MEMPHIS, Tenn. 7 While David Baca was the provisional No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel at the NHRA O/Reilly Mid-South Nationals, it was Tony Schumacher that drew the most attention.

Schumacher, driving the Alan Johnson-tuned US Army dragster, crashed violently during the second round of qualifying at the Memphis Motorsports Park on Friday night, but the 1999 series champ walked away from the crash virtually unscathed.

"First of all, thank God Tony is okay," Baca said. "We/re all against each other when we/re racing but we/re all the same family and we don/t want to ever see stuff like that happen. I/m so thankful he/s okay. I actually was down there expecting him to go around us."

Baca took away Schumacher/s early No. 1 spot with a pass of 4.533 seconds at 319.75 mph, trumping the 4.551 at 321.65 mph set by Schumacher in the first round, which is still good for third.

Team Schumacher stablemate Whit Bazemore was the one to watch in Funny Car, with Bazemore earning No. 1 away from John Force with a 4.826. Force also ran a 4.826, but Bazemore gets the podium spot due to his superior top speed of 316.67 mph against Force/s 313.37 mph top speed.

"We went into that session not qualified so we had to play it conservatively," Bazemore said. "We saw our teammate, Gary Scelzi, run well right in front of us so that really reinforced what we had done with the tune-up."

Jeg Coughlin was a surprise No. 1 in Pro Stock, not for his being on top but for the gap between his 6.743 and Jim Yates/ No. 2 time of 6.780.

Pro Stock Bike leader Geno Scali edged Angelle Savoie for the early No. 1 spot: His 7.119 at 187.13 mph was exactly one-thousandth of a second quicker than Savoie's pass of 7.120.

Sept. 20, 2003