SANTA MARIA, Calif. – On the same night as his younger brother won at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway, Dominic Scelzi showed that he, too, still has plenty of fight left in him this year.
Scelzi picked off Chase Johnson with just two laps remaining to win Saturday’s King of the West-NARC Fujitsu 410 Sprint Car Series feature at Santa Maria Raceway.
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Piloting the potent Roth Motorsports KPC sprint car, Scelzi started fifth in the grid and quickly moved into the hunt in the 30-lapper.
He passed Bud Kaeding for third on lap eight, powered past initial race leader Nathan Rolfe on the 13th circuit, and began to apply pressure on Johnson three laps later.
Johnson, piloting the Fire Suppression Engineering Maxim, took the lead by motoring past Rolfe on the backchute on lap five. Once out front, he cut a stellar pace through slower traffic with both Scelzi and Kaeding shadowing his every move in lap traffic.
Scelzi made several attempts on both the high and low side before winning a no holds barred drag race down the front straightaway with two to go. He held on the rest of the way to score his third King of the West-NARC win of the season.
Johnson secured the runner-up spot at the checkered, chased by fast qualifier Kaeding in the Alviso Rock Maxim. Eighth-starting Willie Croft drove across the line in fourth aboard his Amerikote-backed sprint car, chased by DJ Netto.
The second five were Rolfe, who scored a career-best series finish in sixth, Geoff Ensign, point leader Ryan Bernal, Kenny Allen and Kaleb Montgomery.
The Swift Metal Finishing Hard Charger was Montgomery, who started 17th on the grid.
The finish:
Dominic Scelzi, Chase Johnson, Bud Kaeding, Willie Croft, DJ Netto, Nathan Rolfe, Geoff Ensign, Ryan Bernal, Kenny Allen, Kaleb Montgomery, Craig Stidham, Tim Estenson, Gary Paulson, Jenna Frazier, Burt Foland Jr., Geoff Stole, JJ Ringo, Mark Barroso, Mitchell Faccinto, Sean Watts.
Lap Leader(s): Rolfe 1-4, Johnson 5-28, Scelzi 29-30.