Scelzi Charges From 20th to Ninth-Place Finish During Peter Murphy Classic
Inside Line Promotions – TULARE, Calif. (April 24, 2017) – Dominic Scelzi captured his first top-10 finish of the season last Saturday during the King of the West-NARC Fujitsu Sprint Car Series portion of the Peter Murphy Classic at Thunderbowl Raceway.
“We’ve had fast cars all year long, but have fought to catch some luck,” he said. “I want to thank my guys and sponsors for their support and never-give-up attitude. It felt great to have a strong result to end the weekend.”
The event began on Friday, when Scelzi drove for Nick McColloch during the Sprint Car Challenge Tour night at the bullring. The team overcame a high pill draw to time in 10th quickest out of more than 50 competitors.
“The first night we went out late and went quick time in our group and 10 th overall,” he said. “That was really good. We had a really tough heat race and battled for third early, but we didn’t get the finish we wanted.”
Scelzi started fourth and competed for one of the three lock-in positions to the main event for most of the heat race before he ended fifth. That relegated him to the B Main, which ended early after a couple of incidents.
“On the first corner I got monster trucked and fell back to ninth or 10 th,” he said. “I worked my way back up to seventh and the motor started laying down so we pulled in to save it from further damage.”
Scelzi had rebounded from the opening-lap contact to rally into the final transfer position before mechanical woes sent him to the pits early.
He hopped in his Roth Motorsports sponsored, family owned sprint car on Saturday. Scelzi qualified 12th quickest overall and finished sixth in a heat race after facing a throttle problem. That sent him into the B Main, in which he put on a show to transfer into the back of the main event.
“In the first corner of the B Main we got into a transfer spot,” he said. “I passed the guy on the bottom for sixth and the guy in front of us spun out. I made a little contact and the right front tire came off the bead. We went back out and restarted 20th.”
Scelzi charged from 20th to score a fourth-place result, which earned a transfer into the 20th starting position in the A Main.
“I just ran through the middle the whole time (in the B Main),” he said. “The track was super slick and cleaned off. Everyone was slowing down. I kept my speed up and stayed out of trouble.
“We were pretty positive the track would rubber down very quick in the feature even with the track prep they did. We were wrong. It stayed hooked up and fast. The first couple of laps we were a little snug. I was able to manage it early and get up through the field. Around Lap 15 to 20 we came on strong and found the middle. I could maneuver and worked my way up to ninth. Had it been a 40-lap feature we could have knocked off a couple more spots. It was good to have such a fast race car and be able to move forward.”