Giovanni Scelzi Posts Podium Finish in Sprint Car at Keller Auto Speedway
Inside Line Promotions – HANFORD, Calif. (June 13, 2016) – Giovanni Scelzi is inching closer to his first career sprint car victory.
Scelzi drove the Roth Motorsports 360ci sprint car to a third-place result on Friday at Keller Auto Speedway. He has now finished in the top six during all five career sprint car features.
“I want to thank Dennis and Teresa Roth as well as Todd and Brent Ventura for their support,” he said. “They give me a great car and I feel like I can win every time I hit the track. Our first win is coming soon.”
The night began with Scelzi qualifying fourth quickest, which locked him into the dash as long as he transferred through a heat race. Scelzi maneuvered from third to second place during a heat to achieve that feat and he pulled the No. 1 during the dash draw to line up on the pole.
“If you don’t qualify well you have to win the heat to make the dash,” he said. “If you’re starting outside the top eight it’s tough to go forward. We qualified well enough and did what we needed in the heat race.”
Scelzi led all six laps of the dash for his second career dash victory, which gave him the pole for the 30-lap main event.
“I led the first 12 or 13 laps,” he said. “Then I got into lapped traffic and Cory Eliason and D.J. Netto passed me. Around Lap 20 I got back by D.J., but he got me about four laps later.”
Scelzi ended with a third-place finish, which was his second career podium. Here is a link to video of the main event: https://youtu.be/RZbEoMhtgec.
“We’re trying some different things with motors and it worked pretty good,” he said. “For me it’s about getting more aggressive and getting more laps. I feel really confident and I had Jeff Gardner back helping on Friday so that was a confidence booster.”
Scelzi will return to micro sprint competition as he heads to Southern Illinois Raceway in Marion, Ill., for the Highbanks Hustle this Thursday through Saturday. Scelzi will drive for Kyle Anderson at the marquee event.