Scelzi Beats Foes to Punch to Capture Big Bud Shootout

Gary Scelzi shook off the disappointment of losing his National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel championship by defeating Doug Kalitta in the Big Bud Shootout on Saturday at Pomona Fairplex.

“What a great weekend, qualifying No. 1 and winning the Bud Shootout,” Scelzi said. “It’s great to be back in the winner’s circle.”

Scelzi, who made three impressive runs in defeating Kenny Bernstein, new top fuel champion Tony Schumacher and Kalitta, last year’s Big Bud winner, collected $100,000 for the Alan Johnson family team from Santa Maria.

Only in the final round, when Kalitta’s dragster was enveloped in smoke off the starting line, did Scelzi have an easy run.

In the first round, he nipped Bernstein, 4.701 seconds to 4.720, after both registered lightning-fast reaction times. Scelzi had a .470, Bernstein a .472, both quicker than any other reaction during the shootout. Anything under .40 would be a red light disqualification.

Beating Schumacher was no easier as Scelzi needed a 4.626 time to nip the new champion’s 4.670. In the finals, with Kalitta failing to get out of the blocks, Scelzi powered on to a 4.69-second run at 320.43 mph.

“It was definitely a Team Winston team effort,” said Scelzi, who was picked by Johnson to drive the family top fueler in 1997 as a replacement for Blaine Johnson, Alan’s brother, who was killed in a racing accident the previous year.

Scelzi, who had been driving a top alcohol dragster, responded by winning the NHRA championship as a rookie in 1997 and repeating last year. This year he finished second to Schumacher.

“Tony deserved to win the championship this year, he had the best car, but I’m warning him, we ran next year’s combination today,” Scelzi said.

“It makes us feel good about next year. We’ll be back.”