Scelzi ousts Force, advances to Vegas NHRA semis

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
The ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Round 22 of 23
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nev.
Race Dates: Oct. 24-26, 2003

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 26, 2003) - Oakley Time Bomb Dodge Stratus driver Gary
Scelzi had little to complain about in today's Funny Car final eliminations
of the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals after struggling in qualifying -
except perhaps not beating Tony Pedregon in the semifinal round.

Always a team player, the No. 10 qualifier first disposed of No. 4 qualifier
John Force in the first round (4.879/321.88 vs. 4.920/313.88), which gave
his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Whit Bazemore some breathing room, as
Force had an opportunity to pass Bazemore for second in the championship
going into this event. This was Scelzi's third win this season against Force
in four meetings.

In the second round he dismissed Tim Wilkerson (4.909/320.58 vs.
4.944/307.51) with a stellar .028 reaction time to match the .026 he used to
beat Force.

The semifinal round provided him another opportunity to help his teammate
Bazemore as he was paired against Bazemore's rival for the Funny Car
championship Tony Pedregon. With lane choice, Scelzi launched with a .059
reaction time to Pedregon's .041, but he barely reached the 300-ft. mark
before he struck the tires. He tried to pedal it, but it was all she wrote
as Pedregon took the win with a 4.881 at 310.13 mph to Scelzi's
5.976/216.97.

With Ron Capps going out in the first round, Scelzi is now tied with Capps
in sixth with 1084 points.

"We had a great day today," said Scelzi. "We're nipping on Capps' heels for
sixth and we're sort of there."

"We came from the rubbles. We had a lot of problems in qualifying and we
came back and we knocked Force off. We had low E.T. of that round and l ran
a great second round. We had just a little bit too much steam in it for Tony
Pedregon. I'm not sure why it did what it did, but for whatever the reason,
we didn't get the win. We made it to the semi, so it was a good day for the
Oakley Dodge."

"It smoked the tires right away," he said of his match against Pedregon. "It
just had too much power. It's just one of those things. I pedaled it and it
recovered, which is a good thing. This means Mike (Neff, crew chief) was
really close on the tune-up, because normally when you pedal and it smokes
the tires again you're way over center, but it did recover. Tony was out
there a long way so I rode it out for a little bit, and when I saw him way
out there I just shut it off.

"We're happy," he continued. "We're going to test here tomorrow. We're going
to try some new things for next year and our program is in great shape and
I'm excited. I also feel a lot better after having a week off."

Note: Tony Pedregon won today's final round against Whit Bazemore and
clinched the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship.

Point standings:
1. Tony Pedregon            1710  (champion)
2. Whit Bazemore            1572
3. John Force                   1450
4. Gary Densham               1306
5. Del Worsham                  1273
6. Ron Capps                        1084
    Gary Scelzi                    1084

14. Scotty Cannon               740

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