NHRA

Columbus: Gary Scelzi Saturday summary

SCELZI QUALIFIES NO. 6 IN COLUMBUS; SWITCHES TO STRATUS HEBRON, Ohio (May 20, 2006) - Gary Scelzi was forced to switch from the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car body to the Dodge Stratus body today after damaging the Charger during the ...

Published: May 21, 2006, 8:19 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

SCELZI QUALIFIES NO. 6 IN COLUMBUS; SWITCHES TO STRATUS

HEBRON, Ohio (May 20, 2006) - Gary Scelzi was forced to switch from the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car body to the Dodge Stratus body today after damaging the Charger during the Friday night qualifying session for the NHRA Nationals at National Trail Raceway.

The elapsed time he recorded in the first qualifying round (4.749 seconds at 329.58 mph) on Friday in the Charger held through all four rounds for No. 6. It also earned Scelzi a top-speed track record.

In Friday's evening session, Scelzi's (slower than the earlier pass) 4.790/273.50 lap was disqualified after he crossed the centerline at about the 1000-ft. mark, hitting a timing pylon, which caused the damage.

After trading bodies, the reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car champion drove to a 5.608-second pass at 174.21 mph, and finally a 4.811/316.90 in his last attempt.

"Now I have a car that I have to learn how to drive again," he said of the Stratus. "Unfortunately, it put a hole (cylinder) out down there at the end (in the final pass) and shot me right into the finish lights again (similar to his disqualification in eliminations at the last race in Atlanta), but we didn't hit them.

"It made it, it was one of the quicker runs of that session, and we'll just go up there to the starting line on Sunday and hope the stars go our way."

Scelzi faces Scott Kalitta in first round of eliminations on Sunday.

-dsr-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Columbus: Doub Herbert Saturday summary

Next article Columbus: Shaun Carlson Saturday summary

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Phoenix

3 h

Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead

GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

8 h

GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend

Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 9 h

Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

13 h

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts