Dominic Scelzi

a main

FEATURE

SPRINTS

DOMINIC SCELZI

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’

By Alex Nieten

WHEN IT WAS FIRST announced during the off-season that Dominic Scelzi would be scaling back his racing to the west coast, many assumed this meant he would be taking his foot off the gas. With the news of his first child on the way and an elevated role in his family business, the sprint car would take a backseat. Paychecks and diapers would have to be priority over winner’s checks and trophies, right? Well, not exactly. While balancing these added responsibilities, the 24 year old has still managed to have a career-year, and he doesn’t plan on slowing down.

Scelzi’s 2021 campaign kicked off in January’s Wild Wing Shootout at Arizona Speedway. While the team didn’t earn a win at the three-night show, a trio of top-10s including a runner-up in the finale announced the beginnings of what has been a dominant season. The 41 car has since tallied 21 victories, all in California or Washington. Scelzi credits his extensive experience with racing across the country and the team’s addition of crew chief Jimmy Carr for shaping this year’s performance.

“This is my tenth year driving a sprint car,” Scelzi said. “I’ve been racing sprint cars for such a long time. I know what to expect and I know what’s expected of me. I know how the races turn out. I’m not a young kid anymore. In a lot of ways, I’m a veteran. I’ve got an understanding of how these races unfold and I’ve got an understanding of what it takes to win. And then you throw on top of it, which I think is more important than anything else, is the fact that the guy I’m working with has won everything there is to win in sprint car racing. When you got a guy like Jimmy Carr in your corner who has had so much success with so many different drivers at Roth Motorsports and Tony Stewart Racing and all of these places, how do you not grow success?”

While the bulk of his recent racing that has conditioned him as a driver has been nationwide, this Fresno native’s heart lies with the west coast racing circuit. Scelzi carries an appreciation for the history of his home region and holds personal ties to many of the prestigious events on the left coast. The connection has made a few

Photo: Paul Arch

Photo: Paul Arch

of his triumphs this year some of the most special moments of his career.

FRIENDSHIP WITH MURPHY COMES FULL CIRCLE

The first major win of 2021 came in the Peter Murphy Classic. The event is promoted by Murphy himself and has become one of the most anticipated events of the NARC-KWS calendar. Scelzi and Murphy have a close bond that began in racing with friendly banter, grew with pain and struggle and has been cemented in healing.

“When I moved up to the sprint car classes, racing with the NARC series and racing Hanford, we basically were at the same place Peter was all the time,” said Scelzi. “We immediately had a really good, close friendship. Peter would always give the peace sign before the races when I would drive by his trailer or he would drive by mine and I would always flip him off.”

On a grim night at Antioch in 2013, the two changed roles with their usual salutes on a night when the course of Murphy’s life also changed.

“The night he got hurt, he was getting ready to get in his car as I was pushing up to staging,” Scelzi reflected. “He flipped me off. It caught me off guard, and I thought it was funny, so I gave him the peace sign. And then obviously that night he goes on to have a career ending injury. I was so torn up by it because he was a good friend Scelzi spent several years on the road roaming the country in pursuit of sprint car stardom - like in this shot from Lincoln in Pennsylvania in 2019 - before returning home to California in 2021 to work the family business and dominate the Golden State racing scene.

of mine and somebody I just thoroughly enjoyed being around.”

Following the accident, Scelzi and his father, Gary, came to Murphy’s side the first moment they could to offer comfort and encouragement with a gesture any racer would want: a way to be involved in racing, even if in just the smallest of paths.

“When he was able to get out of the hospital,” Scelzi said. “My dad and I were some of the first people that came to his work. We brought him a couple front wings and said, ‘take us much time as you need, take as long as you need and just practice putting the stickers on’ because he had a very long road to recovery.”

The following year, Scelzi worked at Murphy’s shop while struggling with his own racing operation. Murphy teamed with Scelzi to be his crew chief in his first racing role since the injury, eventually guiding Scelzi to a revitalizing NARC win at Stockton and a late season point lead with the premier west coast series in 2015.

In an unfortunate turn, Scelzi’s bid for the championship ended with a broken back at none other than the second edition of the Peter Murphy Classic. While to a lesser degree, Scelzi found himself staring down a road to recovery like he had seen his friend Peter Murphy forced to face. The young racer’s spirits were tested, but Scelzi not only recovered he went on to expand his racing to a national level beginning in 2016.

