Wed, 19 Jul 2006, 12:29 AM Gary Scelzi Was The Best Man!!

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Scelzi vs Pedregon

It all began with the wedding ceremony on Thursday at the Mopar block party in downtown Golden, Colorado. That's where Gary Scelzi performed the marriage ceremony and then the "reverend" went out on Sunday and proved that he was the best man in the Funny Car class. And what a weight to get off his shoulders, the fact that he hadn't won a race since being crowned the POWERade Funny Car champion. Now the Mopar / Oakley Dodge comes into Seattle in sixth place in the points with a real shot at finishing as high as third this year. Now I know what you're going to say, Gary could still win it all. Well, unless something really wacky happens (wackier than Gary becoming a minister), the Funny Car champion this year will either be Ron Capps and the Brut team or John Force and the Castrol Mustang. The way I see it, those two are so far in front of the rest of the pack that it would take a miracle for anyone else to wear the number one at the end of the year...Gary was one of the four professional winners this past weekend who won their first race at Bandimere Speedway (by the way, why is it called a speedway?). In addition to Gary, J.R. Todd, Dave Connolly and Andrew Hines all posted wins and none of them had ever won in Denver before.

Todd celebrates win.

J.R. Todd's win was probably the biggest story of the weekend for a lot of reasons. To me, the biggest reason is the fact that a new team, with a crew chief who finally got a shot at leading a team, and a driver who was making just his ninth professional start on the NHRA trail, was able to beat some of the top teams in the sport in order to get the win. J.R. stopped Cory McClenathan in round one, Hillary Will (whose parachute came out early) in round two, and then Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher in the final two rounds. Now that's a pretty good day at the office for a kid who had won a grand total of four rounds before Sunday, isn't it? Winning in just his ninth race is very good and that puts J.R. ahead of a lot of the veterans in the sport who took a lot longer than that to visit the winner's circle. Of course Gary Scelzi and the late Darrell Russell both won in their first starts while Larry Dixon won in just his second start but they are the exceptions. By comparison, two of the top drivers in the points this year, Doug Kalitta and Melanie Troxel, went thirteen and fifty-nine races respectively before they won. Jimmy Walsh, the crew chief on the Skull Shine / Torco car, has certainly paid his dues and it's nice to see him get the win. Did you know that Jimmy worked on Joe Amato's car from 1985 through 2001 and they won a whole lot of races together including six of them in Denver? J.R. becomes the 90^th driver to win a Top Fuel race and he's the second driver to win their first

Todd vs Schumacher

race this year (Melanie was the other). Did you know that the last time we had two first-time winners in the same year was 1997 when Gary Scelzi and Cristen Powell both won their first TF race? Congrats to J.R., Jimmy and the entire team and you have to believe that the win moves J.R. into the front of the Rookie of the Year balloting....Speaking of crew chiefs, Doug Herbert will be in the market for one now that Wayne Dupuy has resigned. Doug's longtime friend, Jim Brissette, will come to his aid this weekend and for the foreseeable future but I have to think that Doug and his Snap-On Tools team will be looking for a full time guy to work with them in the long run. Jim does a good job but he is a guy who comes in to the track on Friday and I think it takes a full-time, live-in crew chief to win in this sport on a regular basis. That said, Jim Brissette has done this for a long time, he's a Hall of Fame member, has taken teams to the world championship and he's a big plus for any team..Jim Rizzoli, who had been serving as the crew chief on the Aaron Olivarez driven Top Alcohol Dragster, has been replaced by Tom Conway and that team will make an appearance in Seattle this weekend but Aaron won't be driving. Morgan Lucas, who used to drive that car, will do double duty driving chores this weekend, splitting his time between the Top Fuel car and the alky entry and that should keep him fairly busy. Aaron, meanwhile, will also be in town watching the car run and he should return to the wheel either in Sonoma or in Brainerd. There is also a possibility that Aaron could be doing a little more than that in Seattle but I'll have to leave it at that. I may get a chance to talk to him more

Doug Kalitta

because he may join us in the TV booth for the alky show on ESPN. Stay tuned... Doug Kalitta made a good move in the points this weekend and he is now in the lead. With Melanie Troxel losing in round one and Doug making it to the semi-finals, the MAC Tools car is now in the lead and they should be at or near the top for the rest of the year. Did you know that Doug led the points after Memphis last year and after St. Louis in 2004? Now the big question is, can he hold on this year? Doug set low elapsed time for the event and it's the 29^th time that he has done that. Did you know that Doug is now tied with Don Garlits for fifth place on the all time list in the low elapsed time category? Hey, anytime you can mention your name in the same sentence with Don Garlits it's a good thing. ...Tony Schumacher, who had the best seat in the house to watch JR Todd win his first race, moved into fourth place in the points and he is now eighty-one points out of third place and a full 209 points behind the leader. Everyone knows that Alan Johnson can put together a car that could win a lot of rounds and races in a row but I'm not sure if even he can come from more than ten rounds back with ten races to go. Of course if anyone can do it, it's Alan Johnson and this Army team.

