Giovanni Scelzi Produces First Career Top-Five Finish With World of Outlaws

Inside Line Promotions – FAIRBURY, Ill. (June 6, 2018) – Giovanni Scelzi recorded his first career top-five result with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series last weekend during only his eighth start with ‘The Greatest Show on Dirt.’

“It’s really huge,” he said. “Starting the season with the Outlaws in Las Vegas and then through California we struggled a bit. I felt like we got going better with Bernie Stuebgen at some of the All Star shows and that has carried over. It really boosts your confidence. It makes you feel like you belong with the best series in the world.”

Scelzi and Stuebgen tackled a trio of World of Outlaws races during the last week. The action began on Friday at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Mich., with the Rumble in Michigan. Scelzi qualified 16th quickest before he maneuvered from sixth to third place in a heat race.

“It’s hard to go out and be fast off the bat,” he said. “I made some mistakes and was too low in qualifying. I got right to third in the heat and was there with Donny (Schatz) and (David) Gravel when they were racing for the lead. That really boosted our night after not having a good qualifying effort.”

Scelzi started the main event seventh and spent the early portion of the race battling just outside the top five.

“I restarted sixth when a door opened up down the straightway,” he said. “I put the car in the hole and it closed pretty quick. Another driver and I made contact and it dismounted my left rear tire. We got it replaced and restarted at the back, but the track was slick and dusty and hard to go anywhere. Track position meant a lot.”

Scelzi rallied from the incident to post a 15th-place finish. Here is a link to watch the race: https://youtu.be/GV1LBN4DQiE.

His career-best outing came the following night at Wilmot Raceway in Wilmot, Wis., where Scelzi qualified ninth quickest and finished third in a heat race to start the Badger 40 A Main on the inside of the fifth row.

“We qualified a lot better and had a good heat race,” he said. “In the feature I jumped right into fourth on one of the initial restarts. We ran there for a while. I got a little bottled in traffic and fell to fifth. The track was going to be really good and slick, then it rained after the heat races. It was pretty wet so at that point it was whoever could rotate was the best. The only time you’d pass were restarts so getting a strong start was key.”

Scelzi ended the night with a fifth-place result to set a new career-best finish with the World of Outlaws. Here is a link to watch the main event: https://youtu.be/iiRg9l6UQq4.

Scelzi and Stuebgen invaded Fairbury American Legion Speedway on Tuesday. A 16th-place qualifying run was followed by Scelzi advancing from sixth to fourth place in a heat race. That started him 10th on the main event grid.

“We fought some ignition issues,” he said. “The motor was sputtering a bit in qualifying and the heat, but we fixed it for the feature. We were running eighth when I slowed to miss Greg Wilson, who flipped while trying to avoid spinning cars. I got hit from behind so they sent me to the back for the restart. The track was really good in the beginning with a top and a bottom and slide jobs. With about 20 laps to go it started taking rubber. That was about when we had the incident. It was difficult to make up much ground after that.”

Scelzi rebounded to finish 12th.

He will take this weekend off before tackling Ohio Sprint Speedweek with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions. The nine-day event begins June 15 at Attica Raceway Park in Attica, Ohio.