NHRA News: Former champ Scali ready to become a contender again (11/26/2004)

Former champ Scali ready to become a contender again

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
11/26/2004

"I feel like 2005 will be the year to prove what we can do."
– Geno Scali

It wasn't until the third week of November, sandwiched between rock concerts by Korn and Tesla, that 2003 POWERade champion Geno Scali finally won his first event of '04. It wasn't even an NHRA event – it was part of the Velocity Tour festivities at Southwestern Int'l Raceway in Tucson, Ariz., that featured various activities for fans, including what amounted to exhibition runs by a few NHRA pros – but to Scali it was the highlight of his year.

As Scali accepted the winner's check he took a moment to recap his defense of his first NHRA title. By all accounts, it didn't go as well as the 10-year pro had hoped. After winning three times in '03, he failed to even reach a final this year. But a late-season resurgence and the boost of confidence the Tucson win provided has him pumped up for 2005.

"After the season we had when we won the championship and the testing we had done leading into this year, I thought we'd be able to dominate," Scali said. "Instead, we got in a hole that we really never got out of until right near the end of the season.

Scali had four semifinal finishes in 2004.

"It's disappointing because we really didn't do anything differently than we did the year before but so many little things went wrong along the way that it added up into a down year. After winning the championship, coming in seventh place doesn't feel that great. But there's nothing or no one to point fingers at. That's not how we do it. We don't make excuses; we just work harder to get better and that's what we'll do."

Scali may dismiss his '04 hurdles as excuses he doesn't care to discuss but he did have some sizable obstacles impeding his progress this time through. For starters, he ended up in the catch net at the top end of Route 66 Raceway in Chicago during a test session in early May where he injured his left arm, the same appendage that operates the clutch lever on his Suzuki. His frantic schedule has prevented him from properly rehabbing the injury and he isn't scheduled to see a specialist until December.

"Yeah, that probably hurt me," Scali reluctantly said. "My [reaction time] lights were all over the place after the wreck. I don't know if there's nerve damage in there or not. I guess I'll find out soon enough."

Nerve damage or not, Scali did drop from first in his class in reaction time average to seventh overall. Certainly that factor alone helped put him next to 1984 Funny Car champion Mark Oswald as the only reigning champions to not reach a money round the year after they won an NHRA title.

Another momentum-zapping occurrence came when chief mechanic Earl Deglopper left Scali's Trim-Tex team midseason so that he could move to Indianapolis and be closer to his new wife Meredith. Scali immediately filled Deglopper's role with Tom Duke, his brother-in-law, but like all teammate situations, it took some time for the pair to learn each other's moves.

Scali (near lane) is one of just seven NHRA Pro Stock Bike champions in the history of the class.
Racers Edge Photography

While they gelled, Scali slipped from third to seventh in the POWERade rankings and had a couple of bottom-half qualifying efforts and first-round losses to show for it. Then he came to life and ended the year with a pair of strong showings, qualifying third in Las Vegas and second in Pomona. Both races ended with quarterfinal losses, but they were due to holeshots, not a lack of performance.

"That's probably the thing I'm happiest about," Scali said. "The fact our performance came around at the end of the season really has us excited for next year. The thing is, when you have the performance, you have confidence in the bike. Then your lights start to get better because you're not thinking about having to kill the Tree to win.

"I feel like 2005 will be the year we need to prove to everybody what we can do. I still have the same bike I won the championship with and we saw that it's still competitive. I have a few ideas on how to make it lighter. We're hoping for big horsepower from [engine supplier] Vance & Hines. They tell me they're going to have something for us and I know they're motivated to get after the Army bikes and the S&S bike."

Although he's optimistic, Scali, who is entering the final year of his contract with Trim-Tex Drywall Products, knows he won't be the preseason pick of many observers. Instead, three-time champion Angelle Savoie, her U.S. Army teammate Antron Brown, George Bryce's latest rider Chip Ellis, and the powerful Harley-Davidsons of new champ Andrew Hines and his stablemate GT Tonglet will be the early favorites.

"I hope that everyone overlooks us," said Scali, who wasn't on anyone's preseason radar screen when he won the title in 2003. "You can take that target I had on my back and give it to Andrew and let everyone try to cut double-zero lights against him every round. I'd love to sneak back up and surprise some people again.

"Everyone's probably saying we were a one-shot deal but I know better. We'll be back and if we can finish in the top five or top three or even take another championship then we'll prove what we're capable of to ourselves, and that's all I need to worry about. The thing is, I'm having a lot of fun and I wouldn't trade a thing even if I could."

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