SCELZI BREAKS THROUGH WITH FIRST
CAREER WIN AT OCEAN
WATSONVILLE,
CALIFORNIA (August 18, 2012) – 16 year-old rookie Dominic Scelzi from Fresno broke
through for his first career win on Friday night at Ocean Speedway Watsonville,
with a thrilling last lap move to slide past Stockton's Brad Furr for the
victory.
The win
came during the fourth Johnny Key Classic qualifying race that drew an all-star
field to the quarter-mile dirt oval.Scelzi locked himself into next Saturday's $10,000 to win 52nd Johnny
Key Classic, presented by DDNi, joining Tommy Tarlton, Nick Green, Andy
Forsberg, Shane Golobic, and Brad Furr as qualified cars for the race.
"You
know what, in qualifying tonight I roll up and I see Jason Meyers next to me
and I thought 'I'm living the dream right now,'" Scelzi said."I'm speechless right now!"
Visalia's Steven Tiner led the 21 car field
to green for the 30 lap feature.The
first eight laps went caution-free.Golobic, the points leader from Fremont, made a sweeping pass outside of
two-time World of Outlaws champion Jason Meyers of Clovis to take sixth on lap seven while
Tiner attacked lapped traffic early on.
A bobble by
Tiner coming out of turn two evolved into a massive crash as Tiner hit the
fence nose first and came down hard on the wall.Tiner was able to walk away uninjured but the
TSG Recycling #37x was done for the
evening.
Stockton's Furr inherited the lead on the
fast and hooked up track while Brent Kaeding defended second place with a
damaged front wing.Kaeding successfully
held off Scelzi and Green for numerous laps before Green jumped the cushion, nosed
into the turn two wall, and flipped to end his evening early.
That lap 14
red flag opened the door for Scelzi to move past Kaeding and set his sights on
Furr.The caution came out again on lap
20 for Jason Toft of Petaluma backing into the turn three wall,
setting up a 10 lap shootout to the finish.
Golobic led
16th place starting rookie Carson Macedo through the pack up into third and
fourth respectively off the restart.Scelzi charged hard after Furr but had to ride out a big wheel stand
while jumping the cushion in turn two.Scelzi did a wheelie down the backstretch but gathered his #41 ride up
to chase Furr again.
Furr
quickly encountered lapped traffic which set up the turning point of the
race.With two laps to go, Furr banged
wheels with San Jose's Michael Twitchell.Suddenly the top-three cars of Furr, Scelzi,
and Golobic found themselves nose-to-tail as the white flag flew.
Coming into
turn one, Scelzi dove into turn one and pulled off a huge slide job to the take
the lead and bring Golobic with him.The
aggressive move by Scelzi paid off as he took the win ahead of Golobic, Furr,
DDNi Hard Charger Carson Macedo, and Kaeding.
The win not
only was Scelzi's first in his young career, but served as a comeback victory
after suffering a concussion in a flip earlier this year at Ocean.
"This
track has scared me since the day I got here and we've had nothing but bad
luck," Scelzi said."I said to
myself 'I'm going to win here and conquer this place.'My Grandpa is in the hospital and he's in our
prayers...this is for him!"
Both Golobic
and Furr had their minds on next week's Johnny Key.The top-two in the points are both winless in
2012.
"They
were going at it and I wish we could have been a little better and run with
them," Golobic said."I'm
looking forward to the Key next week.I
had a little throttle issue; it was sticking a little bit which made it tough
for me.At Gold Cup last year Jason
Meyers schooled me on a start and it felt good to get a little redemption there
and pass him on the top."
"Well
obviously I'm a little disappointed that we didn't win but the kid did a good
job," Furr said."It was a
good move and I think I could have won it if I had had one more chance.Hopefully we can get it done at the Johnny
Key where the money is on the line."
Heat race
wins went to Watsonville's Justin Sanders, Golobic, and Auburn's Cole Wood.The DDNi Hard Charger was Lemoore's Carson
Macedo and the Ray Scheidt's Electric fast-time award went to Jason Meyers with
a 11.512 second lap around the track.
The Ocean
Sprints presented by Taco Bravo return next Saturday night for the 52nd Johnny
Key Classic paying $10,000 to the winner!
For more
information on the Ocean Sprint Cars presented by Taco Bravo log onto http://www.oceansprints.com
and for more on the Ocean Speedway visit http://www.oceanspeedway.com
Ocean
Speedway would like to thank Taco Bravo, Digital Delivery Networks, Get Som
Sports, Ray Scheidt's Electric, Hoosier Tires West, and Kaeding Performance for
their support of the 2012 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo.
August
17, 2012 Ocean Sprints presented by Taco Bravo - Watsonville, California
RAY SCHEIDT'S ELECTRIC QUALIFYING: 21 Jason Meyers 11.512
HEAT RACEONE: OB1 Justin Sanders
HEAT RACE TWO: 9j Shane Golobic
HEAT RACE THREE: 17w Cole Wood
30 LAP
FEATURE: 1) 41 Dominic Scelzi 2) 9j Shane Golobic 3) 2 Brad Furr 4) 21x Carson
Macedo 5) 69 Brent Kaeding 6) 21 Jason Meyers 7) OB1 Justin Sanders 8) 98 Ryan
Rusconi 9) 72w Kurt Nelson 10) 58 Jerry Bonnema 11) 6m Jon Maiwald 12) 17w Cole
Wood 13) 8 Jeremy Chisum 14) 2x Carter Train 15) 37 Michael Twitchell 16) 68
Marvin Mitchell 17) 27 Jason Toft 18) 14 Nick Green 19) 37x Steven Tiner 20) 99
Wayne Katen DNS 25z Jason Chisum
LAP
LEADERS: 37x Steven Tiner 1-8, 2 Brad Furr 9-29, 41 Dominic Scelzi 30
www.stevenblakesley.com
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