Scelzi goes to final round in Atlanta, loses to Bazemore

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
ROUND 7 OF 23
SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NHRA SOUTHERN NATIONALS
ATLANTA DRAGWAY
COMMERCE, GA.
RACE DATES:  May 14-16, 2004

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 16, 2004) - Gary Scelzi marched his HEMI-powered Oakley
Dodge Stratus handily through the
Funny Car field today at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals
to reach the final round for the first time this season and the third time
in his Funny Car career. The final round was a dream for team owner Don
Schumacher, as teammates Scelzi and Whit Bazemore came head-to-head in their
first meeting.

The tensions were high among the team members, as Scelzi launched a tick
ahead of Bazemore, with a .073 reaction time to Bazemore's .075.
Unfortunately for Scelzi, however, he lost traction immediately at the hit
of the throttle and Bazemore cruised to the victory with a 5.025/299.80 to
Scelzi's 10.847/90.59.

Scelzi moves into fifth in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car
point standings, however, and is now just 97 points behind points leader Del
Worsham.

"It smoked the tires at the hit," said a disappointed Scelzi. "You don't
even have a chance. You just beat yourself. It's unfortunate. I don't know
what happened.

"It was still a great day. When you get to the final round, it's a good
thing, even if you get beat. But I'd just like to run side by side with
somebody if that's what's going to happen, but that's not what happened.
It's unfortunate. It wasn't a planned deal, obviously. Something either
malfunctioned or we missed on the tune-up. It was just one of those things."

Crew chief Mike Neff was stoic. "It looks like the clutch was really
aggressive. It got hot. We were up there running for a lot longer than we
normally do. And for whatever reason it was just really aggressive when he
stepped on the gas and it smoked the tires. We tried backing it down from
the prior runs today just to be safe, to make sure we got off the starting
line, because I didn't feel the left lane was quite as good as the right
lane. But for whatever reason we just had a hiccup in the clutch and it was
just too aggressive and came loose.

"It's a good day for us and we're really encouraged with the progress that
we've been making here lately. We've made an awful lot of changes to this
thing and now we've picked a combination that we're going to stick with and
try to make work. We don't have that many runs with it but we're learning
every time it goes down the track and we're getting down the track a lot
more than we have and we're starting to get more confidence in what we're
doing here and in our car and I think it'll just keep getting better. Any
time you can go to the final round it's like finishing second, so we have
nothing to hang our heads about."

POINT STANDINGS

1. Del Worsham, 513
2. Whit Bazemore, 462
3. John Force, 450
4. Tim Wilkerson, 427
5. Gary Scelzi, 416