October 17, 2023 | By Inside Line Promotions

Dominic Scelzi wins Trophy Cup Tune-Up at Thunderbowl Raceway

TULARE, Calif. — Dominic Scelzi captured his 12 th triumph of the season last Saturday during the Trophy Cup tune-up at Thunderbowl Raceway.

Scelzi was second quickest in his qualifying group and he won a heat race to advance into the feature redraw.

"We timed in pretty good and won our heat race," he said. "They didn't have a dash and we were lucky enough to redraw the No. 1 for the feature. We ran the majority of the race unchallenged. Traffic was the hardest thing. It was all over the place. I had to make some aggressive moves. That left the door open one time for Corey (Day) and we were side by side down the frontstretch with about four laps to go. I took the top going into the corner and it made him stuck behind two lapped cars and I was able to pull away."

The win came on the heels of a frustrating outing the previous night at Kings Speedway, where Scelzi qualified fifth quickest overall to kick off the Morrie Williams Memorial featuring the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series.

"We were really good and I felt like we did everything we needed," he said. "We qualified well and ran strong to finish second in the heat race, but all night I struggled with feeling like something was not right. I didn't feel the engine was running as it should have, but it was hard to argue with it when we had good speed. In the heat race I got significantly slower and slower. We assumed we had something wrong with the engine so we swapped engines. We started on the pole of the dash and won it. The car felt great, but I didn't have stellar speed."

Scelzi lined up on the pole for the main event and he led the opening handful of laps at the dirt oval in Hanford, Calif.

"I knew from Lap 1 we had an issue," he said. "The car seemed to go slower and slower with every lap. Unfortunately, we had a power steering pump go bad. At the end of the day it was a fluke deal. I've never had a pump go bad in all of my years racing. We had a good shot to win the race. It was unfortunate we had a part failure cost us, but that's part of racing. Fortunately, we rebounded on Saturday and were able to win."

Scelzi will return to Thunderbowl Raceway this Thursday through Saturday for the 29 th annual Abreu Vineyards Trophy Cup presented by Rudeen Racing.

"I've been so happy with our race car all season long and we've had good speed," he said. "You never know with Trophy Cup. I've had years I've been struggling and we roll in there and everything unfolds how you dream and it goes great. And I've had times going in there with momentum and we struggled. I don't know what to expect, but I feel as confident as ever."


RESULTS

A Feature 25 Laps
1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 2. 14-Corey Day[4]; 3. 0-Tim Kaeding[2]; 4. 2X-Justin Sanders[8]; 5. 83T-Tanner Carrick[3]; 6. 21T-Cole Macedo[7]; 7. 88N-DJ Netto[12]; 8. 121-Caeden Steele[5]; 9. 94X-Landon Brooks[15]; 10. 69-Bud Kaeding[13]; 11. 88A-Joey Ancona[6]; 12. 38-Colby Johnson[11]; 13. 10-Dominic Gorden[10]; 14. 21-Michael Ing[21]; 15. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[9]; 16. 7-Steven Kent[17]; 17. 7P-Jake Andreotti[22]; 18. 9L-Luke Hayes[16]; 19. 12B-Dawson Faria[19]; 20. 14E-Mariah Ede[20]; 21. 18-Grant Champlin[18]; 22. 2K-Gauge Garcia[14]

B Feature 15 Laps
1. 7-Steven Kent[2]; 2. 18-Grant Champlin[3]; 3. 12B-Dawson Faria[5]; 4. 14E-Mariah Ede[4]; 5. 21-Michael Ing[6]; 6. 7P-Jake Andreotti[7]; 7. 5R-Ryan Rocha[9]; 8. 6C-Travis Coelho[8]; 9. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen[10]; 10. 50-Bryce Eames[12]; 11. 63D-Jon DeWees[13]; 12. (DNS) 67G-Grant Duinkerken; 13. (DNS) 10S-Mauro Simone

Heat 1 8 Laps |
1. 121-Caeden Steele[1]; 2. 2K-Gauge Garcia[2]; 3. 0-Tim Kaeding[4]; 4. 9L-Luke Hayes[3]; 5. 7P-Jake Andreotti[6]; 6. 14E-Mariah Ede[5]; 7. 5R-Ryan Rocha[7]; 8. 63D-Jon DeWees[8]

Heat 2 8 Laps |
1. 21T-Cole Macedo[1]; 2. 10-Dominic Gorden[2]; 3. 94X-Landon Brooks[3]; 4. 14-Corey Day[4]; 5. 18-Grant Champlin[5]; 6. 12B-Dawson Faria[6]; 7. 21-Michael Ing[7]; 8. 6C-Travis Coelho[8]

