Gary Scelzi drove the Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T to No. 11 in qualifying today for the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.
The four-time NHRA champion benefited from an hour-and-a-half rain delay today to improve his lap time to a weekend-best of 4.932 seconds at 311.99 mph, but with near perfect conditions available to everyone, he fell from No. 6 to No. 11 and finds himself facing his friend and nemesis, 14-time champion John Force, in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.
Scelzi’s other passes were a 5.075/292.77, a 4.968/298.60, and a 5.566/192.14.
“Not bad, ” said the Fresno, Calif., native and defending event champion. “We got our old buddy John Force tomorrow. Like I’ve said before, when you race Force, you know what you’ve got. You’ve got the best. It’s a Mopar race, and we went down the track three out of four times. The one time we didn’t, it was my fault. I got it out of the groove.
“It’s a tough, tough race track. Boy, everybody is having trouble keeping the car in the middle and I’m no different than anyone else,
“Mike (Neff, crew chief) seems to have a good handle on the race car. It’s going to be totally different conditions tomorrow. It’s going to be hot and slippery. I think that the guy who goes down the quarter-mile the best without smoking the tires tomorrow has as good a shot as anybody. Hopefully that will be us. “
Scelzi is one of the few Funny Car drivers who has a round winning record against John Force: 12-9, 3-1 in final rounds.
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