Giovanni Scelzi Aiming for Top Five Before Crash During Dixon Debut

Inside Line Promotions – DIXON, Calif. (June 21, 2015) – Giovanni Scelzi helped test for the Panella family last Saturday at Dixon Speedway, where he competed for the first time this season.

“I was grateful for the opportunity to drive for the Panella’s and hopefully we can do it again,” he said. “Although we didn’t get the results we were aiming for it was a lot of fun.”

Scelzi opened the micro sprint race by qualifying 10th quickest around the bullring.

“We went out early in qualifying and stayed about fourth quick for a while,” he said. “Then it started taking rubber at the end. The track stayed rubbered up the rest of the night.”

Scelzi maintained second place throughout his heat race to earn a spot in the dash, which he lined up on the outside of the fourth row. He picked up one position to earn the seventh starting position for the 25-lap feature.

“I think it was whoever crashed was how you passed in the feature,” he said. “It was follow the leader. Whoever missed the rubber got passed by two or three cars.”

Scelzi was running seventh on a restart midway through the main event when he was involved in a crash that ended with him upside down.

“On the restart I ran a groove up and got next to the guy in sixth,” he said. “He ran into the guy in fifth and he made a right turn and I got over his right rear.”

Scelzi was unable to restart the race and was credited with a 17th-place result.

He will return to his family owned micro sprint July 3-4 at Plaza Park Raceway in Visalia, Calif., for the Budweiser Outlaw Nationals. Scelzi was victorious at the track twice last season.