Scelzi sets top speed of meet, qualifies No. 8 in E'Town

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
K&N Filters NHRA SuperNationals - Round 8 of 23
Old Bridge Township Raceway Park - Englishtown, N.J.
Saturday, May 17, 2003

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501, cell 203-243-2438

SCELZI SETS TOP SPEED OF MEET, QUALIFIES NO. 8

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (MAY 17, 2003) -- Sporting the Matco Tools Iron Eagle body
on his Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car, Gary Scelzi qualified No. 8 for
tomorrow's K&N Filters NRHA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway
Park. Scelzi established the fastest speed of the event, 322.65 mph, in
today's first pass, with an elapsed time of 4.851 seconds.

In the final session he was on a solid run, but got out of the groove and
slowed to a 5.450/186.20.

Only two full qualifying sessions were held this weekend, both today, as
yesterday's qualifying was rained out after the first pair of Funny Cars
made it down the track in dry conditions.

Scelzi will face his teammate Scotty Cannon in the first round tomorrow,
their first meeting since Scelzi joined the Oakley team for the 2003 season.

"Everything is back to normal, from the supercharger to the clutch, to
everything else," said Scelzi, commenting on what the team learned after
Bazemore tested Scelzi's car at Indianapolis Raceway Park last Sunday. "We
were just a little bit too aggressive on that (final) run. It was running
better than our 4.79 run at Pomona. I just got the car out of the groove and
you just can't do that when you're going to run that fast. Everything has
got to be perfect. I was fighting it to get it back in the groove and I just
fought it too long and it ended up smoking the tires.

"Tomorrow we're probably going to go back to the Oakley Dodge body. It's
lighter and we have to take 30 pounds off this car to get it light and get
it back in race mode. We'll slow the car down just a taste; maybe make it
run high 4.70s, low 4.80s. We'll try to run that all day long and see what
happens.

"The first run was a good run; it did what it was supposed to do. It was
doing what it was supposed to do in that last run. It got way out there
before it smoked the tires."

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