Scelzi demolishes his own speed record with 329-mph run

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 20 of 23
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
Race Dates: Sept. 26-28, 2003


JOLIET, Ill. (Sept. 28, 2003) - Gary Scelzi's Oakley Time Bomb Dodge Stratus
Funny Car continues to soar into the record books. Scelzi demolished his
previous national top-speed record of 328.06 mph, set here in the spring,
with a blistering 329.18-mph run in today's second round of final
eliminations. He also posted his personal-best Funny Car elapsed time of
4.738-seconds in that pass.

In the Funny Car first round of the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at
Route 66 Raceway, No. 4 qualifier Scelzi defeated Cruz Pedregon with a
4.768-second lap at 328.70 mph. This speed backed up his 329.18-mph speed
for a national record in the second round against Del Worsham.

Scelzi's match-up with Phil Burkart Jr. in the semifinal, unfortunately,
didn't follow the trend, as an ignition problem resulted in a slower
4.842/314.90 pass and the three-time Top Fuel champion lost to Burkart's
4.776/319.75.

The Fresno native hangs on to eighth place in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series point standings, and is now closer to reaching his goal of ending his
first full season in Funny Car competition in the top five. He's just seven
points behind seventh-place Tommy Johnson Jr., 75 in back of Ron Capps and
170 behind Del Worsham.

"We've got the whole page in National Dragster with the fastest run in
history in Funny Car," he said. "That felt good. We probably could've gotten
the E.T. record too, but I was rolling it in deeper; we needed to get a good
reaction time because we were running so well. You've just got to do that
because everybody in Funny Car does that.

"All in all, it was a great weekend," he added. "We had an ignition problem
in the semis. We've had a lot of ignition problems. So we're going to go
back to the shop. We're going to find out if we've got a bad ground or
something else because this can't keep happening. A lot of teams are having
problems with ignition, so we don't know what it is. Other than that, we've
got a very fast hot rod."

Scelzi's crew chief Mike Neff doesn't think running 330 mph this season is
out of the realm of possibility. But first we asked him how he makes this
Oakley Dodge go so fast. "I think the big part of it is our Dodge body," he
replied. "That thing has to be pretty good to allow us to go that fast. This
track was exceptionally good, and we were able to run a lot faster to half
track. From there to the finish line is where the big speeds come from. And
when you can run that hard early, it just carries it on all the way through
the rest of the run."

As for a 330 in the future? "I think we can do it," said Neff. "I'm pretty
sure. We're real close. that can certainly happen here before the year's
over with."

Scelzi's not as confident. "I don't know about this year," he said. "This is
a pretty fast race track. It just depends on what happens. I don't think
Reading (Pa., next weekend) can stand it because that track isn't as good as
here. I don't know about Dallas. I don't think it can happen in Vegas;
possibly Pomona. I don't know. It doesn't matter. We've got it pretty much
out of reach right now. But if Mike Neff says it can be done, he's the man
who knows."

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS

1. Tony Pedregon        1483 (winner today)
2. Whit Bazemore        1414
3. John Force               1260
4. Gary Densham         1135
5. Del Worsham              1094
6. Ron Capps                        999
7. Tommy Johnson Jr     931
8. Gary Scelzi                  924

14. Scotty Cannon           664

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