Scelzi No. 5 and ready to race on Sunday in Sonoma

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 15 of 23
FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS
INFINEON RACEWAY
SONOMA, Calif.
Race Dates: July 30-Aug. 1, 2004

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

SCELZI QUALIFIES FIFTH IN SONOMA; IS READY FOR RACE ON SUNDAY

SONOMA, Calif. (July 31, 2004) - Gary Scelzi put together two sturdy
qualifying rounds under sunny skies today in the HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge
Stratus Funny Car to establish the best setup for tomorrow's final
eliminations. In the third qualifying session his 4.937/304.53 pass was the
second quickest of the round, and this afternoon's lap against teammate Whit
Bazemore of 4.998/306.67 produced a photogenic pass for the Don Schumacher
Racing pair. 

Bazemore nicked Scelzi's elapsed time by three hundredths of a second
(4.963/310.27), but the Fresno native was happy with the data gathered by
crew chief Mike Neff for tomorrow's tune-up. Last night's qualifying effort
of 4.904/308.28 stood for No. 5 position.

"It's fun racing Bazemore because Baze and I are always in competition with
each other - who leaves first, whose car runs faster - so that was actually
a race among friends," said Scelzi, defending Funny Car champion here at the
Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals.

"It went 4.99. It was a little slower than we thought, but the track got
better, so it kind of ran through the clutch a little bit. But that's what
qualifying is all about. Once you get into the field, you can then get to
see where you're at and what's going on.

"We know tomorrow if we get in the finals that the track is probably going
to get a little tighter and we might be able to get away with a lot more.

"I'm not worried about the 4.88 of (No. 1 qualifier John) Force (in this
last round) or anybody else, because we know we have the power to do that.
We just need to go down the race track and run low 4.90s tomorrow and, if we
get in the final,  unload an .88 on them and we'll steal the money and run."

Scelzi faces Tony Bartone in the first round of final eliminations, which
begin at 11 a.m. PT.

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