Sears Point Etchells Racing post-race wrap-up

Defending FRAM Autolite Nationals champion Whit Bazemore's drive to repeat disappeared in a cloud of smoke in the second round of final eliminations at Sears Point Raceway. After claiming his third consecutive No.1 qualifying position on Saturday, Bazemore was paired with Dale Creasy Jr. in the first round. Although the Kendall Oil/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 seemed to have the performance advantage, the race was much closer than many expected, as both drivers had to pedal their machines to maintain traction. Bazemore did reach the finish line first, but his 6.095-second elapsed time was not enough to maintain lane choice for his second round encounter with Dean Skuza. This proved to be a deciding factor, as Bazemore lost traction almost immediately after launching, and despite repeated efforts to regain control, he was unable to chase down his opponent.

"After the last two days, I honestly believe we were fortunate to qualify and win a round. I know that sounds unusual from someone who qualified No.1, but realistically we struggled all weekend and only made the one run on Friday night. Our passes today were mirror images of our last two qualifying attempts. As I've said before, Terry (crew chief Manzer) makes a lot of power, and this weekend we simply ran out of runs trying to harness it. We've obviously got a bug somewhere in the tune-up that we've got to take care of. I know Terry made a lot of drastic changes for the second round today, and it seemed like the car didn't even see them. Obviously this Kendall/Matco Camaro team has its work cut out for them before the next race in Brainerd."