Sonoma: Gary Scelzi Saturday summary

SCELZI STRUGGLES IN SONOMA TO QUALIFY 13TH

SONOMA, Calif. (July 29, 2006) - Gary Scelzi had a tough time qualifying the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car this weekend for the Fram-Autolite Nationals, ending up No. 13, with his best pass of 4.865 seconds at 317.64 mph.

The reigning NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car champion and defending Sonoma Funny Car titlist recorded that time in the cooler Friday evening session. His other attempts produced a fiery 10.317/64.89, a tire-smoking 10.541/78.75 and, finally, a much-improved, but less than perfect, 6.733/128.86.

"It's not what we like to see," he said of the final pass. "Zippy (crew chief Mike Neff) is looking to see what happened. Actually, that pass was quicker and better. I'm sure Zippy will stay up all night and figure out what the hell is wrong and get it handled.

"We had two wires short out, and it pushed the head gaskets out and had a little fire," said Scelzi, explaining the first run. "It's just crazy things happening, as usual. That's the way the year has been. That's something that's never happened before. We keep having those things bite us.

"The Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger is having a hard time getting past that 200-ft. mark. It got past it that (final) time. We'll just move our tune-up out a little further. It was quicker to the 330-ft. mark; we just have to get it to go 1320 feet."

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

-dsr