"What I get a lot is, 'are you related to Gary Scelzi?'
"Yep, that's my dad."
Gary Scelzi was a 12-year pro in the National Hot Road Association (NHRA). His son Dominic, age 15, has been racing for almost that long.
"I started in go-karts at five and progressed my way through the junior sprint race in Visalia and Lemoore, along with the Restricted and the Super 600 classes we've had," said Dominic, a student at Clovis West High School.
"We've had great success."
That includes last Friday in Watsonville, where he won his first sprint car race.
"It means the world to me," he said. "To be able to follow in my dad's footsteps is what I've wanted to do since I can remember."
Luckily Dominic, and his younger brother Giovanni, are getting what they want. The Scelzi boys have so many racing trophies they can't keep all of them in the house.
"I'm so proud of them I can't even believe it," said their dad Gary, a retired drag racer. "They both seem to do things every week that are simply amazing. A lot of people think because of the name 'Scelzi' that things are handed to them. But I'm very strict with them, they have to work on their cars, they have to know what every part does.
"I think slowly but surely I'm becoming Dominic and Giovanni's dad. And that's all I really wanted to be, even when I was drag racing."
Added Dominic, "It's the family sport for sure."
