Brady Bacon names finalists for Baton Award

Three finalists have been named for the first annual Brady Bacon Baton Award which will select a young up and coming driver whom Bacon foresees as a future racing star bound for greater glory. The identity of the winner will be revealed on November 11 as part of the 2017 Racers Reunion Banquet in Irving Texas.

Bacon, the two-time United States Auto Club (USAC) sprint car champion from Broken Arrow Oklahoma who began racing at age five and throughout his career Bacon has excelled in midgets, sprint cars and championship cars on both dirt and asphalt race tracks across the country.  With over twenty years of experience in building, working on and racing open-wheel racing cars has provided Brady a unique perspective to identify and evaluate future racing talents. The three finalists for the 2017 Brady Bacon Baton Award are Giovanni Scelzi, Logan Seavey and Tyler Thomas.

 

Giovanni Scelzi 

 

Giovanni Scelzi started his racing career at a young age in micro sprints on local California tracks when he was just 6 years old. Those early experiences and the mentorship of his older brother Dominic and his father, four-time National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing champion Gary Scelzi, has clearly helped the 15-year-old driver’s career.  After he notched a remarkable 24 feature wins and two track championships during the 2010 season, the following year, as a nine-year old, Scelzi moved up to the restricted micro sprint class and won another track championship.

In 2015 Giovanni led all 25 laps to claim the “A” class winged micro sprint main event and the “Golden Driller” at the famed Speedway Motors Tulsa Shootout held at the Expo Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2016 Giovanni made the jump to full-sized sprint cars and collected eight victories and his first career California Speedweek championship. During the season, “Gio” claimed the King of Kings Speedway title and recorded a total of twelve top 10 finishes in 17 winged sprint car races and was voted the 360 Rookie of the Year by the North American 410 Sprint Car Poll voting panel.

This season, Giovanni has focused on the King of the West - NARC 410 winged sprint car series with the Dennis Roth Motorsports team and as of this writing leads the championship chase. Scelzi has not restricted his racing to just the state of California, as he scored a clean sweep at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa driving for BDS Motorsports with the Sprint Invaders series along with  three top five finishes in three American Sprint Car Series National series starts.

 

Logan Seavey celebrates

his Hockett/McMillin win

 

The next Brady Bacon Baton candidate, Logan Seavey, also hails from the Golden State. While Scelzi lives in the central California town of Fresno, Logan comes from the historic Gold Country town of Sutter in the northern part of the state.   Seavey began racing outlaw karts in 2002 at the ripe young age of 5 years old and won his first race when he was 6 years old behind the wheel of his box stock kart.

In 2007, just his fifth year behind the wheel, Seavey won his first championship, claiming the Box Stock title at the famed Cycleland Speedway in Chico California. Since then Logan has added five more outlaw kart championships that include back-to-back championships in the Red Bluff Outlaws Winter Indoor Series in 2015 and 2016 and the 2015 QRC Speed Sport Challenge.

2017 has been a breakout year for Logan, as he has scored two victories in the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League with victories in the ‘Camfield Memorial’ race at Macon Speedway in Macon Illinois and at Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln Illinois on the final night of Illinois Speedweek.

 

As of this writing, Seavey leads the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League championship chase with nine top five and nine top ten finishes to go along with his two victories.  Last month, Logan had a dream weekend  as he won all three nights of the seventh annual Hockett/McMillin Memorial race in the Daum Motorsports 5D with the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR (non-wing) Sprint Car League.  

 

 

Tyler Thomas in action

at the Chili Bowl

 

The third Brady Bacon Baton finalist, Tyler Thomas has been a standout for the last several years with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League. Thomas from Collinsville Oklahoma began racing at just four years of age and recorded five championships on the Regional and Club level with 28 wins before he moved to Micro Sprints in 2009.  Tyler quickly put together 9 wins for his first season and quickly moved to the Ecotec Midget division in 2010 and won 6 of the 8 races in which he competed.

In 2011, Tyler debuted in the POWRI Midget Series, and he became the youngest driver to win a POWRI main event at the age of 15. 2012 and 2013 saw Thomas record more wins and podiums to finish 5th and 4th respectively in the POWRI National Midget standings. Last year Thomas added another win and 10 top-5 finishes

After he started his 2017 season with a strong fifth place finish in his preliminary night feature and a 17th place finish in the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa Oklahoma, Tyler has scored three POWRi Lucas Oil National victories at Macon Speedway and Jacksonville Speedways in Illinois and Valley Speedway in Grass Valley Missouri. Thomas won the Sooner Midget Nationals with the Lucas Oil POWRi West Midget League at Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Oklahoma, and Tyler with the Brian Thomas #91T midget currently stands 12th in the USAC national midget points.  

The presentation of the Brady Bacon Baton Award is just one of the many exciting events on tap for the 2017 Racers Reunion in Irving Texas on November 11.  In addition to the special tribute to our nation’s veterans for Veterans Day, the banquet will feature as a special guest, three-time Indianapolis 500-mile race winner, the legendary Bobby Unser who will share stories of his many racing victories and times as a racing commentator for ABC Sports. 

 

 

Also scheduled for the eighth annual Racers Reunion are programs that will examine the first 50 years of the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) and the life of pioneering Hall of Fame drag racer, Bobby Langley, and the USAC Hall of Fame induction of the legendary Texas racer Lloyd Ruby.

Tickets for the eighth annual Racers Reunion Banquet, which in addition to the feature presentations includes an afternoon guest speaker, autograph session and an afternoon of bench racing with a large collection of vintage race cars and memorabilia are available at http://www.radiusnation.net