GARY SCELZI: Well, I want to thank everybody for joining in today. This is actually a lot more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Up until about 10 seconds ago. I got everybody together to let everybody know that at the end of this year I will be leaving Don Schumacher Racing and am going back to work at Scelzi Enterprises to get back involved in the family business.
It is not a retirement. I know [there were rumors out there] about me talking about quitting drag racing and this and that. But I’m not done racing. I just can’t continue to do 23 races, get back involved in the business and do either one of them any good. My brother Mike and I started Scelzi Enterprises, a truck and body manufacturing company, in 1979, which I had been involved in throughout my career and when Alan Johnson called me to drive the Top Fuel dragster at the end of 1996 for the 1997 season, the company was big enough to where I could actually take off to go do these things. Or as the company evolved and my drag racing career evolved we’d hire other people and [do] different things, and over the last 11 years I’ve lost touch with the business. The company’s doing extremely well. It’s growing at an immense pace. To give you an idea, we went from 75 employees to 275 employees. We have two manufacturing plants: Scelzi Equipment Company, in Azusa, Calif., and an installation company, Scelzi Enterprises South in Rubidoux, Calif. My son Dominic, who is 9 years old, started racing go-karts and has now moved up to Restricted 600, which race on dirt. My youngest son Giovanni is 5 years old and he’s about to start racing go-karts and I’m missing baseball games, races, just a lot of things and it’s kind of disheartening to be pulled between both. Fortunately, I have a company to fall back on. My brothers have been extremely good to me. But my oldest brother Mike that we started the company with is 60 years old and he’d like to do a little relaxing and have someone come back in here and help my brother Jim run the business. So, I’ve made the decision just recently. I made the decision with Kevin Miller from Mopar and Don Schumacher back in Indy of last year when they renewed the contracts for three years that I would let them know verbally in March what my plans would be for the following year.
I have to make the decision now. Don Schumacher has been extremely good to me. Everybody knows the situation in Funny Car, when I switched to Funny Car the problems I had with Alan, and all that stuff, and Don stepped up and hired me and pulled me from the rubble, if you will. And I think it’s been good for both of us. Do I want to leave? Not really. And that’s why I’m saying that I’m not quitting drag racing because it may be a year, it may be two, it may be never, I can’t say for sure. If Don has a car for Pomona at the Winternationals and needs a driver for a couple of races, hopefully I’d be his guy. Or if he needed [someone for] testing, and Don and I talked about that.
It’s an extremely difficult situation because my relationship with (crew chief) Mike Neff, my relationship with Jim Jannard from Oakley, my relationship with Kevin Miller and Chris Cortez from Mopar are extremely close. I’ve got the absolute best equipment. Even when we struggle Mike Neff and I are on a very close relationship. So, these types of things are very hard to find in drag racing. I was very fortunate when I started with Alan Johnson. We had the same relationship and that was probably one in a million chance, and to have that same chance with Mike Neff, I’ve truly been blessed.
DON SCHUMACHER: I think it’s very simply a family and a business decision on Gary’s part. I support him 100 percent in what he’s choosing to do and why he’s doing it. We hate to see him leave at the end of this season. If I have an opportunity to bring Gary back for one race, five races or 23 races, I would certainly love to do that. It takes more than just a driver to bring a car out for one or 10 races and Gary and I will work on that as things develop and as we see the necessity to do those kind of things. Gary has been a great asset to my team, has been a great personality, he’s one of the few characters in the sport, is a great driver, has proven and shown his ability not only in Top Fuel but in Funny Car, he’s a world champion. It’s sad that the sport is going to be missing him at times. It’s going to be difficult for fans and it’s going to be difficult for the sport, but it will go on.
GARY SCELZI: One thing I’d like to say too is: I was at the induction into the Hall of Fame for Don Schumacher in Gainesville, and when Don accepted his award he had mentioned something very similar to what I’m talking about now - and it actually puts a lump in my throat. When Don [said he] had made the decision that he needed to work in the family business and actually take it over and to build it from basically a small operation into the empire that he’s built now… it almost felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. We can only hope that I could bring to the table what Don brought to Schumacher Electric to Scelzi Enterprises somewhere down the future. But that was a very similar speech. Don, you didn’t even know when you were saying it where it was hitting home with me. I value that. I value the information you have given me throughout the years about business, so that kind of hit home.
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