The champions list of the Winternationals features a who's who of drag racing. But of the countless numbers of winners at the season-opening event, only two competitors before today had ever scored victories in both Top Fuel and Funny Car.

You can make that three. Gary Scelzi joined the exclusive club, surviving a trek into the sand pit in the semifinals to score victory at the 47th CARQUEST Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Scelzi equals the marks set by Don Prudhomme (TF- '65, FC - '75-78) and Kenny Bernstein (FC- '87, TF - '92), but it wasn't easy. Not only did he have to comeback from running into the sand in a semi-final win over Mike Ashley, he had to also defeat No. 2 qualifier Robert Hight, who had just made the quickest pass in Funny Car history with a stout 4.646 in the third round.

he had nothing for Jimmy Prock and Robert Hight," Scelzi said. "We were going to try and run a .67, .68. We tried to hop it up and the car ran down the race track."

So did Hight's Ford Mustang. But after blowing past Scelzi, the John Force Racing driver crossed the centerline just before the finish and was disqualified, despite beating the driver of the Mopar/Oakley Dodge to the line with a 4.725.

"I didn't see Robert until about 700 feet, said Scelzi, who made a 4.716 at 332.26 mph in the finals.”Then he drove about three cars ahead of me and I thought, "What?' Then all of sudden his car shut off. I didn't know if I got him in the lights and I looked over and saw his win light on. I thought, 'Oh, man.'

"And then the guys got on the radio and told me he beat on a holeshot. I thought I nailed the tree...then they got back on the radio and said he hit a cone and 'you won.' I thought, 'Nah. These guys are playing a dirty trick.'

"It was unfortunate. Robert Hight and Jimmy Prock had a great car this weekend, but so did we. We ran a 4.71 at 332 mph in the final and never ran slower than .75. We got our lucky round. A lot of times you get it early, but we got it in the final, and it's great way to start a season."