The gold “tribute” Dodge that was unveiled for driver Gary Scelzi last weekend has generated a lot of talk among the fans, most of whom love it. They aren’t alone. Scelzi was skeptical about the project, and actually never saw the finished product prior to Thursday evening’s Mopar Block Party in downtown Golden (there’s that word again), but he was instantly sold.

“I love it,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of gold, but when I saw this thing unveiled at the block party I was impressed. Everybody out here has also been impressed with it.”

Scelzi was under the mistaken belief that this would be a one-off appearance of the car, but tuner Mike “Zippy” Neff informed Torco's CompetitionPlus.com that the car would also appear at both Seattle and Sonoma.

One thing you can depend upon with Scelzi is complete candor. When he was asked about a potential new qualifying procedure his answer was immediate the pointed. “I think it’s bullshit,” he said. “I think we need to eliminate the (Friday) night run. It does absolutely no good for anyone. We don’ race under night conditions. We race on Sundays from about eleven o’clock until about four o’clock, so I think we should qualify at the same times we’re going to race on Sunday. I think that would put on a better show for everyone. I think our sport’s confusing enough with things like holeshot wins and stuff like that, so we shouldn’t confuse things any more than they are already. I know (Kenny) Bernstein’s hot on the idea, and that’s great, but I think that will be too confusing.

“Now the quickest 16 make it, so let us run at a normal time, and if we get in, we get in. If you don’t get in, you don’t deserve to race.”

Scelzi has been hearing it big time from the fans who are crushed that he’ll be, at least temporarily, leaving the sport at the end of the season. Of course, he also says that “for every one of them there are probably a dozen who’re saying It’s about time you quit, asshole. I don’t like you.

“You know, it’s flattering that people are saying nice things about me, but this sport’s going to be fine without me. I’ve had second thoughts about this since I announced it, but I need to be involved in my family business. That’s where I need to be right now. If there was a way I could get out of (the family business) on Thursday afternoon and back home sleeping in my own bed Sunday nights and back at work Monday morning so I could get back involved with the business I’d have to re-think it, but there are major things that would play into that. It would have to be a deal that’s funded like we have here at Schumacher Racing, and there’d have to be a crew chief like Mike Neff.

“I’ve eaten out of the silver spoon, and I’m not going back to beans and rice. If I can’t come to the race with a first class crew chief and a first class car and plenty of parts, I don’t need to do this. I’ve slept in trailers, I’ve raced on nothin’, I’ve sanded pistons. I’ve done all that stuff and I’m not going back to that. It’s not that I’m too good or to proud, but why should I?”