NHRA Rookie Scelzi Makes Johnson Family Proud

No rookie driver has won the world top fuel drag racing championship since the National Hot Rod Assn. began determining its champions through a point system, but Gary Scelzi of Fresno may change that this year.

Scelzi, who got the ride in the Johnson family’s top fuel dragster after Blaine Johnson was fatally injured in a crash last August

during the U.S. Nationals, has won four national events and reached the final round seven times in 11 starts. Still more amazing, he has advanced to at least the semifinal round every time.

He also is the quickest and fastest rookie ever, having run 314.79 mph in his first race at the Winternationals at Pomona in February and 4.65 seconds elapsed time for a quarter-mile at Englishtown, N.J., in May.

The season’s second half begins this weekend at Bandimere Speedway in Denver with Scelzi holding a 175-point lead over five-time champion Joe Amato, 1,057-882. Scott Kalitta, a two-time champion, is next with 686.

“Having a big points cushion is great, but it won’t mean anything until the end of the season,” Scelzi said. “Adding to our points lead makes our team more hungry to win, but no lead is safe. This sport can bite you in a hurry. Remember Larry Dixon? He won four races early in his rookie season and he ended up third at the end of the year. I keep telling our guys about that.”

Scelzi, who will be 37 on Aug. 11, is a rookie in the nitro-burning top fuel class, but he’s no rookie in drag racing.

“I keep hearing about how Joe [Amato] has so much more experience than me, but I’ve been drag racing for 20 years. I don’t let anyone intimidate me. I’ve always looked forward to racing against the best. Today, that means Joe, KB [defending champion Kenny Bernstein], Scott, Cory [McClenathan], all the top drivers. But I felt the same way when I was running Pat Austin, Tony Bartone and guys like that in my alcohol funny car.”

Alan Johnson, Blaine’s older brother, is owner and crew chief of the Santa Maria-based top fueler Scelzi drives.

“I still pinch myself every time I think about getting that phone call from Alan, asking me if I would drive Blaine’s car,” Scelzi said. “Every race I run is so full of emotion, it seems as if Blaine is riding with me. I feel very fortunate running for the Johnsons. They are so strong, and such great people.

“Heck, I call Alan’s mother ‘Ma’ and Alan’s father ‘Pa.’ You can’t get much closer to family than that.”

Scelzi and the Johnsons go back to the days when the boys were teenagers racing sand drags together at Santa Maria Spillway Park. Although their paths took different directions, Alan remembered the intensity and desire of his old rival when he and his family decided they wanted to continue in racing after Blaine’s death.

“Even though Gary and I had not been that close socially, I knew enough about him to have a good idea of his personality,” Johnson told John Jodauga of National Dragster. “I knew I could get along with him, and I knew he wasn’t in racing for the money, he was a racer. He was my first choice, and it never got to the point where I considered anyone else.”

The only question was how Scelzi would make the transition from a 2,500-horsepower alcohol dragster to a 5,000-horsepower top fueler.

The answer wasn’t long in coming as the “rookie” from Fresno stunned the Winternationals field by being the No. 1 qualifier and winning the first race he entered. In the finals, he upset Amato, who earlier in the day had set an elapsed-time national record of 4.564 seconds.

“I really can’t describe the feelings I had at Pomona,” Scelzi said. “I had won at the Winternationals in Pomona before [in 1985 in an alcohol funny car], but to do it under the circumstances this time was just amazing, incredible, unbelievable. There really aren’t any words I know of that can describe how I felt that day.”

A measure of how serious the Scelzi family takes racing was shown in their approach to the birth of their first child. Early in the pregnancy, Gary and his wife, Julie, decided that if the baby came during a race weekend, Gary would remain at the race.

So, while the father-to-be was in the first round of qualifying for the Lone Star Nationals at Ennis, Texas, Julie was in a Fresno hospital giving birth to Dominic Michael Scelzi.

Scelzi didn’t win, but he did beat Bernstein and Kalitta before before losing to Amato in the semifinals.

After Denver, the series moves to Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma.

“The race at Sonoma will be very special for me and the Johnsons because it was where Blaine won his last race. The emotions will be higher than ever. Between Alan and me, there’ll probably be a couple of hundred family members and friends on hand. A lot of old Fresno buddies who didn’t follow me much when I was racing in alcohol are getting involved now.

“Nobody will ever replace Blaine, but I’m doing my best to fulfill the expectations of the Johnson family. We’ve had a lot of success this year, but winning at Sonoma would be the icing on the cake.”

CART

Parity is the watchword as the first five drivers are bunched within 16 points in the PPG CART World Series, and the first four drive different engine-chassis packages. Paul Tracy, in a Penske-Mercedes, is 11 points ahead of fellow Canadian Greg Moore, in a Reynard-Mercedes, as CART heads for its 11th race Sunday in Toronto. Third, one point back, is Gil de Ferran, Reynard-Honda, with Michael Andretti, Swift-Ford, three points farther back in fourth. Alex Zanardi, who won in a Reynard-Honda at Cleveland, is one point behind Andretti.

