NHRA News: Zizzo Racing ready for abbreviated run in 2004 (1/24/2004)

Zizzo Racing ready for abbreviated run in 2004

1/24/2004

"I'm excited to put my foot to the floor and see what this thing will do."
– Tony Zizzo Jr.

Ever since his Top Fuel debut in late September at his home track in Chicago, second-generation racer T.J. Zizzo and his Top Fuel team have been hard at work preparing for a six-race schedule on the 2004 NHRA POWERade tour.

"The end of last season we finally got to our first national event at Joliet," Zizzo said. "We didn't qualify but we did a respectable job. We did well enough to show real potential to our sponsor and ourselves. With that accomplished we are focusing on our future.

"We've really made some strides this winter to compete at a higher level this year. We have a transporter now that will house all of our equipment so we'll be better organized at the racetrack. It will make it a lot easier for our crewmembers to work on the dragster. "As far as I'm concerned, I've been trying to prepare myself mentally to race at a higher level as well. My Dad has been working on race engines. We have three new engines, which are pretty close to the state-of-the-art equipment that the other teams are running. My Dad hopes that they will help us run some better numbers. I'd really be happy if we could run consistent 4.60s.

Tony Zizzo Jr.'s Champion Packaging dragster.
Racers Edge Photography

"We'll be ready for Gainesville in March. I believe we'll be better prepared and mentally ready than we were last year. Leading up to Joliet we had a lot of things to do and a lot to get organized so by the time we got to the race we were physically and mentally exhausted. This season we have a much-improved mental state than we did last year. I'm excited to put my foot to the floor and see what this thing will do. We're really excited to get racing."

Being longtime Top Alcohol Dragster racers, Zizzo and his father, Tony, are keenly aware that racing takes hard work, dedication, and the proper funding. They also know there are many talented teams all striving for the same thing.

"We are trying to have realistic goals for the year," Zizzo said. "We're going to race Gainesville, Chicago 1, St. Louis, Brainerd, Indy, and Chicago 2. The competition is going to be stout and it will be tough to compete against the multi-car teams. So at these six races that we will attend, our goal is to qualify at half of them. That may sound like we don't have enough confidence and faith in ourselves that we can't qualify at all six races, but we think three out of six is a realistic goal. If we consistently run 4.60's and qualify to get in the show, we all know that anything can happen first round.

"We have a major associate sponsor in Champion Packaging, which has really helped us get the ball rolling with a lot of the things we need to get accomplished in 2004. I would like to thank them first and foremost. Without Tom Pecora (President of Champion) we wouldn't be where we're at today. I also would like to thank Lenzini Excavating, Foreign Car Parts, and Motorola. Of course, we're searching for a major sponsor as well. That's the next big step for us. Hopefully, our performance on the track this year will open some doors for us."

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