Scelzi No. 5 in Sonoma's Friday qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 15 of 23
FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS
INFINEON RACEWAY
SONOMA, Calif.
Race Dates: July 30-Aug. 1, 2004

SONOMA, Calif. (July 30, 2004) - Cooler temperatures in today's second
qualifying session for the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals resulted in a number
of strong laps, including Gary Scelzi's 4.904/308.28, which, with only two
pairs of cars left to qualify, was good for No. 1 at the time.
Unfortunately, as the sun sank lower in the sky, conditions improved and the
final four cars out-qualified the driver of the HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge
Stratus Funny Car, dropping him to No. 5 for the day.

"The track got cooler," Fresno native Scelzi said. "We tried to step it up;
we tried to run a low 4.90, a high .80, and that's exactly what it ran. But
it broke the blower studs probably at about 1000 feet. It might have run an
.86, or 87. It wouldn't have been low, but it would have been a little
better than it was.

"But that's OK, because when you have a problem like that it's easier to
fix. When you have a tire smoke or tire shake problem that's when it's
harder to fix, because you don't know where to be with it - how aggressive
or how not aggressive.

"We're in good shape. We made it down the track on both runs (5.423/193.57
in the first round), really. So we're fine."

Two more qualifying rounds are scheduled for Saturday.