Topeka: Gary Scelzi Friday summary

Scelzi No. 11 in Friday Topeka qualifying

TOPEKA, Kan. (May 28, 2004) - Gary Scelzi made two good passes down the Heartland Park Topeka quarter-mile in his HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car to qualify No. 11 for the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals, with two more qualifying rounds scheduled for tomorrow. He first posted a 4.977/308.57, then a 4.880/319.60, and was pleased with the result.

"We accomplished our goal again today," said Scelzi, who holds the national top-speed record of 330.55 mph, set last week in Joliet. "We went down the race track twice. It wasn't quite as quick and as fast as we'd like to go in the HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car, but it was still good and we collected valuable data for tomorrow's tune-up.

"Both runs were extremely smooth, but the car was slow early, so we need to pick it up early. But the race track is very hot right now and it's hard to push because you don't want to smoke the tire. Even though we went down the track on the first run, we didn't want to get carried away on the second run, and that's why we're qualified No. 11."

-dsr-