Gary Scelzi Phoenix Advance-NHRA

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series

February 17, 2003

GARY SCELZI, OAKLEY TIME BOMB DODGE STRATUS R/T FUNNY CAR
Point standings: 10th

NEXT RACE:
Checker-Schuck's Kragen Nationals
Firebird Raceway, Phoenix, Arizona -- Feb. 20-23, 2003
Round 2 of 23

LAST RACE:
K&N Filters Winternationals
Pomona (Calif.) Raceway
Round 1 of 23
Qualified: fifth (4.790/322.58)
Eliminations: eliminated in first round on holeshot against Ron Capps:
4.998/316.97 to 5.020/287.47




ONE DOWN, 23 TO GO, FOR ONE HAPPY SCELZI



Gary Scelzi is one happy man. Yes, he lost on a holeshot in his first race
for Don Schumacher Racing. But he's smiling. His crew is smiling. Crew chief
Mike Neff has a grin on his face, and even the Schumacher Racing brain trust
of Neff, Dan Olson, Lee Beard, Wes Cerny and Phil Shuler are giving each
other high fives.

Why? Because they all know they're moving in the right direction with
Scelzi's Oakley Time Bomb Dodge Stratus Funny Car, as they head to Firebird
Raceway in Phoenix this weekend for the second round of the 2003 NHRA
POWERade Drag Racing Series.

"We're 10th in points, which is great," says Scelzi, three-time Top Fuel
champion and in his first full season in Funny Car. "It's hard to be 10th in
points. What saved us was our qualifying effort at Pomona and we just had a
miscue first round. I got beat on a holeshot. But it wasn't like I was
eating a sandwich on the starting line. My 60-foot time was my best, at
.900, and I was already three hundredths ahead at that point. But it smoked
the tires and I pedaled it. I hadn't had to pedal it yet, so it was a good
learning experience for me."

As the relatively new kid on the Funny Car block, Scelzi learned more than
that at Pomona. "I learned that I think I can go down any race track," he
says. "I made four solid runs in a row. And knowing what I did wrong on the
one run where it got out of the groove, I think that I can drive this Dodge
pretty much anywhere we go. I think I'm comfortable enough to win a drag
race right now. I don't have the laps I had in the Top Fuel dragster, but I
feel that I'm good enough to win."

So does Neff, one fifth of the Schumacher Racing technical brain trust: "We
couldn't be happier right now; going down the track four times in qualifying
in Pomona, improving each time; that's exactly what our goal was. Gary is
doing a great job, my crew is doing an outstanding job. I couldn't be any
happier than I am right now with the way things are going so far."

The CSK Nationals at Firebird Raceway are next on the agenda, the dragstrip
where January test sessions were productive. "Firebird is where we did all
our testing, so we should have a lot of data from all the research that we
did there," Scelzi comments. "I think that Phoenix is going to be one of the
more difficult race tracks for a driver to keep the car in the groove. But I
seemed to do OK there during testing. Mike's tune-up is a little bit
forgiving. And that's what we need to have. If we can go to Phoenix and
qualify well early and have a little bit of racing luck on Sunday, we could
bring Oakley their first win.

"Hopefully the red Oakley body (which was damaged in Pomona) will be back on
Wednesday and we'll be running the red body," Scelzi adds, "and we should
have our spare Dodge Stratus ready for Phoenix, which may not be painted."

Firebird Raceway is one of Scelzi's favorite spots. "It was in 1997," he
remembers. "It was only the second pro race I'd been in and I won it. I won
my first two pro starts in Top Fuel. I won in Pomona, then came right back
to Phoenix and won there. It was pretty exciting because we didn't qualify
very well and I think people thought the Pomona win was a fluke. Then during
eliminations we found our problem and came on really strong against Kenny
Bernstein in the final. I believe we ran a 4.63 to his 4.64. It was pretty
memorable and pretty exciting."

In 2002, Scelzi ran a limited Funny Car season for his former crew chief
Alan Johnson, qualifying seventh and losing in the first round at Firebird.

Pro qualifying at Firebird Raceway begins on Friday, Feb. 21, with sessions
at 1 and 4 p.m.; 1 and 4 p.m. again on Saturday, Feb. 22; with eliminations
beginning at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23.