"At least one cyclist – Olympic and World Sprint champion Marty Nothstein is planning on a motor sports career after retiring from bicycle racing. He’s going drag racing – Funny Car. It makes sense. His job as a sprinter is to get to the finish line before the other guy. He just won’t have to propel the vehicle himself any more."  - SpeedTV.com commentary

Perhaps Olympic Gold Medalist Marty Nothstein's transition from competitive cycling to NHRA's Top Alcohol Funny Car class best illustrates the synergy Whit Bazemore finds between the racecar and the bicycle.  Nothstein, a three-time world champion and arguably one of the best American track cyclists ever, first came to a drag race in 2001 as a guest of Oakley.  Whit met Nothstein and encouraged him to sit in his Matco Tools funny car.

Fast forward to 2004:  Nothstein went to Frank Hawley's drag racing school in Reading, PA, and was smitten.  Soon afterward he qualified for his NHRA license in an alcohol funny car.  He now drives the Auto Trader-Dent Wizard Funny Car owned and tuned by Bucky Austin.

There is a single-mindedness, a focus, that Whit finds on both the bicycle and in the racecar.  What started as way to overcome injuries he sustained after a severe motorcycle accident on the Blue Ridge Parkway in 1987 has evolved into a complete lifestyle overhaul.  Before the accident, he considered himself a reasonably fit person who could run three miles or do thirty minutes on a treadmill a few days a week.  The more he rode, however, the more he realized he was underestimating what being truly fit meant.

The first time he rode a mountain bike with Mike Dunn (Top Fuel Driver and ESPN Announcer), he was embarrassed by his inability to keep up.  Anyone who knows Whit understands what this kind of experience does to motivate him.  He trained at Town Run Trail Park in Indianapolis--a technical eight-mile course--using it as a time trial course to constantly push himself to go faster and cover it quicker.

In 2000 Whit bought his first road bike, a custom-made titanium Seven.  Whit made the transition from the trail by riding the Central Indiana Bicycling Association's organized road rides.  Whit and Michelle met on one of their group rides that summer.  Now he is a "roadie," although he still loves to mountain bike occasionally.   

While cycling takes a lot of time and energy, Whit firmly believes it makes him a better driver physically and mentally.  Racing fans are accustomed to seeing Whit roll out of the race track on his bike--usually with Dunn, Nothstein, John Torok from Matco Tools, and sometimes local cyclists--to enjoy some time with friends and get his head ready for competition on the strip.

Click here for a gallery of Whit and Michelle bicycling-related pics.