SCELZI DEMOLISHES NATIONAL FUNNY CAR SPEED RECORD WITH 328.06 MPH PASS

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 10 of 23
LUCAS OIL NHRA ROUTE 66 NATIONALS
ROUTE 66 RACEWAY
JOLIET, ILL.
Race Date: May 30-June 1

JOLIET, Ill. (June 1, 2003) - Gary Scelzi demolished the national Funny Car
speed record today in his Oakley Time Bomb Dodge Stratus R/T, even
surpassing the fastest speed he established yesterday of 327.95, with a
328.06-mph lap in today's first round of final eliminations against Tim
Wilkerson in the Lucas Oil NHRA Route 66 Nationals.

Scelzi first set the fastest speed for the class in Englishtown with a
326.95 -mph run. He then eclipsed that speed here at Route 66 Raceway
yesterday with a 327.95, and today he finally made it into the record books
by backing up the 327.95 for a national record with an even faster 328.06
mph run.

"It's pretty incredible," he said. "It was a handful. I was so busy in that
car that I thought I was all over the place and out of the groove. And,
actually, looking at the videos, I did a pretty good job of keeping it in
the middle of the race track. It was a lot busier in the car than it looked
outside the car, so that made me feel good. That speed is pretty much going
to be out of touch for a while, I think. Maybe at the end of the year when
we get back to the cooler race tracks. The fastest speed ever by a Funny Car
before that with (Gary) Densham was a 326. We knocked that in the dirt by
two miles an hour. That's pretty huge. You don't see that very often."

"Nobody's even been close to that," he added. "That's outstanding. Thank you
Dodge and all of your people and engineers. Your hard work has paid big
dividends for Team Oakley, Team Matco and Team Schumacher."

Of course, the one question that comes to mind is: How come it's your car
that's the fastest? "Speed is horsepower," Scelzi replied, "and Mike (Neff,
crew chief) runs these motors aggressively. 'Baze' (Whit Bazemore, Scelzi's
teammate) ran 326, but our car's a little bit softer early, so the tires
stuck harder and it still had all its eight cylinders at the finish line.
And when it does, stand back, Jack, because it gets with the program."

After Ron Capps oiled down the more favorable left lane in the second round,
teams began to switch to the bumpy right lane. It worked for Scelzi's
teammate Whit Bazemore, who advanced to the semifinal round out of the right
lane. But it didn't work for Scelzi, as he was eliminated by Gary Densham,
with both cars smoking the tires and the drivers having a pedaling contest
towards the finish line. Densham took the win light with a 5.495/235.68 to
Scelzi's 5.640/214.25.

"God, I really thought today was the day," said the three-time Top Fuel
champion still seeking his first Funny Car win. "Then we had the huge
oildown by Capps. And the lanes were just junk, pure and simple. It got hot,
it got oily, and we tried to slow the car down. I'm probably more upset at
myself that I didn't have the patience to let the car settle enough to get
it down the race track. In the dragster I was pretty much a master at doing
that stuff. I tried to stay calm sitting in the car for almost an hour. That
was ridiculous. And I got myself pumped up and I was just over-amping and I
did a pretty crummy job of pedaling, in my mind. I haven't been in a
pedaling contest very often in a Funny Car.

"Not a good day for me. Good day for the team, good day for Dodge. We went
out second round in all three races (Midwest sweep). It's not bad; it
could've been a lot worse. We'll take it and we'll go to Columbus and see
how we do in the warmer weather."

Scelzi remains ninth in the POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point
standings, with 428 points.