Fast forward more than five years later to a mid-May weekend in 2021 when Scelzi put the bow on the tale of their friendship. Scelzi not only won the NARC-KWS $11,000 to win portion of the Peter Murphy Classic, but he swept the entire two-night four-feature event. After claiming the NARC portion, Scelzi climbed from his car and was first met with a hug by a teary-eyed Murphy.

“The NARC race at Tulare, that to me is the Peter Murphy Classic. That’s what it’s all about,” Scelzi said. “It’s the race I’d wanted to win as bad as anything. To go Friday night and win the 360 and 410 portions was incredible. And then double it back up the next night with the 360 and 410 portions again and winning legitimately everything. We were quick time, we won the heat race, we won the dash and we won the main event… To win all four was emotionally beyond special.”

THE BRADWAY & THE DIRT CUP

The next prestigious event claimed by the 41 was the 30th running of the Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial in June. The race honoring one of the west coast’s most talented drivers of the ‘80s has been around longer than Scelzi has been alive. Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway had hosted the Bradway until this year when it relocated to Placerville. Ironically, Scelzi wasn’t a fan of the move, but was excited about a potential victory in the Durica

“We immediately had a really good, close friendship. Peter would always give the peace sign before the races when I would drive by his trailer or he would drive by mine and I would always flip him off.” - Dominic Scelzi on his relationship with Peter Murphy.

family’s last year of involvement.

“I was probably one of the most upset that it moved to Placerville,” Scelzi admits. “I felt like I run really good at Chico. I don’t run very good at Placerville. The Durica family has put that race on and helped support that race for a long time, and it being their last year I thought it would be so cool to be able to win.”

While the Bradway doesn’t provide as personal of a connection as the Peter Murphy Classic, the historical element made for another memorable night for Scelzi once he took the checkered flag.

“It was so special to put my name on that race,” Scelzi said. “There’s so many incredible guys that just win it once. To put my name on it once with so many amazing drivers is something I will never forget.”

Just two weeks after Placerville, Scelzi tacked on another historical west coast race to the win list that tied into his Bradway triumph, adding yet another layer to this dream season. He and his team made a last minute decision to venture up to Washington for the 49th annual Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway. Scelzi nearly mirrored his Peter Murphy Classic performance, missing a sweep of the three-night show by only one spot. The tie-in to the Bradway Memorial? The Dirt Cup is the event that Bradway Jr. sadly lost his life competing in. Scelzi not only won an established race honoring a legend, but he also turned around two weeks later and won a coveted staple of the Pacific Northwest that Bradway himself used to chase before Scelzi was born.

“What’s so weird is the timing,” Scelzi said. “Bradway lost his life at Skagit at the Dirt Cup, so it was a little weird… Just a couple weeks later we go up and win the 49th running of the Dirt Cup. We ran second on Thursday, won on Friday and won on Saturday… I’d never even been to a Dirt Cup before. I’d only ever dreamed of it and only ever watched old videos.”

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL?

So, what exactly is it about these events out west that warrant such appreciation and importance to local drivers and fans? Obviously, Scelzi has the deep personal connection to the Peter Murphy Classic, but even the drivers who don’t hold the same ties value the event. This year’s was only the seventh edition, and it has already blossomed into one of the most anticipated and significant races of the CA calendar.

There are many others, too. The three events previously mentioned are only a small portion of the many major dates on the left coast racing circuit. The Pombo-Sargent Classic, Howard Kaeding Classic, the Tribute to Gary Patterson are a few more, and they still leave a handful unmentioned. Why is the west coast such a fertile location capable of cultivating so many of these annual races into something that has Scelzi feeling like he’s living a dream by winning just a few of them?

“There’s a lot of these races that really hold a lot of weight,” Scelzi explained. “The money always gets brought up. It may not be one hundred thousand to win, but it’s five thousand to win, ten thousand to win or a race that pays a little bit more. Then it’s the prestige. These are legends of the sprint car world we’re racing for, Dave

Photo: Devin Mayo

Bradway, Peter Murphy and Howard Kaeding. These people shaped how racing in the sprint car world is. I’ve always felt like the west coast guys have always done it better than anywhere else in the sense of really making memorial races special… The prestige of winning these races out here is really driven home because the fans get into it, and the drivers know how much it means to put their names on these races.”

ICING ON THE CAKE?

The accomplishment that could potentially be the final page of Scelzi’s storybook 2021 isn’t any single event. It would be his first NARC-KWS championship. NARC has been the premier sprint car sanctioning body in California since 1960. The best drivers the west has ever seen fill the list of champions.

