Bristol: Gary Scelzi Saturday summary

Scelzi No. 9 in Final Bristol Qualifying

BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 1, 2004) - Gary Scelzi ended up No. 9 in the Funny Car field after four rounds of qualifying for the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, the sixth round of 23 in the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

His passes in two out of four of those rounds were good enough to place him in the top half of the field: 4.857/319.52 in the second round and 4.877/319.22 in the third round, which was the third quickest of that session. Unfortunately, in the final round, his HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus lost traction at 60 feet and Scelzi coasted to an 11.568-second pass at 82.92.

This was disappointing to the Fresno resident as it dropped him to the bottom half of the field, in the No. 9 position, but it was not enough to discourage him.

"We're still struggling with our combination," he said. "But the important thing is that we're in the field. We'll continue to work on the setup and do the absolute best we can. We have an awesome crew here, who can tackle any problem and fix it. I've won from the top half of the field and the bottom half of the field. We'll just suck it up and get the job done tomorrow."

Scelzi will face Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round of eliminations on Sunday, which begin at noon.

-dsr-