Giovanni Scelzi Becomes Youngest World of Outlaws and Williams Grove Winner During National Open Opener

Inside Line Promotions – MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (Oct. 2, 2018) – Giovanni Scelzi has accomplished a lot of amazing feats during his young career, but his performance last weekend rises to the top.

Scelzi, who is a couple of months shy of his 17th birthday, became the youngest winner in World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series and Williams Grove Speedway history on Friday when he won the opening night of the Champion Racing Oil National Open.

“Going into the weekend we knew there would be a lot of good cars with the World of Outlaws and Pennsylvania Posse,” he said. “The goal was to make the show and get better on Friday. You have to treat it like every other race, but also have realistic expectations given that we’d never raced a 410 there and the level of talent we were competing with.”

Approximately 50 drivers invaded the half-mile oval for one of sprint car racing’s crown jewel events and Scelzi guided the Bernie Stuebgen owned sprint car to the second quickest qualifying time in their group. Scelzi then won both a heat race and a dash to line up on the outside of the front row for the 27-lap A Main.

“We had a brand new Speedway engine in and it ran great,” he said. “When you qualify good, especially with the Outlaws format, that’s the No. 1 thing you have to do to be successful.

“I saw how much I won the heat and then the dash by and thought we had something going. The first couple of laps of the feature you know whether you’re going to be competitive for the win or not. I felt like I could move around the track where (David) Gravel wasn’t. He picked the top and the bottom on restarts a couple of times and I felt like wherever he went I was better. One time I was a foot or two closer on a restart than I had been previously. I went to slide him and knew I didn’t clear him. I left him room and was able to pass him going into turn three.”

Scelzi took the lead on Lap 16 and he held on for the final dozen laps despite being marred in traffic during the final few circuits.

“You have to get ready for traffic,” he said. “It’s hard because the straightaways are so narrow. You don’t really know where the guys are going to go. That allowed Gravel to close, but I knew there was no way he could slide me with the lapped guys running the bottom.”

Here is a link to watch highlights of the race: https://youtu.be/vUFzBJ4hImo.

The weekend concluded on Saturday with Scelzi setting quick time during qualifying – the best time of the 49 drivers. He then won a heat race and placed second in a dash to line up third for the 40-lap feature.

“I fell to fifth right away,” he said. “Then I got chopped by another driver going into turn three. I slid up the track and nearly hit the fence. I fell back to 12th at that point and we pretty much ran around there the rest of the race.”

Scelzi’s 13th-place result garnered the Rookie of the Year Award.

“I feel like we’ve had speed everywhere,” he said. “To have consistent results is huge. You can say we were fast, but until you show it it doesn’t matter. It was a great weekend and I can’t thank Bernie, Betsy, Brandon and all of our supporters enough.”

Scelzi and Stuebgen plan on competing this Saturday at Kokomo Speedway in Kokomo, Ind., with the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions.