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Friday Night Plaza Park

Well once again Giovanni has kept his HOT qualifying streak alive! With 18 cars in attendance Giovanni timed in 3rd quick. In the Heat Race, he started 3rd and finishing 4th, Dad had the race car way to tight but Gio made adjustments driving and brought it home in a transfer spot. With a 4 pill being drawn, Giovanni started outside front row, with a big pep talk from big brother Dominic, Gio drove it in deep in turn one at the start of the race and found himself in 3rd place, (a little to deep), but recovering nicely, chasing leaders for several laps. In the middle of the race, Gio passed for 2nd place and before the lap was completed, the yellow came out sending him back to 3rd place. On the next re-start the 2nd place driver spun out all by himself which caused another restart and Gio starting in 2nd place. As the leaders raced away from the pack Gio was closing in on 1st place, with 5 laps to go when we had an ignition problem which turned Gio’s engine off and not being able to finish the race. With disappointment all over my face and his we are not sure what we need to do to win a race but we will work as hard as we can and change every ignition part in that car until we get it right! This weekend is dark for Gio with no Micro Races being ran in the valley. Giovanni will not put on his crew member hat and work on his brother’s Dominic’s Sprint Car for a two night event in Chico, CA.

Saturday Night Placerville, CA

With 32 cars in attendance and Dominic running his 1st King of the West event of the year, Dominic timed in 7th quick. Starting 3rd in his Heat Race, Dominic wasted no time getting into 2nd place entering turn one, looking very comfortable on this tight bull ring, he finished 2nd. With the King of the West format they take the winner of the four Heat Races and the four fastest qualifiers to the Trophy Dash which in turn sets the first four rows of the Main Event. Dominic started 10th on a very dry and slippery racetrack with 24 hungry drivers all trying to win on the very first lap. Dominic made some very evasive moves not getting into any of the wrecks, (it seemed like there was a wreck every lap). When all was said and done Dominic finished in 8th place without a scratch on the car, he also came away learning about patience, car control and defensive driving. The one thing that Brent Kaeding is trying to teach Dominic is patience and take what the car will give you. It looks like this weekend, Dominic gets an “A”. This week we are going to run the local 410 race in Chico, CA and then Saturday night the King of the West, David Bradway Jr. Memorial Race with big money on the line this could be a race to remember. So stay tuned… complete race results next week. Again as always you might get tired of hearing it but we never get tired of saying it, THANK YOU for all your support!

As always you can watch the boys races at www.garyscelzi.com

Friday Night Plaza Park

Giovanni kept his great qualifying streak alive by qualifying fourth out of nineteen cars. On one of the driest and slickest tracks that I can remember. Gio started fifth in his Heat Race. Plaza Park is one of the few racetracks that makes fast qualifiers start at the very back of the Heat Race and makes the driver have to get to fourth to get his qualifying spot back. At the drop of the green, Gio found himself in fourth place but not gaining on the leaders, so he tried to move up on the racetrack only to find no racing surface and losing a spot placing him back in fifth position. For the Main Event, Gio had to start fourteenth on a track that was very difficult to pass on. After about ten laps and a yellow flag Gio stopped on the racetrack and was pushed to the in field. After the race we found that the throttle cable had loosened up and fallen off (that’s my job to tighten) in seven years of racing Jr Sprints and Micro Sprints NOTHING has ever fallen off any of my cars so with me doing all the work now this was a huge disappointment. With further inspection we found that the throttle bracket was bent but with my vision (I’m getting old) I missed it. Giovanni’s night came to an early end. Gio will get another try this weekend at Plaza Park and see if we can’t change our luck.

Saturday Night – Tulare Thunderbowl

With only nine cars showing up at the track we were a little disappointed but Tulare being one of the toughest race tracks we go to we felt it would be good experience for Dom and after last week’s mishap this could be a good confidence builder. Dominic qualified third out of nine cars, started on the outside front row of his Heat Race and won the race with no challengers. Matt and Trace, Dominic’s co-crew chiefs had the Panella racing engines 360 thumping the ground! In the Main Event, Dom started outside front row again and even with red and yellow flags DOMINATED the thirty-lap race. This was one of those weekends when everything was perfect, we just wish there were more cars to race against. With the first win of the 2013 season out of the way we now head to Placerville to run with the King of the West this Saturday. Competition won’t be a problem there as we will be racing against thirty of the best dirt racers in California. Again we thank all of you for your support and keep your fingers crossed hoping the boys have a great weekend, until next week.

Hello Everyone – It’s the working Dad with the late racing updates. The past month has been crazy with Dominic racing with the Outlaws and Giovanni racing the Micro. I have had a hard time keeping up with work and helping at the races, so here is a quick short version of what has been going on.

