Englishtown: Gary Scelzi final summary

SCELZI BUMPED OUT BY FORCE IN FIRST ROUND IN E-TOWN

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 24, 2007) - Four-time NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series champion Gary Scelzi entered the monster first-round match-up in eliminations at the ProCare Rx Township Raceway Park today against 14-time NHRA champ John Force with the edge in round wins (12-8).

The good news is that he still holds the upper hand in the stats (12-9), but the bad news is he lost that round. Scelzi took off first at the starting lights, triggering a .075 reaction time (.000 is perfect) to Force's .094. While Force's run wasn't perfect, a loss of traction by the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T was the decider. Force claimed the win with a 5.002-second elapsed time at 297.16 mph to Scelzi's losing 6.297/152.61.

"It just wasn't a good weekend," said Scelzi, who also had his quickest qualifying time tossed out. "It started out bad and it actually got better. We qualified, even though it was 15th, and we should have been able to handle Force. But the Mopar/Oakley Dodge just went out there and got fast and smoked the tires.

"Force's five-flat wasn't really impressive, but it did win the race, and we were trying to run a low 4.90 and we just didn't do it. I don't have any excuses. Englishtown is still a track at which I haven't won and we'll end up in Norwalk next weekend and see what happens there."

Scelzi holds on to third in the Funny Car point standings.

-credit: dsr