Along with the historical significance, Scelzi has some added motivation to earn the title. He’s had two chances where he may have been the fastest car on the tour but didn’t win the championship for one reason or another. His injury in the 2015 Peter Murphy Classic while leading the point and, in 2019, he won a series high five of the nineteen events but a pair of worse than 20th place finishes dropped him to third in the final standings. Finishing 2021 atop the standings would not only redeem the previous misfortune, but it would also cap the dream year. He’s currently locked in a tight battle at press time with Tim Kaeding that will come down to the final event – the Tribute to GP, an ode to another California legend Gary Patterson.

“I think it would be incredible,” Scelzi said of a potential NARC title. “We’re really doing something special right now, something that not many people are able to do in a career, let alone a single season. So, to be able to put my name on a NARC championship is something that I truly, one hundred percent believe would one of the greatest accomplishments that a driver of the west coast can accomplish. There’s a lot of amazing guys that have been able to put their names on those trophies that I’ve always admired or think of very highly in the racing community.”

“The prestige of winning these races out here is really driven home because the fans get into it, and the drivers know how much it means to put their names on these races.” - Dominic Scelzi

Regardless of how the remainder of the season goes, Scelzi and the 41 team have already had a career year that they will never forget. A California kid collecting so many trophies on the west coast including some of the biggest annual events in one year might feel like a mere dream for some, but Scelzi continues to make it a reality.

“I feel like its surreal, the stuff we’re doing right now,” Scelzi said. “I wake up sometimes and I pinch myself.”

THE DOM FILE GET TO KNOW DOMINIC SCELZI

By Ashley Zimmerman

Date and Place of Birth - May 2nd, 1997 in Fresno, California. Earliest Racing Memory - Believe it or not, the World of Outlaws in Sedalia, Missouri. I think I was five years old. Favorite Music Artist - I love Chris Cornell but I’m kind of all over the place when it comes to music. I’ll go from Tupac to Conway Twitty back to Sound Garden, and I may even have some Dubstep in there.

Best Way to Spend a Saturday Night Away

From A Racetrack - Having a good dinner or something, but anymore, it’s just hanging out at home with my daughter, my fiancé, and my dogs. I have such an awesome family. I’m very close with my parents, and my brother.

Bucket List Races Still Remaining To Run

- My two goals left are to win a World of Outlaw race and to win the Trophy Cup total points. Those two deals they’re really big.

Sports Team You’ll Pay Money To Watch

- I have a really good time going to watch the San Jose Sharks play hockey. I love watching baseball, like, watching the Giants, I’m actually a Yankee fan, but I’ve never been able to see them play. I’m a Colts fan with football. I’m a very casual sports fan, but I’ll go to games all over the country.

What is the one drag race event you’d

recommend to a first timer - To be honest with you, any of them are incredible, but the US Nationals in Indianapolis is just like Knoxville only a drag race.

What does Gio (his brother) do better than

you do - Flip side to that what do you do better than Gio - besides grow a beard! - Gio is my best friend, [he laughs}, I would say he is definitely a better mechanic than me in the racing world… I’m pretty good at having a good time! I would say honestly, it’s probably my best talent, is just being able to have a good time anywhere and everywhere. We complement each other really well.

What was your highlight of announcing for

DV - I think my highlight was not dropping an F-bomb. It’s so much fun doing it, but I was so nervous. When I talk normally, I curse and I rant and rave. I was so proud of myself for not cursing. Who should we be following on Twitter - Danny Dietrich and Justin Grant for sure. Photo: Devin Mayo

Lasting impressions on being the Taco King

- I thought it was so funny, one drunken tweet turned into so much. I mean, we sold countless t-shirts, and now I’m stuck with it as the taco king. It’s so funny because if you ask anybody, they know that I’m more of a pasta freak than a taco guy, but you know, I love being known and being loved for something that’s not just “yeah, he’s a really good racer.” I like being more than that. Best accomplishment of 2021 - First and foremost, becoming a dad. That’s my greatest accomplishment and a trophy that I’m going to be able to hang out with for a very long time and I’m loving that. Then I would say the Peter Murphy Classic, that weekend was incredible.

This is just the beginning – for more on Dominic Scelzi, head to dirtempiremagazine.com for exclusive online only content with more expansive answers to these questions and more questions, including his thoughts on his dustup with Devon Borden at the Trophy Cup and how to make a perfect taco.