Sun, 17 Sep 2000, 05:50 PM READING - Top Fuel Final, Round 4 Eliminations

By Larry Sullivan

MOHNTON, Pa. - Results of final, round 4 eliminations in Top Fuel at the 16th annual Keystone Nationals:

 Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-Rd-Qua-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed
   2 Gary Scelzi         4.554 321.27  Q    4 Joe Amato           4.579 312.93
   (R Pustari   ) 0.461  4.615 315.86  E1   (R Hartman-Sm) 0.501  4.697 291.82
   (K Bernstein ) 0.489  4.687 304.46  E2   (A Cowin     ) 0.481  4.729 293.98
   (D Herbert   ) 0.502  4.634 308.57  E3   (B Vandergrif) 0.492  4.665 311.56
                  0.479  4.639 312.78  E4 *****WINNER***** 0.485  4.626 310.27

5:38 PM Unofficially Scelzi came into the final round leading Tony Schumacher by 8 points in the Winston Championship chase, looking to extend that lead to 28. Amato just wanted to win back-to-back Keystone Nationals, a race that eluded him for so many years. The race was all you could ask for, Scelzi with a very slim lead at the green and Amato going by in the final few feet of the track to win by a margin of victory = 0.007 seconds (approximately 3 feet). Amato's win leaves Scelzi tied with eight other drivers, including Amato, with six national event wins in a single season. The win is Amato's second of the year, his first coming at Denver and evens his 2000-season round-win record against Scelzi at 2-2, not counting golf games.