Scelzi goes to second round, gets bumped by Worsham

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2004 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
ROUND 5 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS
HOUSTON RACEWAY PARK
RACE DATES: APRIL 16-18, 2004


HOUSTON, Texas (April 18, 2004) - Gary Scelzi's HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge
Stratus team was rewarded today in the first round of eliminations of the
O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals after qualifying No. 14, with a win against
Jeff Arend. Still struggling with the Funny Car's setup, Scelzi, forced to
pedal after losing traction, pulled out the win with a 5.037/309.56 against
Arend's tire-smoking 9.057/100.28.

Scelzi came up to the line for the second round to face NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series Funny Car points leader Del Worsham who had dismissed Scelzi's
teammate Whit Bazemore in the first round. Nearly identical reaction times
from the pair promised a close race to the finish. Worsham had a slight edge
down the entire quarter-mile, however, taking the win light with a
4.941/296.50 versus Scelzi's 5.010/300.40.

Despite the loss, Scelzi was encouraged by the car's performance. "I think
that the change that we made, the major change, has started to show
promise," he said. "The HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge basically has four runs on
it. In the last run it went down the track with very little shake. It's
still below the target of where we need to be, but it's showing what's it's
supposed to show. And I think that's going to be the answer, the problem
solver.

"We don't have enough runs with this new combination on this clutch. It
never really locked up until the finish line. If it had done what we
anticipated it doing, it would have been a little better race than it was.
We're not upset; we didn't smoke the tires. We raced them, we went down the
race track - one of the few that actually did.

"We're going to stay tomorrow and test and we'll find out what happens in
Bristol (the next event, the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol
Motor Speedway April 30-May 2)."

A major reshuffling of the Funny Car point standing occurred today, placing
Scelzi in the No. 9 position, with 270.

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