gillen. "It was fun. We are now using Cody Martin's old engine, and we actually had to slow it down," she added.

Eleven year old Ashton Shubert of Commerce, GA enjoyed the first of two wins in today's event in the 8-12 Jr Dragster class. Shubert had a slight reaction time advantage and it paid off in the double dead-on race against Valerie Clements (11 - Central, SC). Shubert stopped the finish line timers first with a dead-on 8.963 at 73.26mph, followed .027 seconds later by Clements, who also ran dead-on with an 8.939 at 73.26mph. Team PTI racer Justin Fancher earned the semi-finalist trophy. Shubert thanked her mom and David Young, Nana, Cece and her dad. She also thanked Bill Gillen, who helped sort out problems with the car earlier in the day.

McGee Racing Cams sponsored a "King of the Hill" event pitting the two Jr Dragster class winners against each other. The winner received a custom designed Drag News Champions watch. Although Lauren Turner had the better reaction time, her car fell off pace to an 8.11 at 78.21mph (7.97 dial), allowing Ashton Shubert to take the win stripe. Shubert's car went a good 8.97, 73.42mph (8.95 dial) for the win and the watch in what was actually a "Queen of the Hill" race.


------------------------------------------------
PRO / SUPER PRO CAR HOMETOWN ET MPH DIAL-IN
Win: Russ Glover '95 Undercover dragster Cumming, GA 5.05 134.20 (5.03)
R/U: Keith Fuller '96 MW dragster Lawrenceville, GA 5.47 124.68 (5.46)
Semi: Tommy Motes dragster Loganville, GA
Semi: Henry Snelgrove, Jr. '95 Spitzer dragster Dahlonega, GA
------------------------------------------------
SPORTSMAN CAR HOMETOWN ET MPH DIAL-IN
Win: Chuck Conaway '66 Chevy II wagon Cumming, GA 11.41 114.35 (11.40)
R/U: Alton Clements III '71 Mustang Central, SC (foul) 13.44 72.58 (10.73)
Semi: Joel Carey '72 Nova Dewey Rose, GA
Semi:
------------------------------------------------
TROPHY STREET CAR HOMETOWN ET MPH DIAL-IN
Win: John Snapp '03 Durango Conyers, GA 16.62 75.45 (16.40)
R/U: Terry Turpin '05 Mustang Maysville, GA 13.52 100.28 (13.54)
Semi: John Oliver '99 Durango Buford, GA
Semi:
------------------------------------------------
JR. DRAGSTER 8-12 AGE HOMETOWN ET MPH DIAL-IN
Win: Ashton Shubert 11 Commerce, GA 8.96 73.57 (8.96)
R/U: Valerie Clements 11 Central, SC 8.93 73.26 (8.93)
Semi: Justin Fancher 11 Conyers, GA
Semi:
------------------------------------------------
JR. DRAGSTER 13-17 AGE HOMETOWN ET MPH DIAL-IN
Win: Lauren Turner 14 Pendergrass, GA 8.00 80.02 (7.94)
R/U: James Marsh Jr 15 Anderson, SC 7.91 80.02 (7.90)
Semi: "Wild Kyle" Denton 15 McDonough, GA
Semi:
------------------------------------------------
"QUEEN OF THE HILL" AGE HOMETOWN ET MPH DIAL-IN
Win: Ashton Shubert 11 Commerce, GA 8.97 73.42 (8.95)
R/U: Lauren Turner 14 Pendergrass, GA 8.11 78.21 (7.97)

G SQUARED MOTORSPORTS: After Gainesville, Focus is now on Houston

Courtesy Jerry Battle

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 20, 2005) – With the quickest field ever, Pro Stock Motorcycle began the 2005 season at the 36th annual NHRA Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Fla., this weekend.

In the opening round of eliminations, Chip Ellis, aboard the G Squared/S&S-powered Buell started the race from the No. 8 qualifying position when he paired off against No. 9 qualifier Steve Johnson.

The day was cut short for Ellis when he red-lighted against Steve Johnson. Johnson, who quickly moved into the lights, rushed Ellis causing him to lose concentration and leave the starting line too quickly. As a result, Ellis fouled out.

"I blew it," said a deflated Ellis. "I knew Steve would do that; he usually does, but it messed me up. I tried to be prepared, but I just rushed too much."

George Smith, co-owner of the G Squared Motorsports added, "This weekend was one of those weekends when stuff happens and now we just go back and prepare for the next race. I'm pleased with the progress we made at Gainesville Raceway. We have a good package and now we just need to put it together to get it down the track every round."

