Giovanni Scelzi Powers to Podium Finish at Plaza Park Raceway

Inside Line Promotions – VISALIA, Calif. (May 18, 2015) – A month break from racing didn’t matter to Giovanni Scelzi, who is coming off his best finish of the season since winning a Golden Driller at the Tulsa Shootout in January.

Scelzi earned his second podium result of the season and his third top five of the year last Friday during a micro sprint event at Plaza Park Raceway, where he kicked off the night by qualifying 12th quickest.

“I just didn’t make very good laps,” he said. “The car was good. I pinched the corner off in turns one and two and got loose coming out of turn two.”

That put Scelzi on the pole of a heat race, which he won to lock himself into the 10th starting position for the main event.

“We tried some new things with the car,” he said. “We changed some things with torsion bars and we went the opposite way we should have, but I’m not mad because we never knew it wouldn’t work until we tried it. The car just didn’t have any drive off the corners.”

Scelzi spent most of the feature battling just outside the top five before he caught a break in the closing laps.

“Midway through the race we got stuck in eighth place and everybody was running the same speed,” he said. “With about two laps to go a couple of people spun and two people got sent back for rough driving so some luck fell into our favor.”

Scelzi ended with a third-place result.

“To test some setup changes that didn’t work great and still come out with a podium makes it a really good weekend,” he said.

Scelzi is slated to make his season debut at Lemoore Raceway in Lemoore, Calif., this Friday and Saturday for the Tachi Palace Nationals. He earned a pair of top fives during the event last season.