PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Giovanni Scelzi had gone more than a year without winning a feature when he won Sunday night’s Bob Weikert Memorial at Port Royal Speedway.
Scelzi acknowledged he was surprised that the High Limit Racing victory came at the half-mile track where he had struggled in the past. But following a midway red flag, Scelzi blasted past Chase Dietz to grab the lead.
“I didn’t think it would come here. I felt like I was just getting good before the red and didn’t want to change anything,” Scelzi explained. “Normally, putting fuel in them changes your balance for the worse, but it made us really fast there. Dietz has been almost unbeatable this year. Rolled through the middle of one and two and it stuck and the same thing in three and four and I passed him. I couldn’t believe I drove by him and cleared him.”
Not only did the win end a dry spell for the California racer, but it was the first victory for Spire Motorsports, which created a sprint car operation during the offseason.
“Very cool to get Spire’s first winged sprint car win. I feel like I have given a few away this year and haven’t done a good job,” Scelzi said. “To get better and better as the night went on, great job to all my guys. We always believe in each other and get it done.”
Scelzi earned $100,000 for the victory.
“The money is super cool, but I raced as hard tonight as I would for a $12,000 or $10,000 show,” Scelzi said. “You try not to think about it. You try to enter every race with the same mindset, trying to win the race. Most times it doesn’t work out but there are nights when you can get over the hump. To drive by Dietz was very very cool. He’s won 17 times this season.”
Scelzi’s No. 77 team is led by veteran crew chief Eric Prutzman.
“What they have put together in just over four months to get to Talladega,” Scelzi said. “When I went there in the offseason it was weird. You had a semi that was empty and four frames sitting on the ground in the shop. I feel like we were Amazon’s biggest customer there for a while waiting on things to show up.
“There’s no better guy than Eric to build a team like this from scratch. Being based in Charlotte, the resources and money that Spire have put into this is cool to get them some results.”
With a third-place finish in the Kings Royal at Eldora Speedway and the Bob Weikert Memorial victory, Scelzi is getting hot leading into more big-money races.
“Confidence is everything in this game,” he said. “I feel like everyone has the money and everyone has the equipment, but if you get a driver and a crew chief that are confident, look out.”