Added George Bryce, Smith’s partner, "We won't spend any time on what could have been, instead we'll look forward to what will be. Each one of us knows what we need to focus on and that's what we’re going to do. We'll get some practice in, take what we learned from experience out here and get ready to run a great race in Houston."

The next Pro Stock Motorcycle event for Ellis and the G Squared/S&S Buell is the NHRA 18th annual O'Reilly Spring Nationals which will be held at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas, just outside Houston. The event will unfold April 8-10th with qualifying beginning on Friday, April 8th.

G SQUARED MOTORSPORTS
OWNERS: GEORGE BRYCE & GEORGE SMITH
PRO-STOCK MOTORCYCLE: G SQUARED S&S BUELL
RIDER: CHIP ELLIS
MEDIA CONTACT: Mickey Schultz

Kalitta, Bazemore, Line and Johnson Win Pro Titles at the NHRA POWERade MAC Tools Gatornationals; LoCicero Wins S/S

Doug Kalitta wins Top Fuel, Whit Bazemore picks up his first Gatornationals Funny Car title (and the Funny Car points lead), Jason Line wins Pro Stock and Steve Johnson wins his second (and by far his best) Pro Stock Bike national event title. Johnson also picks up the points lead in Pro Stock Bike.

Mark Billington had a great weekend, running career best numbers in his Top Alcohol Funny Car and recording a runner-up finish to Bob Newberry.

Congratulations to Joe LoCicero for his win in the Super Stock final over Dan Fletcher!

NHRA Recap

Kurt Johnson Qualifies Fifth for the Gatornationals

Contact: Jon Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

After posting a career-best 6.671-second elapsed time during the first day of qualifying for the 36th annual Mac Tools Gatornationals, Kurt Johnson knew his position in Sunday's starting field was assured when Saturday dawned with clear blue skies and warmer temperatures. Therefore, he used his final two attempts to work on his ACDelco Cavalier and develop a combination that would deliver consistent performance on race day.

Therefore, even though his 6.717 and 6.720-second passes did not better his performance from Friday, Johnson felt the information gathered could prove useful as he starts from the fifth position in Sunday’s final eliminations at Gainesville Raceway.

"We were confident that our '.67 from Friday would keep us in the show, so we tried a new clutch combination this morning that might not have been too bad if we had made a straight run. Unfortunately, it was all over the race track and tried to eat the guard rail.

"Even so, we learned something so we left it alone for the last session, but it burned itself up again, so we're battling some inconsistencies with this particular set-up, so we’ll switch back to a more reliable combination that we know will get us down the race track.

"We would like to have stepped up, but we did gain some valuable information that will help us produce the consistency we need to win races. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow, which could play in our favor. This ACDelco Cavalier has always liked the hot race tracks, so we're not worried about our chances for tomorrow."

WJ Picks Up the Pace, Starts Ninth at the Gatornationals

Contact: Jon Knapp
TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

By the time Warren Johnson rolled to the line for his third qualifying attempt at the Mac Tools Gatornationals, he knew he would need to post the quickest elapsed time of his career in order to earn a spot in Sunday's final eliminations. Just as he has throughout his illustrious career, Johnson responded to the challenge, powering his GM Performance Parts Grand Am through the quarter-mile in 6.683-seconds at 206.42 mph, bettering his personal marks in both elapsed time and top speed.

Having guaranteed his position for race day, Johnson came back in the final session with a consistent 6.693-second, 206.32 mph pass, with his earlier run slotting him in the ninth starting position.

"We haven’t run this particular GM Performance Parts Grand Am under enough varying conditions to assemble a solid database, so we came here with a set-up that was not really suited for the conditions we've encountered so far this weekend. After all, we have only made a total of eighteen runs with it. We obviously will have to do some testing, but so far we've been concentrating on stockpiling engine pieces for the long haul, which has precluded any test runs.

"Although our runs today were effective in terms of getting us in the field, they certainly could have been quicker. We were hesitant to feed it as much clutch as it required. In fact, we thought we did, but obviously we were making a lot more power with this DRCE III under these conditions.

"The conditions tomorrow should be fairly similar to what we had in Phoenix, although we’ll be at a considerably lower altitude, so we'll have more power. However, the track will also be warmer, so as long as we compensate for the horsepower difference, we should be able to get a little closer to where we want to run."