Gilbertson vs Pedregon

Ron Capps survived the upsets in Denver to remain at the top of the Funny Car point's standings while John Force picked up a round on the leader and is now just twenty-six points behind Ron. If history means anything the two top drivers should have fun in Seattle. Did you know that John has won this race an amazing seven times while Ron has won it twice? And did you know that Ron's very first national event win came here in 1995? And did you know that it came in Top Fuel when he beat Cory McClenathan? Ironically, one of the other top Funny Car drivers, Tommy Johnson, also recorded his first win here and it also came in Top Fuel. Tommy's win came in 1993 when he beat, you guessed it, Cory McClenathan in the final round. Like I often say, what are the odds?... The parity in the FC class is apparent if you look at the weekly results. Nobody is putting together a two or three race streak where they are absolutely the dominant car. This week, for example, four cars from the bottom half of the field made it to round two and two of them, Bob Gilbertson (#12) and Cruz Pedregon (#16) made it to the semi-finals. The Seattle race will be huge, I think, for Ron and John, and if one of them could win it they could have a huge psychological advantage the rest of the way. Ron, who has been in the lead since the second race of the season, needs to win a couple of rounds this weekend. After his big win in Englishtown Ron hasn't won a round and, while that doesn't mean much, you certainly don't want to see a trend develop. Of course, the sign of a good team is when they can be in a slump and still maintain their lead. Did you know that the last time Ron dropped consecutive round one matches was in Atlanta and Columbus this year? And did you know what he did at the next race? Of course, he won it. I'm sure the Brut guys wouldn't mind seeing history repeat itself this weekend..For his part John is keeping pace because he always seems to get past round one. Did you know that he only has one opening round loss this year and that was in Columbus?

Line vs Anderson

The fuel cars always get a lot of attention but the best race among the top three classes is in the Pro Stock class this year. Jason Line, who beat his teammate Greg Anderson in the semi-finals in Denver, has now taken over the lead and he is driving a pretty good car. The Summit Racing Pontiac is twenty-two points ahead of Greg and fifty-one points ahead of Dave Connolly who is in third place. Did you know that this is the first time that Jason has been the points' leader and he is only the twenty-fourth driver in history to lead the Pro Stock points? Since the class has been around for thirty-six yeas, that's a pretty elite group to be in, isn't it? Most of the names would be familiar to you but I'll bet that if I asked a lot of drag racing veterans to name the two dozen leaders they would all leave off the same name and it's not someone who won the Winternationals and then gave up the lead at the next race. Now be honest, would you have remembered that Tony Christian once led the points after four races into the season? Sure you did..Dave Connolly is making one of the more remarkable surges that we've ever seen in a pro class. Did you know that Dave was in 18^th pace after his DNQ in Gainesville and in 12^th place after his DNQ in

Connolly vs Line

Bristol and now he's only a couple of rounds from being the leader? Of course, when you drive like he does, you can make up a lot of ground in a hurry. Did you know that his holeshot win in the final round over Jason was his eighth of the year and that includes two in final rounds? With Tommy Utt and the crew using all the power that Victor Cagnazzi's shop can build, the Skull Gear / Torco car is a real threat to go all the way..Just who does have the best car in the Pro Stock class right now? Jason certainly has to be in that group and so does Allen Johnson. The driver of the blue Dodge has qualified in the top half of the field at the last seven events and that's the sign of a guy who is driving a very quick car...Two of drag racing's best, Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins and Warren Johnson have made the final list of nominees for the 2007 International Motorsports Hall of Fame. There are twenty names on the list and it will be trimmed to five later this year but a big congratulations to both Bill and Warren for making it this far..What does Jim Yates have to do to win a round? Jim dropped one by .0003 in St. Louis and then he lost by .0008 in Denver and the only thing that gets him is a shot on the Motel 6 screen when we show the "Who Got The Light" award. Even with those two, tough losses, Jim is still in fourth place and he's only about seven rounds out of first. Like I said earlier, this is a big race for anyone who wants to contend for the championship.

Hines vs Matt Guidera

The motorcycles won't be in Seattle but they will return to action in Sonoma and when they do Andrew Hines will be the point's leader. Following his win in Denver Andrew moved twenty-eight points ahead of Angelle Sampey. Antron Brown is in third and Chip Ellis is in fourth and all four of those drivers have a shot at the title. I hope they all enjoy their week off because Sonoma will be huge for them.Chip Ellis, on the Drag Specialties bike, was the top qualifier and he also set low elapsed time for the seventh time in his career which ties him with Terry Vance on that list. Hey, anytime you can be mentioned in the same sentence with Terry Vance it's a good thing. Did you know that four riders, Matt Hines, Dave Schultz, Angelle and John Myers account for exactly half of the low elapsed time records in the history of the class?....Congratulations go out to the sportsman winners in Denver including Dean Carter, who did it with a brand new car, Ryan McClanahan, who did it at the age of seventeen, Gary Wamboldt who did it at his home track and Duane Kohl who did it in his first final round at a national event.