Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Indianapolis, Ind.
(Sept. 1-6)
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Gary Scelzi Hemi Oakley Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car |
Reports: Monday Sunday Saturday Pre-race |
Indianapolis, Monday: Gary Scelzi, second in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car standings, and points leader John Force have been spending way too much time together this season on the quarter-mile as Scelzi vies for his first Funny Car crown in the HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus, and Force his 13th.
The pair matched up in an elimination round for the fifth straight event today at the prestigious 50th Annual U.S. Nationals, and in seven of the last eight events. For the second time this season, Scelzi defeated Force on a holeshot advantage, in the second round, after first disposing of his teammate Johnny Gray in the opening round.
The Fresno native and three-time Top Fuel champion defeated Force on a holeshot back in Brainerd, Minn., and Force paid him back with a holeshot winner in the quarterfinal at the last event in Memphis.
Scelzi's career round win-loss record against Force now stands at 7-5 and Scelzi has inched closer to the points lead, although losing in the semifinal round to Cruz Pedregon. Scelzi is now 206 points behind.
"I didn't know I had him," said Scelzi in the top-end interview after upsetting Force. "And I was looking for that green machine to come flying by there. It's good if you can beat him. It ain't a win at Indy, but, damn, it sure feels good.
"It's big. It's fun. It's exciting," he added. "You just get up to race the champ because you know that his car is fast and John is the best driver out here. He's always ready.
"It's been a duel all year long and I like it. And I really enjoy racing him because he doesn't play any games and he's a 12-time champion and nobody else out here can say that.
"It's neat for me to be able to stand up and go toe-to-toe with him and sometimes have some pretty good results."
Losing on a holeshot is not always what it seems. "The thing that reporters might not understand is when you roll the car in deeper (at the staging lights) you have a great reaction time," Scelzi explained. "When you roll it in thinner for lane choice your reaction time is worse. Sometimes the guy's late, but most of the time it's who rolled it in deeper.
"They can say holeshot, shmoleshot. When you're a driver you don't think much of that."
As for Force's reaction to him at the finish line: "He was pretty quiet," said Scelzi. "It's the U.S. Nationals. I've beat him before and John has always been very gracious and happy. He was very gracious, but you could see the emotion. He wanted to win bad.
"And when the media and everybody are saying you got beat on a holeshot, it hurts. I know what I felt like after Memphis. It was just seven thousandths of a second."
In the semifinal round against Cruz Pedregon, Scelzi had the edge in reaction time, but went up in smoke at about half-track. Scelzi pedaled it to regain control as the car veered to the centerline. Pedregon also lost traction and the pair fought it out to the finish line, with Pedregon taking the win light by a .1566 margin. "For whatever reason, it wore a clutch, and saw too much clutch and it smoked the tires," said Scelzi. "It's like the magic clutch discs; we don't know."
Indianapolis, Sunday: Gary Scelzi and the HEMI-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car team stepped up to the plate this afternoon in the final qualifying session for the U.S. Nationals, by posting the second-quickest pass of that round in hot and humid conditions, under a slight cloud cover. His 4.870-second elapsed time at 316.82 mph moved him up to ninth place, and it gave the team encouragement for good performance under similar conditions in tomorrow's eliminations rounds.
"An .87 wasn't bad," he said at the top end, "but it wasn't looking good against that 4.84 of Tony's (Pedregon in the other lane).
"We got in trouble this morning (losing in the first round of the Skoal Showdown). We smoked the tires, so Zippy (crew chief Mike Neff) changed things around a little bit. I'm sure the cloud cover helped a little bit (in this run), but tomorrow there's going to be sunshine. We're coming out swinging tomorrow, Baby, because that's all you can do.
"These are the conditions we're racing in. Actually, the track was a little better than we thought when we got up there.
"With an .89 in the heat of the day (in the second qualifying round) and an .87 right now - except for the miscue this morning - we're going for it. We'll see what happens."
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car points leader John Force qualified No. 1. Scelzi is second in points and would like nothing better than to carve away the 220-point deficit he holds, with six events left in the season. "We've just got to pay attention and hope Force goes out early," he said.
"He's looked pretty strong in qualifying, but I've seen that happen before and he kind of slipped up tonight in the final of the Skoal Showdown (where he hazed the tires at the finish and lost to his teammate Gary Densham). Maybe he'll have a little trouble tomorrow."