BAZEMORE PICKS UP NO. 8 SPOT IN GAINESVILLE QUALIFYING

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
Contact: Judy Stropus


GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2005) - Whit Bazemore and crew chief Lee Beard had some hurdles to leap before they were able to capture the No. 8 spot in qualifying for the Gatornationals this weekend.

The cold weather (40-some degrees) and overcast skies on Friday were issues, as well as performance inconsistencies with the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car. Friday's numbers included a 12.138/68.85, followed by a 5.232/214.54. Today's session under sunlight and warmer conditions produced only a 5.155/268.65.

Going into the final qualifying round, Bazemore was on the bump, in No. 16. He managed to pull out a respectable 4.862/313.26 pass in that session, which moved him into No. 8.

"It's been a hard weekend for us," said the two-time U.S. Nationals champion who has never won in Gainesville. "The Matco Tools Dodge struggled the first three runs and we were on the bump going into the last run. So the pressure was on. The guys did a great job. We just had to go from A to B. In reality, our last run was more like what our first run should have been.

"We're still in the top half. We have lane choice. We're just struggling. The car had trouble adapting to the conditions here and is not reacting to Lee's input consistently yet. Were working on it. We're testing a lot. We're going to test here on Monday. We'll get it figured out where we're more consistent and more competitive."

Bazemore will face Cruz Pedregon in first round of eliminations on Sunday.

Ellis in Top Half of Field for First Race of the Season

Courtesy Jerry Battle

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
G SQUARED MOTORSPORTS
OWNERS: GEORGE BRYCE & GEORGE SMITH
NHRA POWERADE DRAG RACING SERIES
PRO-STOCK MOTORCYCLE: G SQUARED S&S BUELL
RIDER: CHIP ELLIS
MEDIA CONTACT: Mickey Schultz

36TH ANNUAL NHRA MAC TOOLS GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE RACEWAY
GAINESVILLE, FLA.
MARCH 17-20, 2005

Qualifying:
Session 1 Friday: 7.082 seconds at 183.86 mph (# 4)
Session 2 Friday: 7.056 seconds at 185.52 mph (# 7)
Session 1 Saturday: 7.886 seconds at 144.39 mph (# 7)
Session 2 Saturday: 7.086 seconds at 187.77 mph (# 8)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 19, 2005) Qualifying for the 36th annual NHRA Mac Tools Gatornationals, the opening event on the Pro Stock Motorcycle 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series schedule, is complete. Chip Ellis, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider on the G Squared/S&S Buell, finished qualifying in the 8th position with a run at 7.056 seconds at 182.52 mph in the quickest field ever of Pro Stock Motorcycle racing.

In the second qualifying session, Ellis made his qualifying pass and became the first rider to break into the low seven-second range at the event. The Americus, Ga., rider and team struggled in the first qualifying round on Saturday when a transmission broke, but was pleased with the information the team was gaining for eliminations on Sunday.

"Our crew has worked hard to get a new transmission in before the final round of qualifying," said Ellis after qualifying round No. 3. "We’ve got one more chance to improve our qualifying position and a great opportunity to gather more information before eliminations get started tomorrow."

George Smith, co-owner of the G Squared Motorsports S&S Buell, added, "At the AHDRA event here a few weekends ago, we couldn’t do a thing wrong. This weekend, it’s a slightly different story. The air is extremely good and we still need time and experience on these motors to figure out the tune-up and uncover any other bugs that may be lurking. Another round will help us to try and set it straight and improve our position."

"I’m pleased with the performance of our running mates Ryan Schnitz and Chris Rivas. The Mohegan Sun Bike is a real good unit and we’re confident we’ll get the thing running straight. We’ll be back at Houston with them and ready to rock and roll."

The changes made prior to the final qualifying session eliminated the bugs that had preyed upon the team previously when Ellis rebounded with a pass of 7.086 seconds at 187.77 mph.

Smith added, "We now have data we can use tomorrow and we know our motorcycle is capable of running quicker times. We are putting in our most reliable engine for tomorrow and are ready for competition."

Ellis will face Steve Johnson in the first round of competition on Sunday. Johnson qualified in the 9th position with a pass of 7.077 seconds at 188.20 mph. He begins his quest for the Pro Stock Motorcycle title tomorrow, at 11 a.m.

The entire G Squared/S&S Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle team welcome new associate sponsor, VTwinplus.com. Visit their website at http://www.vtwinplus.com/.