Heat 3 8 Laps |
1. 2X-Justin Sanders[2]; 2. 3-Kaleb Montgomery[1]; 3. 69-Bud Kaeding[3]; 4. 88A-Joey Ancona[4]; 5. 7-Steven Kent[5]; 6. 50-Bryce Eames[7]; 7. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen[6]

Heat 4 8 Laps |
1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 2. 38-Colby Johnson[2]; 3. 83T-Tanner Carrick[4]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto[5]; 5. 67G-Grant Duinkerken[3]; 6. 10S-Mauro Simone[6]; 7. (DNS) 115-Nick Parker

Qualifying 1 2 Laps |
1. 0-Tim Kaeding, 00:13.766[3]; 2. 121-Caeden Steele, 00:13.778[2]; 3. 2K-Gauge Garcia, 00:13.907[7]; 4. 9L-Luke Hayes, 00:14.006[4]; 5. 14E-Mariah Ede, 00:14.066[6]; 6. 7P-Jake Andreotti, 00:14.099[8]; 7. 5R-Ryan Rocha, 00:14.239[5]; 8. 63D-Jon DeWees, 00:14.537[1]

Qualifying 2 2 Laps |
1. 14-Corey Day, 00:13.538[2]; 2. 21T-Cole Macedo, 00:13.640[1]; 3. 10-Dominic Gorden, 00:13.793[8]; 4. 94X-Landon Brooks, 00:13.959[4]; 5. 18-Grant Champlin, 00:14.063[3]; 6. 12B-Dawson Faria, 00:14.077[7]; 7. 21-Michael Ing, 00:14.091[5]; 8. 6C-Travis Coelho, 00:14.184[6]

Qualifying 3 2 Laps |
1. 88A-Joey Ancona, 00:13.619[5]; 2. 3-Kaleb Montgomery, 00:13.643[7]; 3. 2X-Justin Sanders, 00:13.874[1]; 4. 69-Bud Kaeding, 00:13.891[2]; 5. 7-Steven Kent, 00:13.907[4]; 6. 38N-Kyle Rasmussen, 00:14.252[6]; 7. 50-Bryce Eames, 00:14.462[3]

Qualifying 4 2 Laps |
1. 83T-Tanner Carrick, 00:13.626[5]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi, 00:13.705[4]; 3. 38-Colby Johnson, 00:13.834[3]; 4. 67G-Grant Duinkerken, 00:13.848[6]; 5. 88N-DJ Netto, 00:13.877[2]; 6. 10S-Mauro Simone, 00:14.457[7]; 7. 115-Nick Parker, 00:21.254[1]

Western Racesavers 3 Entries
A Feature 15 Laps |
1. 3P-Davey Pombo Jr[1]; 2. 36B-Kevin Barnes Sr[2]; 3. 53-KC Weikle[3]

Heat 1 8 Laps |
1. 3P-Davey Pombo Jr[2]; 2. 36B-Kevin Barnes Sr[1]; 3. 53-KC Weikle[3]

………..

West Coast Sport Compacts 16 Entries
A Feature 1 20 Laps
1. 18X-Dan Myrick[11]; 2. 84-Austin Sprague[8]; 3. 32X-Jason Cook[1]; 4. 26X-Jason Cook Jr[6]; 5. 88-Nick Thompson[4]; 6. 9-Gene Glover[12]; 7. 3RD-Eddie Humphrey III[5]; 8. 27-Patrick Kelley[3]; 9. 43-Helder Santos[13]; 10. 13B-Cheu Gonzalez[15]; 11. 88C-Joshua Dysart[14]; 12. 3D-Jeff Durant[7]; 13. 3R-Tom Brown[10]; 14. (DNS) 82-Randy Brown; 15. (DNS) 28-Greg Baronian

Heat 1 6 Laps
1. 18X-Dan Myrick[6]; 2. 28-Greg Baronian[5]; 3. 3D-Jeff Durant[3]; 4. 3RD-Eddie Humphrey III[2]; 5. 27-Patrick Kelley[4]; 6. 32X-Jason Cook[7]; 7. 43-Helder Santos[1]; 8. 13B-Cheu Gonzalez[8]

Heat 2 6 Laps
1. 9-Gene Glover[6]; 2. 3R-Tom Brown[5]; 3. 84-Austin Sprague[1]; 4. 26X-Jason Cook Jr[4]; 5. 88-Nick Thompson[3]; 6. 82-Randy Brown[2]; 7. 88C-Joshua Dysart[8]; 8. (DNS) 11-Shawn DePriest