Force will meet No. 16 qualifier Jim Head in the first round of eliminations. "Jim Head's gone down the track a couple of times," added Scelzi, "and Force could be there for the picking tomorrow."
Scelzi faces his teammate Johnny Gray in Don Schumacher's Wonder Wagon Stratus in the first round of eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m. on Monday.
Indianapolis, Saturday: Following three of five rounds of Funny Car qualifying for the prestigious U.S. Nationals, Gary Scelzi is No. 10, based on his run from the first qualifying session last night of 4.879 seconds at 319.75 mph.
In the second round today under hot and sunny conditions, he posted a 4.892/314.97. Tonight his Hemi-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus lost traction for a 6.075/152.06 pass.
"We made a good run last night, we made a good run during the day, which was the second quickest of the round," he said. "Tonight we swung for the fence. We ran a 4.770 (in the heat of the day) in testing here and we tried to duplicate that, but the race track would just not see it.
"We don't race in these conditions. We wanted to make a statement tonight and it didn't happen, so we're fine for race day tomorrow (for the Skoal Showdown, which includes two more qualifying rounds). The sun is going to be out, it's going to be hot, loose and we've got a race car that will go down a hot race track. We're ready."
Indianapolis, pre-race: The prestigious U.S. Nationals, considered the NHRA's Indy 500 or Daytona 500, is the race every NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series driver wants to win. Gary Scelzi is one of them. The driver of the Hemi-powered Oakley Dodge Stratus Funny Car already has a trophy for his victory here in 1998 in a Top Fuel Dragster, and he'd like to add a Funny Car "Wally" to his mantle this weekend in the 50th running of this unique event.
That's not all that's on his agenda as the 2004 NHRA season begins to wind down. He stands second in championship points to John Force and needs to win here in order to move closer to claiming his first Funny Car crown on top of his three Top Fuel championships. He is 220 points behind, there are six races left, and the clock is ticking.
The Fresno, Calif., native and holder of the national Funny Car top-speed record of 330.55 mph, will also compete in his first Skoal Showdown this weekend, the $100,000 special bonus event featuring the eight quickest and most consistent Funny Car teams from the last season. Scelzi qualified fifth and will face Tony Pedregon in the first of three rounds on Sunday, Sept. 5.
"I won once in Top Fuel and I was runner-up with my own Alcohol dragster in 1986," Scelzi said of his U.S. Nationals successes. "Being runner-up and not winning the race was one of the reasons I sold the operation. I didn't have the money to continue and I finished No. 2 in the world that year.
"And from 1987 on I have been a hired driver, even in the Alcohol ranks. I have always been very blessed to be able to get good rides." He entered the pro ranks in Top Fuel in 1997 and became the first rookie to win an NHRA championship.
"Indy can make or break a driver. Everybody says that if you don't win a world championship, if you win Indy, it's the next best thing, and they're not lying," he said. "Indy is just so important because it is such a big race and there is so much tradition here. It's the race. Throw in the Skoal Showdown and you've got a race inside the race. It would definitely mean a lot to me to be able to be one of the few to have been able to win in Top Fuel and Funny Car."
In the last seven events, Scelzi has jumped from sixth in Funny Car points to second, following his win in St. Louis, plus three semifinal round appearances as well as a runner-up finish in Brainerd, Minn. His second-round loss to points leader and eventual event winner Force at the last event in Memphis, however, was an unfortunate setback.
But the driver who's known by fans as "Wild Thing" is not giving up. "It's still very possible for Force to stumble at a couple of races and go out early," he said. "The key to this whole thing is to be able to capitalize on his mistakes. We're not changing our game plan. That's our plan. It's been our plan from the beginning, it's just the execution.
"We feel we have a car, and I think that everybody else feels that we have a car, that can win any race. Now we've just to go and do it. That's a big thing for us. The plan stays the same.
"In testing last week at IRP, we set the quickest and fastest time so far under the new 85-percent nitromethane rule, of 4.770 seconds at 325.77 mph. I think we have made big progress and I think we made it faster than most of the teams.
"And it is Indy. I'm telling you, it is going to be so weird to wake up Tuesday morning and not drive the race car. Because you've driven it Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It's every day of getting to drive the Hemi Oakley hot rod. There's nothing better in my life than driving a 330-mph Funny Car."
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