CART expanded its international position when it announced a race in Japan for March 28, 1998. The Budweiser 500 will be held at Twin Ring Motegi, a new multipurpose motor sports complex near Utsonomiya, north of Tokyo. The track is a 1.5-mile imperfect oval.

NASCAR

Maybe all Ron Hornaday needed to go on a winning streak was to get a new contract. No sooner had the Palmdale driver extended his relationship with Dale and Teresa Earnhardt for the Craftsman Truck series through the year 2000 than he won two consecutive races. He will be going for No. 3 Saturday night in Erie, Colo.

Jeff Burton’s victory last week at Louden, N.H., for the Jack Roush team kept alive Ford’s streak this season of winning every Winston Cup race not won by Jeff Gordon’s Chevrolet. The Winston Cup regulars will be at Pocono, Pa., on Sunday for the Pennsylvania 500. . . . After nine races, Anaheim’s Butch Gilliland leads Winston West drivers in points, 1,400 to 1,375 for Canada’s Gary Smith and 1,326 for Saugus’ Sean Woodside, and in money won, $87,736.

SPRINT CARS

With the Sprint Car Racing Assn. taking a week off, six of its leading drivers will head East for Indiana Sprint Week--seven races in nine days--a U.S. Auto Club wingless sprint car production. The first race is Saturday night in Kokomo, with SCRA points leader Richard Griffin, Mike Kirby, Troy Cline, Cory Kruseman, J.J. Yeley and Rickie Gaunt expected to drive. Yeley went back early and won the Hulman Classic at Terre Haute. The SCRA returns to action July 26 at Perris Auto Speedway.

IRL

Jim Guthrie, who suffered a painful back injury when he crashed during practice at Pikes Peak International Raceway on June 28, has been cleared to drive in the Charlotte 500 on July 25. Guthrie’s injury was found to be a severe bruise and not a fracture.

LAST LAPS

Phoenix International Raceway became part of Bill France’s International Speedway Corp. when PIR President Buddy Jobe sold the facility and its 65,000-seat, one-mile oval to the Daytona Beach-based motor sports company. Jobe, who purchased the track in 1985, will remain as president and will oversee the addition of 25,000 seats to make it the largest sports facility in Arizona. In addition to owning Phoenix and Daytona International Speedway, ISC also owns tracks in Talladega, Ala.; Darlington, S.C.; Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Tucson, plus 11% of Penske Motorsports, which includes the new California Speedway.

When John Kocinski of Modesto won both rounds of the World Superbike championship last Sunday at Laguna Seca, it was his and Honda’s first victories of the season and moved Kocinski within four points of series leader Carl Fogarty. A record Laguna Seca superbike crowd of 43,000 attended. The next race is Aug. 3 at Brands Hatch, England.

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Motor Racing This Week at a Glance

WINSTON CUP, Pennsylvania 500

* Site: Pocono Raceway, 2.5-mile banked speedway, Long Pond, Pa.

* When: Sunday.

* TV: TBS, 10 a.m. .

* Defending champion: Rusty Wallace.

* Last week: Jeff Burton won his second race this season, and the second of his four-year Winston Cup career, outracing Dale Earnhardt in the Jiffy Lube 300 at New Hampshire.

* Fast fact: For the second consecutive year, Terry Labonte went into New Hampshire in second place in the point standings and came out with the lead. Last year, Labonte trailed Earnhardt and came away with an 18-point lead. Before last week’s race Labonte was behind Jeff Gordon, but he now holds a three-point lead.

INDYCAR, Molson Indy Toronto

* Site: Exhibition Place, 1.784-mile temporary road course, Toronto.

* When: Sunday.

* TV: Channel 7, 2 p.m. (tape).

* Defending champion: Adrian Fernandez.

* Last week: Charging back from 22nd place, Alex Zanardi overcame a dead radio and mistakes which led to two penalties to win the Medic Drug Grand Prix of Cleveland.

* Fast fact: Last season’s Indy Toronto was marred by a crash which took the lives of rookie driver Jeff Krosnoff and a track marshal. It was the first driver death in a CART-sanctioned event since Jim Hickman died during practice at the Milwaukee Mile in 1982.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS, Colorado 250

* Site: Colorado National Speedway, 3/8-mile paved oval, Erie, Colo.

* When: Saturday.

* TV: Channel 2, 12:30 p.m.

* Defending champion: Mike Skinner.

* Last week: At Louisville, Ky., Ron Hornaday won for the third time in four races.

* Fast fact: Hornaday is trying to become the second NCTS driver to win three consecutive races. Skinner accomplished the feat in 1995.

NHRA, Mile-High Nationals

* Site: Bandimere Speedway, Morrison, Colo.

* When: Sunday.

* TV: ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.

* Defending champion: Eddie Hill (top fuel), John Force (funny car), Jim Yates (pro stock) and Matt Hines (pro stock motorcycle).

* Last week: Idle.

* Fast fact: Rookie Gary Scelzi has advanced to at least the semifinals at all 11 events this season en route to building a 175-point lead in top fuel.