Scelzi Hangs On To No. 1 in Seattle For First FC Pole

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
CARQUEST AUTO PARTS NHRA NATIONALS
Round 14 of 23
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
Race Date: July 25-27, 2003

KENT, Wash. (July 26, 2003) - For the first time in his short Funny Car
career (including  a limited season of seven events in 2002 and 14 events of
a full-time effort this year), Gary Scelzi grabbed the No. 1 qualifying spot
for an NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car event. The clean and mean
pass he posted in his Oakley Time Bomb Dodge Stratus in last evening's
qualifying session of 4.964 seconds at a speed of 299.33 mph made him low
qualifier here for the fourth time in his NHRA pro drag-racing career. The
three-time NHRA Top Fuel Dragster champion was No. 1 qualifier here in 1997,
2000 and 2001, winning in '00 and '01 and taking runner-up position in '97.

In today's two sessions, the Oakley Time Bomb Dodge went up in smoke
(11.050/85.64 and 8.903/91.46) as the team took advantage of their position
to try different parts and setups.

"This place has been good to me," said Scelzi, of Fresno, Calif. "I'm just
hoping that we have a little bit of luck. That's something that's avoided us
all year long. And you've got to have a break. You look at any win that
anybody's had and normally there's a round there that you probably shouldn't
have got by and we've never had that yet. So we're hoping that tomorrow,
unlike today, that we go down the race track four times.

"We kind of put ourselves in a position to be able to play with some stuff,
but actually that last round was not a position that we were playing. We
were trying to be a little bit on the hot side, but it didn't like it. We
should be able to put it back to the way we ran .96 tomorrow and we'll go
out and see what happens. That's all you can do. You can't stay up at night
(worrying) - you're going to get sick to your stomach anyway the first
round. I am always. Being No. 1 isn't going to be anything other than we've
got lane choice in the first round. Other than that, it's anybody's
ballgame."

Lane choice at this notoriously bumpy track is very important, said Scelzi.
"The right lane is going to be a big factor. I feel it's the best of the
two. Even though we went .96 in the left. If we lose lane choice, we know we
can run the left lane. We've got to get [the race] in by this time (5 p.m.)
because if we don't that sun's going to be a big factor and if you're in the
left-hand lane it's going to be a major disadvantage because I couldn't see
the yellow lights last night. I just waited 'til they all lit. That's a
problem. We should be done before that. Hopefully I'll be around to let the
other guy have the problem."

Scelzi faces No. 16 qualifier Tim Wilkerson in the first round. The pair
will play reverse roles tomorrow, as Wilkerson was No. 1 qualifier last week
at Bandimere Speedway and Scelzi was No. 16. Scelzi lost to Wilkerson in
that round.