Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories
following the 19th annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals presented by Pennzoil at
Memphis Motorsports Park, the 17th of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series -

John Force is a bit tired and weary from
filming a television show on A&E as well as an unpublicized battle with
animal activists for dropping the family’s cat two-feet to the ground on the
television show.

“I was on a plane and I was dead tired, and the guy next to me
said he watched my show on A&E,” Force said. “The guy reminded me about
dropping the cat and I cut him off. I said you can drop a cat 40 feet and it
will land on its feet. I only dropped it two feet and got a ton of letters from
the animal activists. A&E was event looking at pulling the scene from the
re-runs.”

Force should have stopped when he was ahead.

Whit Bazemore was involved in a
nasty fire following his second round loss to John Force. Bazemore took a tumble
at the top end when he exited the car through the hatch. The car was still
rolling at 30 miles per hour.

According to an NHRA official, Bazemore was transported to the
hospital to be checked for potential injuries associated with the fall.

At 7:30 PM, the announcement
went out over the PA system, “Please take shelter, we have bad weather coming
through the area and it’s severe.” That announcement was made within five
minutes that our lead photo was taken.

Ten minutes later the announcer came back on and proclaimed in a
somewhat puzzled voice, as lightning strikes lit up the dark sky, “I have been
told that we are just fifteen minutes away from running. Can I have the two
remaining Pro Stock bikes and Top Fuel to the staging lanes.

In the interest of fair reporting, one bike showed up, along with
a Top Fuel crew chief, who was scratching his head.

Whit Bazemore confirmed that Jack
Beckman will make test runs behind the wheel of his Funny Car during next week’s
Indianapolis test session.

Rumors had surfaced indicating that Bazemore might be at the end
of his deal with Don Schumacher Racing, but the veteran driver is confident of
his status and isn’t intimidated by the situation.

“I really don’t care one way or the other about Jack driving the
car,” Bazemore said. “It doesn’t mean anything to me. The relationship that I
have with Matco Tools is very strong. The relationship I have with Don and Sarah
Schumacher is strong. Don has told me repeatedly that I am the second best Funny
Car driver out there, which a tremendous compliment. Given that and my
relationship with the sponsor, I’d have to say Jack Beckman isn’t driving this
car to replace me.”

Bazemore did say there is room to expect the unexpected.

Defending Memphis champion Rod
Fuller held the No. 1 position in Top Fuel through Saturday's heat to claim the
second low qualifier award of his career with a 4.575 at 318.54 mph.

Tony Rizzo emerged uninjured from
an incident that was potentially fatal.

Rizzo broke a fuel line as he fired his Chevrolet Cobalt
and the subsequent leak ignited when he started the car. His Pro Stocker became
engulfed in flames.

“I hit the fire bottles and it went out,” Rizzo said. “it must
have hit the headers and flamed out again.”

Rizzo admitted that the incident happened too quickly for him to
get scared.

“Someone on the Safety Safari was trying to get me out of
the car, but I couldn’t get my belts unbuckled.”

The damage is mostly cosmetic and will be at Jerry Haas’ shop on
Monday for repairs.

Adding insult to injury, Rizzo failed to qualify for the 16-car
field.

FIRE
SEQUENCE

Connie Kalitta confirmed that his
team is working toward a new Toyota body for the Indy test session next week.
Most likely the body make for this project will be a Solara.

Three-time and reigning Pro Stock
champion Greg Anderson posted the quickest pass in Memphis Motorsports Park
history -- a 6.742 at 203.83 mph -- to lead Friday's qualifying action at the
$1.6 million O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals

Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Smith also set a MMP elapsed time
record with his 7.086 at 185 mph, while Rod Fuller and Robert Hight took early
leads in the nitro ranks at the 17th of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA
POWERade Series.

The winner of the Sportswoman
of the Year award will be determined via an online poll and sports fans can vote
for Troxel or one of the other nine finalists at www.sportswomanvote.com.

Voting ends midnight Aug. 31, 2006.