TAMPA, Fla. — Dominic Scelzi is returning to a Roth Motorsports No. 83 sprint car this weekend for a High Limit Racing event at Golden Isles Speedway.
The Deuces Wild two-night show runs Thursday and Saturday at the dirt oval in Waynesville, Ga.
“I know I’ve never raced in Georgia, but I don’t think I’ve ever even been to Georgia,” Scelzi said. “My goal is to make the dash both nights and run inside the top 10 both nights. I have a lot of confidence going in and I feel comfortable.”
Scelzi joined Roth Motorsports last week when he filled in for James McFadden during the High Limit opening event hosted by East Bay Raceway Park. The ‘Battle at the Bay’ marked Scelzi’s first time competing at the track.
“Our results didn’t show how good we were, but we had really good speed,” he said. “I think the hardest thing jumping in something new, especially racing with a lot of good guys, is getting yourself up to speed as fast as you can. We didn’t do as good of a job in qualifying as we hoped the first night.”
Scelzi timed in 12th quickest in his group a week ago Monday. He gained a position to finish fifth in a heat race, earning a lock-in position into the main event.
“To be able to get by Brent Marks on the start and get us into the feature was a huge part of the success of the night,” he said. “In the feature we threw some things at it that made me comfortable. I felt we were a top-10 car, but I just wasn’t able to break into the top 10 by the time the race ended.”
Scelzi’s run from 20th to 12th was tied for the second-most positions gained.
The event concluded the following night, when Scelzi qualified fourth quickest in his group out of more than 25 competitors.
“We hot lapped a lot better and qualified a lot better,” he said. “We ran well in the heat race and our second-place finish got us into the dash. We were as fast as Brad (Sweet) in the dash, but the bottom got sped up and we got passed to end third.”
Scelzi overcame early trouble when a competitor ran into him, damaging the nose wing. After a couple of visits to the work area, he rallied from the back of the pack to garner a 13th-place result.
“In the feature we got run over right away,” he said. “We were able to fix the nose wing and drive up through there to finish 13th. It wasn’t what we wanted, but to recover and pass the amount of good cars we did was great.”