Gary Scelzi, (born August
11, 1960, Fresno,
California
), is an American dragster
racer and midget car owner who has won the NHRA
Powerade Top Fuel
championship on three occasions and the Funny
Car title once. In
1997 he won the
title in his first full year of competition, after replacing
Blaine Johnson, who had been killed
at the
1996 US Nationals, while leading the top
fuel championship, in the Johnson family-owned car. He has not
competed in NHRA competition since the 2007 season.
Scelzi went on to win three Top Fuel championships, but at the end
of the 2001 season, with the Alan Johnson-owned team losing its
Winston sponsorship because of the Master Settlement Agreement, and
also partly due to a major accident he had that season, he jumped
to Funny Car, with new sponsorship, and a Toyota Celica. The
results were a disaster for Scelzi, and he resigned from his ride
midway through the season, only to join Don Schumacher Racing for
the 2003 season in an Oakley sponsored Dodge funny car.
Scelzi unseated the
John Force racing
dynasty, defeating Force and Robert Hight to win the 2005 NHRA
Funny Car Championship, making it the first time since 1992
(
Joe Gibbs Racing) a team other
than John Force Racing had won the NHRA Funny Car championship,
that championship also made him only the second person in NHRA
history to win championships in both Top Fuel, and Funny Car, the
other, being
Kenny Bernstein.
In his spare time he has raced midgets for fun, even competing in
the
Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa,
OK, competing in a 2003 "celebrity" race against fellow drag racer
Ron Capps and dirt trackers Danny Lasoski,
Scott Bloomquist, Dave Darland, J. J. Yeley, and
Tony Stewart.
Scelzi recently purchased a Ford Focus Midget (a spec-class midget)
for personal pleasure and entered the 2005 USAC Turkey Night Grand
Prix in Irwindale, CA, racing against a midget owned by fellow NHRA
Funny Car champion
Cruz
Pedregon.
In 2006, his midget was driven by 16 year-old driver Michael
Faccinto of Hanford, California, who won the 2006 United States
Auto Club National Ford Focus Midget Championship, including wins
at the Turkey Night Grand Prix in Irwindale, California. Scelzi
sold his Focus Midget at the end of 2006 and moved up to standard
midgets with Dodge powerplants, with sponsorship from his Funny Car
sponsors.
Trivia
- In 2005, Scelzi accomplished a feat that only Kenny Bernstein had done, when he won his
first Funny Car Championship, becoming the second driver in NHRA
history to win championships in Top Fuel, and Funny Car.
- Scelzi was hired by Alan Johnson to replace his brother
Blaine, killed in a crash at the U.
S. Nationals in 1996. Ironically, Mike Neff, Scelzi's crew chief
for the 2005 Funny Car championship, moved to John Force racing for
the 2007 ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals to replace Eric Medlen, killed in a testing crash after the
Mac Tools Gatornationals in 2007.
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