HANFORD, Calif. — Two-time defending NARC champion Dominic Scelzi continued his dominance of the Peter Murphy Classic Saturday night finale by posting his third straight $11,000 sprint car victory at Kings Speedway.
The winning ride in this 30-lap NAPA Auto Parts feature was the Jimmy Carr-wrenched, Scelzi Enterprise/Whipple Superchargers/Red Rose Transportation No. 41 Maxim.
Scelzi, who won the hotly contested pole shuffle, jumped out to an early lead but had his advantage negated by caution flags in the early going. Shane Golobic was in the hunt from the start and battled wheel-to-wheel with the leader for several circuits before taking the lead on lap five. Golobic, in the Works Limited NO. 57 EMI, and Scelzi would slide and counter-slide for several laps before Scelzi secured the point on the seventh trip past the flag stand. Golobic led laps five and six.
Scelzi had his hands full negotiating lapped traffic shortly thereafter, but made all the right moves navigating his way around and through slower cars. Golobic mounted one more solid challenge for the point on a lap-13 restart, but was unable to make anything stick. Scelzi proceeded to master the three-eighths mile oval the remaining distance to secure his second win of the season by a healthy 4.7-second margin.
“This used to be a race that plagued me,” said Scelzi in victory lane, after scoring his 21st career NARC victory.
“I broke my back at his race in 2015, and then in 2021, we couldn’t lose, and we were strong in 2022. Last night I felt like I knew what we needed to be a little bit better, but I truly didn’t know what it was going to take to win. Corey (Day) is so talented and tough to beat, and he’s only getting better, and he’s got such a talented group of drivers behind him. Still, this old guy isn’t done yet.”
Day would end his weekend second in the Jason Meyers Racing fielded Meyers Constructors/Four C’s Construction No. 14 KPC, chased by the Toyota Racing Development/Roth Motorsports/HR Livestock No. 83 Maxim driven by James McFadden.
Justin Sanders brought the Demo Mittry-owned Farmer’s Brewing/North County Plastering No. 2x Maxim home in fourth. Golobic rounded out the top five.
“Losing to Dominic says a lot, and this race means a lot to him,” stated Day, “the dynamic of the race didn’t play out the way I needed to for me. I wasted too much time at the beginning of the race, and starting seventh was not great for us. I knew Dominic was going to be good up front. He was coming in the 360 race, and I knew Jimmy (Carr, crew chief) would have his car going well.”
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 2. 14-Corey Day[7]; 3. 83-James McFadden[4]; 4. 2X-Justin Sanders[5]; 5. 57W-Shane Golobic[2]; 6. 21T-Cole Macedo[8]; 7. 88N-DJ Netto[11]; 8. 2K-Kaleb Montgomery[13]; 9. 24-Chase Johnson[9]; 10. 42X-Justyn Cox[6]; 11. 12B-Dawson Faria[20]; 12. 18T-Tanner Holmes[12]; 13. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[21]; 14. 69-Bud Kaeding[10]; 15. X1-Michael Faccinto[19]; 16. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr[14]; 17. 115-Nick Parker[17]; 18. 37-Michael Pombo[22]; 19. 0-Jonathan Allard[25]; 20. 26-Billy Aton[18]; 21. 36-Craig Stidham[15]; 22. 4-Burt Foland Jr[23]; 23. 88A-Joey Ancona[16]; 24. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[3]; 25. 72W-Kurt Nelson[24]