Inside Line Promotions – CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (March 13, 2023) – Dominic Scelzi captured back-to-back runner-up results last weekend during his season-opening event.
Scelzi ventured to Central Arizona Raceway for the first time in his career during an ASCS Southwest Region doubleheader, which he began on Friday with a heat race victory. That earned enough points to make the feature redraw and Scelzi drew the No. 4 to line up on the outside of the second row in the A Main.
“If you go off the times we were the fastest car when we hit the track all weekend,” he said. “We unloaded having never been there before and we were fast in hot laps. We won the heat race. Then in the feature we went green and a guy a few rows back jumped the start. He bullied his way in and we fell back to seventh. We got back to fourth in one lap. I got to third maybe two laps later. A few laps after we got by (Logan) Forler for second and we were all over D.J. Netto. I think one lap later (Mark) Dobmeier caught on fire and they had to cut the night short. Our thoughts are with Mark and we’re glad to see he’s going to be okay.”
The remainder of the feature was postponed Friday evening and was planned to be run on Saturday, but curfew halted that so Scelzi was credited with the second-place showing.
Saturday started out similar with a heat race win for Scelzi.
“The heat races were weird,” he said. “We started on the pole again and a lot of good guys started at the back. We won our heat race, but missed the feature redraw so we started 10th. We’d go one lap and a yellow would come out; go a lap and a red would come out. We went from 10 th to sixth after finally getting about a six-lap green-flag run. They decided to shorten the race from 25 laps to 20. We just didn’t have the time to get through the field. We got up to third and passed Corey Day for second with two laps to go. The track took rubber and I was running a half a lane down from everybody else. We closed on the leader on the last lap with a lapper in front of us. I just couldn’t get the run I needed and we ended up running second by a couple tenths of a second.
“To have that speed to start the season off, especially going to a place we’d never been to, I feel confident for the season. We have speed and a good balance.”
Scelzi plans to make his season debut in his home state of California this Friday and Saturday when Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico hosts back-to-back nights, including the Mini Gold Cup with the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series on Saturday.
QUICK RESULTS –
March 10 – Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande, Ariz. – Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 2 (4).
March 11 – Central Arizona Raceway in Casa Grande, Ariz. – Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 2 (10).
SEASON STATS –
2 races, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 2 top 10s, 2 top 15s, 2 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Friday and Saturday at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif., for the Mini Gold Cup with the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series