Commerce: Gary Scelzi Saturday summary

SCELZI NAILS DOWN NO. 8 IN ATLANTA QUALIFYING

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 28, 2007) - Gary Scelzi and the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team, No. 8 after three qualifying rounds for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, tried to pick up the car's performance in the final session, but fell short, ending up holding on to the No. 8 position for Sunday's eliminations.

Scelzi's quickest, a 4.765-second lap at 326.79 mph, came in the Friday evening session. His other passes were a 4.891/308.21, a 4.846/317.64 and finally a tire-shaking 6.714/130.05 in the last try in hot and humid conditions, similar to what the team expects for Sunday's eliminations.

"Three out of four," he said. "We tried to pick 'er up on that last run and just missed it. I pedaled it and it recovered, so that means that we were real close to making it."

The bad news is that he faces his DSR teammate Jack Beckman in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

"Seems like a Schumacher car races a Schumacher car everywhere first round, I just hope I have the luck that Capps has against him and we'll see what happens." Scelzi's and Beckman's DSR teammate Ron Capps has defeated Beckman twice this season: in the first round in Houston and the semifinal stanza in Las Vegas. Scelzi also lost to Capps in Houston's quarterfinal.

-credit: dsr