Inside Line Promotions – PLACERVILLE, Calif. (May 27, 2021) – Dominic Scelzi’s consistent start to the season continued last weekend during a pair of races in his home state of California.
Scelzi overcame an opening-lap incident to charge through the field en route to a fifth-place result on Saturday at Petaluma Speedway in Petaluma before he posted a run from ninth to fourth on Sunday at Placerville Speedway.
The two top fives give Scelzi 19 top fives in 24 races this year. That tops last year’s total number of top fives in 65 starts.
“I feel we’re in as good of a position as we’ve ever been,” he said. “The team is great and I’m feel like I’m driving great. When we do have circumstances come up when we may not be in position to win the race we have to get the best finish we can and we did that on Saturday.”
The weekend started on the right note Saturday as Scelzi qualified third quickest out of 19 competitors. He advanced from fourth to third place in a heat race to make the dash. A fourth-place finish in the dash lined him up on the outside of the second row in the King of the West-NARC Fujitsu Series main event.
“That’s a place I’ve never been stellar at,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of average runs, but we qualified well and moved forward in the heat race Saturday. We ran fourth in the dash and I felt we set ourselves up for success.
“The front row took themselves out on the initial start of the feature. We got involved in it and had to restart I think in 16th. It went green to checkered after that and we ran it up to fifth. I was mad it took us out of contention to have a shot to win the race, but I was extremely happy with how we rebounded. It was a hard place to pass at and we came from the back to fifth on a green-to-checkered run. We made a bad night a decent night.”
Scelzi’s charge to earn the fifth-place finish gives him a six-point lead in the championship standings after three races this season.
The team headed to Placerville Speedway on Sunday. Scelzi timed in fifth quickest out of 36 drivers before a third-place run in a heat race locked him into the ninth starting spot for the main event.
“I hadn’t run a 360 show there since I think 2017 or 2018,” he said. “We were the second-to-last car out overall and qualified third, which was great. We placed third in the heat so we missed the feature redraw because they were taking the heat race winners plus the fastest qualifier in each group.
“The track was really slick. I worked the middle bottom the whole feature. Everybody seemed to be running the curb. I kept my momentum up and drove it up to fourth. They cut the race short five laps. I felt we were a top-three car. It was great to be able to drive up through there and show speed. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve been there and legitimately passed race cars. That gave me a huge boost of confidence.”
QUICK RESULTS –
May 22 – Petaluma Speedway in Petaluma, Calif. – Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 3 (4); Dash: 4 (4); Feature: 5 (4).
May 23 – Placerville Speedway in Placerville, Calif – Qualifying: 5; Heat race: 3 (3); Feature: 4 (9).
SEASON STATS –
24 races, 9 wins