Scelzi out in G'ville first round, Charger performs

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 3 of 23
ACDelco NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE (FLA.) RACEWAY
Race Date: March 17-19, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (March 19, 2006) - Gary Scelzi didn't achieve his goal
today of conquering one of the three NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
dragstrips at which he's never won in his career as a four-time NHRA world
champion. His first-round loss against Del Worsham at the NHRA
Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway didn't allow Scelzi to check this one
off. 

It was a strong showing for the new Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger Funny Car
nonetheless, as No. 8 qualifier Scelzi produced a stout opening pass of
4.842 seconds at 322.46 mph, but lost on a holeshot advantage to No. 9
qualifier Worsham's slower 4.858/323.15. Reaction times: .094 for Scelzi,
.051 for Worsham.

"It's no different than last year," said Scelzi, of the tight competition in
the Funny Car class. "And Del is one of the toughest guys out there, ask my
teammates Ron Capps and Whit Bazemore.

"We're not afraid of anybody. We've been struggling. The Mopar/Oakley
Charger went 4.84, and I was a little bit late. .094 (reaction time) is not
that bad, I didn't roll it in deep. I was hoping if we could get by Del it
would help with lane choice against (John) Force, who went 4.77 (in the
opening round). It just didn't happen.

"We're learning what we're doing wrong with the clutch, we're learning about
the new tire. And an old veteran is learning about the starting line, I
guess. It's unfortunate, but we're going to run here tomorrow and try some
things that we learned over qualifying that we haven't had a chance to learn
because we've never had the sun on the race track (during previous tests).

"And even though there was a little bit of cloud cover today, the conditions
were different. We have a plan. We'll see what happens and we'll roll 'er
off to Houston."

On the new Charger body: "The body is excellent, it's good, and it's going
to be better the more we learn about it. It's not like the Stratus was a
dog, no doubt about that, but this Charger is going to be just fine."

Scelzi set his 21st top speed this weekend (325.61 mph), and is tied in
ninth place in Funny Car points, with 121.

Next up is the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, March
31-April 2, 2006.