SCELZI AT THE CHILI BOWL – SATURDAY UPDATE
Out in the H-Main, but all’s well with the “Wild Thing”
TULSA, Okla. (Jan. 12, 2008) – NHRA POWERade Funny Car regular Gary Scelzi saw his day end early today at the 22nd Annual Dodge Chili Bowl Nationals. The four-time NHRA champion, wheeling his Mopar-powered Jegs/K&N Filters/Scelzi Enterprises midget, finished well out of one of the top four spots needed to transfer from the H-Main to the next feature.
Although unable to advance to the Chili Bowl A-Main, scheduled for broadcast live today at 8 p.m. ET on HBO pay-per-view, the Team Mopar star was no less hyped up about his Chili Bowl adventures.
"We did OK," said Scelzi, driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T NHRA Funny Car full-time for Don Schumacher Racing. "I would have liked to have gone into a higher main, and we could have if I could have had some practice laps and gotten more comfortable. You know, when a car doesn’t handle right and you’re gun shy, it’s easy too kind of knock your confidence, and I think that’s what happened. [Crew members] Monte Faccinto, Monte Contente and Frank Potter, and Danny Lasoski and Cory Kruseman (Lasoski and Kruseman are Scelzi’s racer friends from the World of Outlaws and USAC Series, respectively), kind of helped with the setup and what to do. It made a big difference.
"You’re never going to be happy with your performance, but with the problems that we had - having too tight of a race car and having too dumb of a driver - you’ve got to come here with your act together. When you start in that low of a Main, you’re getting bumped and beaten around. I was doing OK, and then I got in a little spin and had to come from the back."
The Fresno, Calif., native took solace in the fact that he finished ahead of Cruz Pedregon, a compatriot of Scelzi’s from the NHRA Funny Car Series with more circle-track racing experience under his belt.
"You know, Cruz has done this for three years, and I got around him, so that was a big deal for us, because Cruz does a hell of a job out there," said Scelzi. "It was kind of neat for us to be the only two drag racers going at it and being in the same Main. So that was kind of fun."
Although drag racing will always be his focus, Scelzi would love to get more seat time in his midget when he’s not tearing up the drag strip at NHRA events, or when his regular driver, 17-year-old Michael Faccinto, isn’t piloting the Gary Scelzi Motorsports midget.
"We’ll do it again sometime. We’ll definitely do it next year," remarked Scelzi. "Maybe somewhere down the road I can run two or three times this year at other attractions and try to get more familiarized with the car. I’m comfortable in it. It’s just trying to be smooth that I have a little trouble with.
"But hey, not bad overall for my first race. I had a great time. I didn’t tear up too much stuff and the guys are still talking to me. So I’ll go home tomorrow and get in drag racing mode."
Drag racing mode for Scelzi begins at a test session at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., Jan. 25-27, then it's the season opener in Pomona, Calif., Feb. 7-10.
