Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Scelzi looks to move up Funny Car standings

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

With his first NHRA Funny Car victory under his belt, Gary Scelzi is ready to make a statement in the final third of the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season.

Scelzi, a three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion who switched to Funny Car in 2002, is eighth in points going to into this weekend's Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway and loaded with confidence after a win two weeks ago in Sonoma, Calif.

"It's the momentum that I think we need to finish the season," Scelzi said of the victory. "We felt that we had a winning car since we pulled into the gates at the first race at Pomona and we had talked about this several times, but to do it is big.

"There are a couple of guys on the team who have never won a race and (crew chief) Mike Neff and I had been telling these people, 'Hey this is a great team, we can win races and everybody is doing a great job.' But when you actually do it, they know you're not lying to them. I think you're going to see a pretty upbeat bunch when we pull into the gate at Brainerd this weekend."

That includes Scelzi, who will be making his first trip to Brainerd since a horrific crash there in 2001, when he still was running the Winston Top Fuel dragster. Scelzi walked away from the crash, which involved fellow competitor John Smith, but it prompted him to make the move from Top Fuel to Funny Car.

"When I crashed in the first round here in 2001, that was the deciding factor for me to switch to Funny Car," Scelzi said. "I decided I had had enough of Top Fuel dragsters. That was my third major crash and that's when I said to myself, 'You know what, I'm going to make a change.'

"We knew we were losing Winston as a sponsor and I made my mind up in the following race in Indy. In fact, I told (crew chief) Alan Johnson in Indianapolis that if he races, I'll race with him -- but only if he has a Funny Car. That's how much that accident played on me."

Scelzi ran seven races for Johnson in a Funny Car in 2002 before the two parted ways. Scelzi hooked up with Don Schumacher this season in the Oakley Dodge Stratus. Although it took the team 15 races to reach the winner's circle, Scelzi said the Sonoma victory would give his team a psychological edge in the final eight races of the season.

"I think we have a mental advantage just for ourselves," Scelzi said. "I believe in our minds we know that we can win. And we're going to come here and try to strut our stuff and try to win another one."

While Brainerd is the track where Anderson's drag-racing was reborn, it also is the track where one of his longtime friends, John Hagen, died following a crash in 1983. Anderson served as Hagen's crew chief at the time of the accident.

"Being at Brainerd can be bittersweet for me," Anderson said. "One of my closest friends was killed there and that is always in the back of my mind when I go there. That was absolutely the low point in my life and it took me a couple of years to pull out of that.

"That track is also the place where my career started again and it is a place where all of my friends and family can come together. We want to win that race. It would be a great tribute to John to be in winner's circle at Brainerd."

Anderson left drag racing following Hagen's death and did not return until 1986, when he visited Brainerd as a fan. While at the races, Anderson hooked up with Pro Stock driver Kurt Johnson and soon was offered a job as a crew chief.

Dixon, a two-time winner in Brainerd is one victory shy of matching the NHRA records for most Top Fuel wins in a season (nine) and most consecutive victories (four). But Dixon insisted he wasn't thinking about records as he prepared for the Lucas Oil Nationals.

"We're just trying to win another Powerade title -- I really don't think any farther down the line than that," said Dixon, who holds a 310-point lead over Doug Kalitta. "Along the way, if there are records that are broke or things that are done, it's just icing on the cake."