7/25/2018
RacinBoys
Dominic Scelzi repeats for $2,000 in Dubuque with Sprint Invaders
By Bill W (Dubuque, IA) -- Dominic Scelzi won for the second year in a row at the Dubuque Speedway with the Sprint Invaders Tuesday night. The Dubuque County Fair event paid the driver of the Scelzi Enterprises #41s. The Fresno, California native called the high-banked 1/3-mile oval the “perfect track”, and he again showed he had the right stuff to get to victory lane.
PHOTO CREDIT: (file) DB3 Photography
Bill Balog led early in the 30-lap main event from the pole, ahead of Sammy Walsh and Jarrod Schneiderman. Three-time series champion and Thursday Bloomfield Speedway winner, Jon Agan, and Rob Weuve, both row six starters were done one lap in the books, setting up a single-file restart.
Scelzi would grab third from Schneiderman using the bottom of the track on lap four. The leaders entered lapped traffic on lap ten, and a lap later, Walsh would spin behind the lapper of Harold Pohren. Balog led the field back to green, with Scelzi assuming second, ahead of Schneiderman, Tanner Gebhardt and 2016 Dubuque winner, Jamie Ball.
When Balog cruised through the middle of turns three and four on lap 13, Scelzi stuck his mount on the bottom and shot by to the lead. Meanwhile, Ryan Jamison entered the top five behind him. Cody Wehrle would spin at the halfway point, bringing another caution. Jamison would get under Schneiderman for fourth on lap 19, and Ball would follow him into fifth with ten to go.
The final caution came for a second Walsh spin with sixth laps to go. Balog abandoned the low side and searched the top of the high banks for speed. Scelzi was too fast on the bottom, however, and won over Balog, Gebhardt, hard-charger Jamison and Ball. Wehrle would recover for sixth, ahead of Brayden Gaylord, Schneiderman, Daniel Bergquist, and Pohren. The popular format with two sets of heats was used with the second set seeing a complete inversion by passing points. Scelzi, Wehrle, Schneiderman and Balog won heats, while Scelzi claimed the Shake-up Dash.
“The track was really racy early in the night, but the bottom just came in too well for the feature,” said Scelzi in Victory Lane. “But whenever you can get by a guy like Bill Balog, it’s awesome. He’s schooled me plenty of times. This #41s car has been rolling the last couple weeks. It’s always awesome to get a win. I think it was better to be in second there. I thought Sammy Walsh was going to pass him before me. He was really setting the car up well on the bottom. This place reminds me of heaven! It’s the perfect size and perfect shape! It built a curb on the wall, This place is awesome, and I hope they bring us back next year. We’ll be here.”
“(Scott Bonar) always has a fast car,” said the second place Balog. “Congratulations to Dominic. He was awesome there. I thought I had it figured out, but I guess I didn’t. I was really trying at the end (on the high side). I wanted to win this pretty bad. I have to thank Scott and this #50 team. This is really an awesome place.”
“We missed the Dash by one spot, and it would have been nice to start up front,” said Gebhardt. “Maybe that would have made a difference in the feature. It was a pretty good night for us. This year’s been a struggle trying to get the car right again. We finally went back to some stuff we did last year and it worked for us tonight. Most people don’t call me a ‘rim rider’, I’m more of a bottom feeder. It was cool to have a track that we could run to our strength. We were rolling pretty good down there.”
The Sprint Invaders head to the Dubuque Speedway and the Dubuque County Fair on Tuesday, July 24. For more information on the Sprint Invaders, visit http://www.SprintInvaders.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
RESULTS
Sprint Invaders A main (started), 30 laps: 1. 41s, Dominic Scelzi, Fresno, CA (4) 2. 50, Bill Balog, Hartland, WI (1) 3. 81, Tanner Gebhardt, Burlington, IA (7) 4. 51J, Ryan Jamison, Mediapolis, IA (10) 5. 5J, Jamie Ball, Knoxville, IA (6) 6. 40c, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (3) 7. 13, Brayden Gaylord, Wever, IA (8) 8. 88, Jarrod Schneiderman, West Burlington, IA (2) 9. 9, Daniel Bergquist, Burlington, IA (14) 10. 50P, Harold Pohren, Lowell, IA (13) 11. 69, Justin Buchholz, Davenport, IA (9) 12. 5H, Sammy Walsh, Orangeville, NSW, Aust. (5) 13. 4, Jon Agan, Knoxville, IA (11) 14. 19, Rob Weuve, Oakland Acres, IA (12). Lap Leaders: Balog 1-12, Scelzi 13-30. KSE Hard-charger: Jamison.
Randall’s Performance Heat one (started), 8 laps: 1. Dominic Scelzi (1) 2. Sammy Walsh (2) 3. Justin Buchholz (4) 4. Ryan Jamison (6) 5. Harold Pohren (3) 6. Jarrod Schneiderman (5) 7. Rob Weuve (7)
CenPeCo Lubricants Heat two (started), 8 laps: 1. Cody Wehrle (1) 2. Jamie Ball (2) 3. Tanner Gebhardt (6) 4. Brayden Gaylord (7) 5. Bill Balog (3) 6. Daniel Bergquist (5) 7. Jon Agan (4)
Mohrfeld Electric Heat three (started), 8 laps: 1. Jarrod Schneiderman (2) 2. Sammy Walsh (5) 3. Cody Wehrle (6) 4. Tanner Gebhardt (7) 5. Rob Weuve (1) 6. Justin Buchholz (4) 7. Harold Pohren (3)
Magruder Companies Heat four (started), 8 laps: 1. Bill Balog (2) 2. Jamie Ball (4) 3. Dominic Scelzi (6) 4. Jon Agan (7) 5. Brayden Gaylord (5) 6. Ryan Jamison (3) 7. Daniel Bergquist (1)
Budweiser King of Beers – Golden Eagle Distributors Shake-up Dash (started), 6 laps: 1. Dominic Scelzi (1) 2. Sammy Walsh (3) 3. Jamie Ball (4) 4. Bill Balog (5) 5. Jarrod Schneiderman (6) 6. Cody Wehrle (2)
Contingencies
Pyrotec – Justin Buchholz
Saldana Racing Products – Jon Agan
Kreitz Oval Track Products – Daniel Bergquist