Giovanni has set fast time, qualified first, second and third in all of his three races. He has finished third and fourth in the Main Events with one DNF in Visalia, CA. All in all Gio has done an outstanding job and is knocking on the door for his first win.

Dominic has had a little bit of a struggle running with the Outlaws. Like I had said in an earlier post the 15 year old is driving a 410 for the first time and racing against the BEST in the world. Then throw in a special tire that the Outlaws have to run which changes our set-up, it’s been an uphill battle, but in Antioch, Ca a couple of weeks ago, Dominic ran well, running fast, making mistakes, but recovering well. Dominic made the A-Main in Antioch as an alternate and started twenty-fourth making his way to eighteenth and winning the prestigious Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars. In Hanford, CA last Friday, we struggled in qualifying, qualifying twenty-fifth out of twenty-six cars and hurting the motor in the B-Main. Thank God Dominic felt something go wrong with the engine and pulled in which saved a LARGE amount of money in repair.

Last Saturday night in Tulare, CA we put the Panella racing engines 360 in and Dominic qualified fifth out of nineteen cars. Starting third in the Heat Race he finished fourth, in the Main Event Dominic started fourth and ran second for the entire night except for the last lap. As Dominic entered turn three trying to catch the leader on the last lap he entered a little to hard and caught the turn four wall and spun, ending his night with a ninth place finish. After the race Dominic was pretty upset and not happy with how he performed. I told him that I have seen him make moves just like that and win the race on the last lap more often than I have seen him crash. That didn’t make him feel much better but we all learn from our mistakes.

This Friday night Giovanni will again be trying for his first win of the season and Saturday night Dominic gets another shot in Tulare, CA to try for his first win of the season. Again sorry for the delay on the updates I will try and do better next week. Thanks for all your support and a special thanks to Phillip Parnagian from Fowler Packing and his son for coming to the races in Hanford. We love the support of our sponsors and enjoy seeing them at the races. Until next week, please see the attached pictures above of Dominic Sprint Car and Giovanni’s new blue paint scheme.

Giovanni in his first race of the 2013 season qualified on the pole. In his Heat Race starting 4th made a bold move to the top side, and found himself in 2nd place where he stayed the remainder of the Heat Race. I was a little surprised at the aggressive move from an 11-year-old right from the start but this kid has a passion for being up front, just like his older brother. In the Main Event there was a 4 invert, which meant Giovanni started 4th, at the drop of the green, the front four cars ran away from the field. A few laps into the race 28 year old Heath Dunkirken, the two time winner of the Tulsa Shootout found himself in the wall which moved Giovanni into 3rd. With 10 laps to go Gio found himself getting tired running the bottom and had to move up on the race track which left the bottom open, losing 2 spots. In the end Gio finished 5th, which we were very pleased about, he, was not! This being the first race of the year and Gio’s stamina is down a little bit. This will be a tough year for the 11 year old since most of the people of the class are in their late teens, early 20’s but we believe our young hero is up for the challenge. This weekend Gio will be in Visalia at Plaza Park and Saturday back at Lemoore to look for his first win of the season.

Gary Scelzi Motorsports traveled to Stockton, Ca for the inaugural World of Outlaw Event. The race is held inside the fairgrounds horse track, the track is 3/8 of a mile and extremely fast. The race was completely sold out with over 12,000 in attendance. Once again in hot laps Dominic was the 4th fastest car on the track but once again Dominic drew a high number for qualifying which meant he went out fourth from last, the good news is the track was still fast the bad news is our car was to tight for a tacky racetrack and Dominic qualified 26th out of 45 cars. With a poor qualifying time Dominic had to start 7th in his Heat Race and finished 8th which meant he would have to race the B-Main. With this racetrack being extremely fast with tight corners Dominic was struggling with his entry into the turn, so the team tried to free the car up even more to make it easier to drive. Dominic started 7th in the B-Main and made his way to 6th with not much progress moving forward so with 4 laps to go Dominic decided to go to the dreaded high side in turns one and two where 8 other cars had flipped over the night of racing, as Dominic entered the corner he caught the cushion which flew the front end and found himself flipping end over end and our night came to a close. Dominic was fine, the car had some damage but it could have been a lot worse. This is all part of the learning curve that a rookie driver will have to go through. This year Dominic has a new Butler built seat, which we feel, is the absolute safest and best-built seat in the industry. Dominic and his brother have always worn Sparco fire suits and now a new Simpson F1 rated carbon fiber helmet, so even though this is an extremely dangerous sport they have the absolutely best safety equipment. So again, I would like to thank of all those people for their support. Dominic and his brother Giovanni have spent the week at Kaeding Performance rebuilding the car and getting everything in order to race in Antioch, Ca next Friday with the World of Outlaws. Hopefully we can learn more about the 410 division and have a good showing.