Giovanni Scelzi Captures Micro Sprint Victory and Another Top Five in Sprint Car

Inside Line Promotions – STOCKTON, Calif. (May 2, 2016) – Giovanni Scelzi highlighted another strong weekend by driving into Victory Lane for the first time this season.

Scelzi capped a sprint car/micro sprint weekend doubleheader in his home state on Saturday by setting quick time during qualifying before advancing from sixth to win the winged micro sprint main event at Delta Speedway.

“I’ve felt so confident all year and hadn’t got the results,” he said. “We finally had a night that went our way from start to finish.

“I want to thank Jarrod Huckleberry and Jake Hagopian at Driven Performance for their hard work last week to get our new fully-injected Adams motor set up in our micro and Mark at Schoenfeld Headers, who made us a prototype header that worked great. Also, a huge thanks goes to my crew chief, Brett Ventura, for his tireless effort. He’s a huge part of the team and it’s great for all of us to have the reward of a win after we’ve worked so hard.”

The night began with Scelzi qualifying fastest around the bullring before he advanced from fourth to third place in a heat race. That locked him into the feature inversion, which was a six and lined Scelzi up on the outside of the third row for the 30-lap main event.

“We set up to run toward the middle to the bottom of the track,” he said. “We passed cars running right through the middle and in the slick. I got to second on the third lap and then I passed for the lead a few laps later and the yellow came out so that put me back to second.”

Scelzi retook the top spot a lap after the restart and he led the final 20-plus laps for the victory.

“For the first seven or eight laps we ran through the slick and then the rubber started coming in,” he said. “We were able to check out and even after a late caution we pulled away and won by a straightaway.”

Here is a link to watch the main event: https://youtu.be/yeY7zbBE-Qk.

Scelzi opened last weekend in a Roth Motorsports owned 360ci winged sprint car on Friday at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif., where he qualified fifth quickest.

“We were two hundredths (of a second) off of second place so we were close,” he said. “Luckily, we won the heat race so that got us into the dash.”

Scelzi’s first career sprint car heat race win locked him into the dash, where he placed second to start the main event on the outside of the front row.

“I ran second for probably 10 or 12 laps,” he said. “I was trying to move around and I didn’t make the right moves at the right times. I didn’t make any huge mistakes, but a small mistake can allow a couple of guys to get by you. We had the speed. The car was great. I just have to learn how to race around them and pass people.”

Scelzi maintained a top five throughout the main event before capturing a fourth-place finish, which was his third top five in three career sprint car starts.

He is slated to return to action this Friday at Plaza Park Raceway in Visalia, Calif., in a micro sprint.