Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Scelzi treading water in Funny Car race

Thursday, June 10, 2004 | 9:47 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.

As the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series this weekend begins a stretch of three races in three weeks, Gary Scelzi is viewing the swing as a critical one for his hopes of challenging for the Funny Car championship.

Scelzi, a three-time Top Fuel champion who is in his second full season in the Funny Car ranks, sits seventh in points going into this weekend's Pontiac Excitement NHRA Nationals at National Trail Raceway outside of Columbus, Ohio.

"It's important to keep our heads above water," said Scelzi, who trails Whit Bazemore by 212 points after nine of 23 events. "We need to go rounds, we need to win a race or two. And then we need to evaluate where we're at after these three races."

Scelzi, who earned his first Funny Car victory last year at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., still is searching for his first win this season. He has advanced to one final this year -- at Atlanta Dragway last month -- but has been ousted in either the first or second round of eliminations seven times, including two first-round losses in each of the past two races.

That is the kind of result Scelzi said he has to avoid during this three-race stretch.

"We need to come out swinging right now, that's what we need to do," he said. "We don't need to fall any further behind; we need to make some gains because you're either going to come out of here right in the middle of it or you can come out way behind.

"Before we get into the Western Swing (in July), we need to be right in the middle of this thing -- otherwise, we could lose sight of our goal."

"The PSCA Pro Street Series produces some of the most exciting heads-up action in all of drag racing," said Chris Blair, LVMS' senior director of drag racing operations. "Although we already have three PSCA events listed on our 2004 schedule, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to provide Las Vegas-area drag-racing fans with another chance to watch the 220 mph Pro Street doorslammers."

The Calvert Racing PSCA Summer Nationals will be the second of four PSCA events scheduled at The Strip this year. Nearly 200 racers from 10 states participated in the March PSCA event here and equally large fields are expected for the upcoming Labor Day Nationals and Mickey Thompson Pro Street World Finals in November.

County Music Television will be at "Midnight Mayhem" at The Strip on June 18 to film an hour-long documentary the network is producing on street racing. ...

John Phlegar (Super Pro), Scott Machael (Pro), Bill Culver (Street), Leo Shaver (Motorcycle) and Bill Dudley (Sport Compact) won their respective classes in last weekend's fifth Jerry's Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series points event at The Strip. Luke Winters (Thunder Division) and Ryan Valandingham (Lightning Division) were winners in the NHRA Junior Dragster competition.