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Photo by Bob Tarvin
Sixteen-year-old Dominic Scelzi brings home first career King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series victory on Saturday night at the Stockton 99 Dirt Track
By Gary Thomas
Stockton, CA – August 3, 2013…They always say first wins are the sweetest and Dominic Scelzi’s first career King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series victory will certainly be one he will never forget. The talented 16-year-old ran a g...reat race in the feature and took advantage when leader Jonathan Allard suffered a blown motor with 10-laps to go. After taking the checkered however, chaos then ensued when Scelzi got together with a car in turn two and flipped upside down. With the crowd buzzing after what they had just witnessed Scelzi leaped from his car and ran towards the front stretch in joy, during what was one of the most memorable victory lane celebrations in recent memory. He was met by brother Giovanni, father Gary and many others who showed their appreciation to the youngster. The 2013 season has been Scelzi’s first in a 410 Sprint Car and he has definitely opened up the eyes of many in Northern California over the course of the year.
“Right now I feel like the dumbest person on the planet,” said an emotional yet jubilant Scelzi. “I didn’t know the checkered flag was out so I kept going as hard as I could. This is just amazing to finally win a King of the West race. I lost both my grandpa’s this year and I know they were looking down on me tonight. I can’t thank everyone enough who has helped me in my career. It means so much. Jonathan Allard has helped me a ton this year so big thanks to him. I don’t know what else to say, but this is the best day of my life.”
The 30-lapper began with pole sitter Willie Croft, Chico’s Jonathan Allard and Scelzi making it a wild three car fight for the lead in the first corner, but in turn two contact between Scelzi and Croft resulted in the Tri-C Machine Sprinter getting upside down. This moved Scelzi up to the pole, but when the green lights came on Allard rocketed into the lead. The three-time and defending KWS 410 champ turned laps at lightning fast speed early on, as his Ashley Smith prepped Williams Motorsports No. 0 was on kill.
As Allard dealt with lapped traffic however, Scelzi made numerous peaks to his inside trying to make something happen. The four-time & reigning Dirt Cup champ kept the young gun at bay though and began to pull away to a sizeable advantage as the race wore on. Just when it looked like Allard would be on way to his fifth win of the year, drama occurred with 10-laps left when he slowed to a stop off turns three & four with a blown engine. This gave the lead to Scelzi for the upcoming double file restart, with Scotts Valley’s Evan Suggs now in second.
When the green lights came back on Scelzi and Suggs drag raced down the front stretch and off turn two it was Scelzi getting the lead. Once out front the Fresno wheel-man drove hard and smart to race away from the field and take the checkered by 1.770 seconds for victory.
Suggs crossed the stripe in second to score his best finish of the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series season aboard the Suggs Racing No. 33e machine. “It’s really nice to be up here on the podium for the first time this season,” he commented. “We just haven’t capitalized on some opportunities this year so to be able to finally do that feels pretty good. I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and thank my whole team for giving me a great car. Hopefully this will be the start of some great runs for our team.”
Coming home third and earning his best career King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series finish was Fresno’s Carson Macedo in the Tarlton & Son Inc. No. 21x mount. “It definitely feels good to get up here on the podium for the first time and I can’t say enough about my team,” Macedo commented. “We have been running really well and to get a good finish tonight means a lot. I want to congratulate Dominic on his win tonight and hopefully soon we’ll be in that same position.”
King of the West point leader Kyle Hirst tallied yet another top-five finish in fourth aboard the Roth Enterprises No. 83jr and Grass Valley’s Jason Statler scored his third top-five effort in the last four weeks in the DF Rios Motorsports No. 00 machine. Rounding out the top-10 was hard charger in the feature Brent Kaeding from Campbell, Hanford’s DJ Netto, Elk Grove’s Bobby McMahan, Elk Grove’s Sean McMahan and Corning’s Bud Walberg.
Next Saturday night the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series will be in action at the Reno Tahoe Fernley Speedway in Fernley, Nevada.
www.sprintcarchallengetour.com
www.placervillespeedway.com
www.stocktondirttrack.com
www.thunderbowlraceway.com
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