When Gary Scelzi recalls his
previous NHRA appearances at Heartland Park Topeka,
various scenarios emerge in his mind.
He hopes this weekend's O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals will add another positive
image as he seeks his first Funny Car win at this circuit.
"Actually,
Topeka is the place where I broke the all-time Top Fuel season win record, which
was six, set by Cory McClenathan in 1998," said the four-time NHRA world
champion. "We won our seventh (of nine) Top Fuel national event of the
year in Topeka in 2000.
"Topeka's been
good, but Topeka's been bad. I had my first major crash in Top Fuel there where
we actually went through two cars. One on Friday, one on Saturday, and we kind
of pieced those two cars together to run on Sunday, which turned out to be a
semifinal finish. So,
Topeka's been good, bad and in-between."