Scelzi's sizzle fizzles in second round at Brainerd

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
NO. 16 OF 23
BRAINERD (MINN.) INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
LUCAS OIL NHRA NATIONALS
RACE DATE: AUG. 15-17

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

SCELZI'S SIZZLE FIZZLES IN SECOND ROUND AT BRAINERD

BRAINERD, Minn. (Aug. 17, 2003) - No. 1 qualifier and event top-speed holder
(311.90 mph) Gary Scelzi was expected to win the first round of Funny Car
eliminations at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International
Raceway today, and he did. But it was a lucky break that got him first to
the finish line, as both he and Phil Burkart Jr. smoked their tires and shut
their cars off at about 1000 feet and Scelzi was able to coast his Oakley
Time Bomb Dodge Stratus first across the stripe with a 5.693/178.33 pass to
Burkart's 5.806/169.70.

Scelzi then faced Funny Car points leader Tony Pedregon in the second round
without lane choice and had the opportunity to not only advance himself to
the semifinals en route to a potential second win in two races, but also to
help his teammate Whit Bazemore in the Funny Car championship by eliminating
Pedregon.

It was not to be as Scelzi's 5.074/300.53 lap was no match for Pedregon's
winning 4.959/301.87 in the steamy 90-degree Minnesota heat.

"We weren't going to run a .95," Scelzi responded to the loss. "We didn't
have the car set up to run  a .95 in either lane.

"We've got a lot of tools on this car," Scelzi added. "Some of them are to
help reaction times, some of them are to do different things. We've been
trying to keep the car calm and obviously it worked. We were No. 1
qualifier. But my reaction times suffered. So we changed the car around
first round to help my reaction times and the motor got a little ahead of
itself and smoked the tires. We got very lucky first round. A lot of times
when you win a national event you have a lucky round somewhere along the
line that maybe you shouldn't have won, and that one would've been it.

"Then we came back and calmed things down and raced Tony Pedregon and we
just got pummeled. They ran a 4.95 in the heat of the day. That's pretty
darned impressive. Unfortunately, I watched the whole thing from where I was
sitting."

Next up is an NHRA-sponsored testing session on Tuesday and Wednesday at
Indianapolis Raceway Park before the U.S. Nationals at that facility on
Labor Day weekend, which gives the Oakley Time Bomb team another chance to
work on its weaker areas. "We're gong to go to Indy, we're going to test and
we're going to go back and put the Alan Johnson clutch in that we tried in
Chicago last week, which makes our car snap and run a little better," said
the three-time Top Fuel champion in his first full season of Funny Car
competition. "It's just a little aggressive on hot, slippery race tracks.
That's why we didn't run it here. So, we'll go to Indy and hopefully it will
be hot and slippery so we can start getting two days' worth of runs on it.
And if it shows promise we will run it at the U.S. Nationals.

"If we don't, we'll get through Indy with what we've got. Obviously it
works. And well go to Reading (Pa., Sept. 12-14) with Alan's clutch in the
car. That's pretty much where we're at right now.

Scelzi holds on to eighth place in the POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car
point standings, with 776 points.

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