Scelzi holds on as low qualifier in Pomona

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 23 of 23
AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NHRA FINALS
Pomona (Calif.) Raceway
Nov. 3-6, 2005

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 5, 2005) - Gary Scelzi collected his sixth No. 1 Funny
Car qualifying position of the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series today,
the 42nd of his career and earned eight points in the tightest Funny Car
championship race in NHRA history.

His opponents for the crown, teammate Ron Capps and John Force, qualified
10th and sixth, respectively. Scelzi now holds an eight-point lead over
Capps and is 32 points ahead of Force.

In the final qualifying session today, Scelzi posted a 4.703-second elapsed
time at 330.23 mph, which did not break the national record of 4.665
seconds. His 4.696/330.23, established yesterday, stood for No. 1.

Here's how the first round will shape up: Scelzi faces Tim Wilkerson, Capps
goes head to head with Del Worsham, and Force will face Scelzi's other
teammate, Whit Bazemore.

Force and Capps are on the same side of the ladder, while Scelzi stands
alone on his side of the ladder, as far as the championship contenders are
concerned.

"I was really kind of hoping that was going to happen," he said of the
Force-Bazemore match-up, "and if I was fortunate enough to win first round,
let's decide it then and get it over with.

"It's going to be a tough draw [for Baze]. They've been struggling. I'm sure
Mike (Neff, Scelzi's crew chief) will talk to (Bazemore's crew chiefs Dan)
Olson and (Todd) Okuhara and see if he can help them in anyway.

"Right now we have to worry about us. I can't worry about what Bazemore is
going to do or what Capps is going to do. If we win this race, we'll be the
champions and that's what we're going to try to do, just like we went into
Vegas and tried to do, and we came up a little bit short, and hopefully
tomorrow we won't come up short."

As for the final qualifying session, where he missed the national record:
"We stood on it," he said. "We went after it and it spun the tire a little
bit and that's why it didn't run quicker than a .69, but it did run a 330.
So, again, the rev limiter came into play and that .66 is going to be tough
to beat, even if you get to Chicago or Vegas or some of these other places
with [good] conditions because it just slows the cars down big time down
there.

"We got Wilkerson [first round]. That's the only thing I do know for sure.
Wilk struggled this year, but that's a car that has beat big dogs before and
he can do it. He's no different than anybody else. We're not going to take
him lightly. We're going to stand on it the first round.

"It's do or die now.

"I'm going to go up there and race Tim just like I raced everybody in
qualifying. Do my best and if the car runs well and we all do our jobs,
don't have any stupid breakage, hopefully we'll get some win lights."