From Oswego Speedway
Oswego, NY — (July 9, 2011) — A first time winner and a series all time win leader shared the top step of the podium at Oswego Speedway Saturday night, as Mike Lichty picked up his first ever Oswego Supermodified win in the King of Wings MSA 50, and Mike Bond took career win #25 in the SBS division.
Lichty started the race seventh, took the lead from Ohio driver Tim ice just after the halfway point of the race, and shot ahead for the impressive 1.7 second victory. It was Lichty’s first ever Oswego win, making him the 90th driver to win an Oswego Speedway supermodified victory. The 50-lap race went caution free, and was one of the quickest feature races ever run in Oswego, with the entire 50-lap event run in just over 17 minutes. The win was worth $5000.
Bond chased down early leader Tim Barbeau on lap 19 of the SBS feature, and pulled out for the two-car length win. Bond, the all time win leader and all time point leader in SBS competition, grabbed his fourth win of the year in the process.
A packed house stood on their feet to wave off the 25-car MSA field as Ice and Randy Ritskes paced the field for the start of the 50-lap event. Ice raced out to the quick advantage, as the field shuffled behind looking for racing room. Teammates Trent Stephens and Lou Cicconi stayed in the high line to move up, while Lichty and defending race winner Bobby Bond stayed low to get through early race traffic.
Ice quickly pulled out to a comfortable gap stopping clocks with consistent 16.15 and 16.17 laps, with Ritskes, Bobby Dawson, Ted Christopher, Jeff Locke, Tim jedrzejek, Mike Lichty, Stephens, Cicconi and Otto Sitterly in tow.
Lichty began his impressive run forward, as first he disposed of Jedrzejek, then picked his way by Locke in the first handful of laps. He kept moving forward, cruising by Christopher and was solidly in the top five by lap 10. Further back, Jedrzejek and Stephens had fans on their feet as the 32 and 19 tossed it at each other side by side for laps, trading positions each lap.
Back up front, Ice continued to traverse the 5/8 mile at a clip in the low 16’s, building his lead to a full straightaway ahead of Ritskes and Dawson. Lap 13, Lichty wheeled the Reed Salvage #8 to the top three shooting by teammate Dawson on the grandstand straightaway. Three laps later, lap 16, Lichty continued to have fans attention, as he moved into the runner up spot by the Ritskes 88, who was having wing problems with the Darratt Farms car.
Once in second, Lichty was 3.77 seconds behind the leader, as they began to catch the slower traffic in the still green flag race. Ritskes continued in third, and Dawson in fourth, but the fifth place battle between Stephens and Christopher was a close one.
As Bruce Lee held out the crossed flags for halfway, Ice clocked in a 16.11, as he approached lapped traffic, with Lichty already reeling him in, cutting his gap to just over a second in a handful of laps. As they raced in traffic, Lichty took possession of the top spot on lap 26, and quickly stopped watches at 16.27, opening up 5 lengths the first lap up front.
Lichty’s lead continued to grow, as the next time around his lead doubled to 10 lengths, and was still in the lapped traffic. With Lichty firmly up front, and Ice all alone in second, fans attention then shifted to the third place battle, as Ritskes and Dawson raced for the final podium spot, but Stephens and Jedrzejek continued their race long battle. Jedrzejek shot by Stephens on lap 33 for fifth, then chased down Dawson two laps later to move into fourth. Lap 36, he put the Soule #32 in third, cranking by the Ritskes 88, almost a half a track behind leader Mike Lichty.
Back up front, Lichty continued to maneuver through lapped traffic like a cagey veteran, going high and low through the slower cars. With 10 to go, the lead was 1.78 seconds, but ice still had a last dash in the 77. He began chopping away at the lead, but it was to no avail, as this night belonged to Mike Lichty and the Reed Salvage team.
As lap 50 came up, Lichty drover under the double checkered flags, much to the delight of the capacity crowd. Victory Lane was a jubilant place, as it was Lichty’s first ever Oswego win. “I finally got one here at Oswego,” the ecstatic winner relayed to the crowd. “I came here as a little kid, have seen a lot of races here, have run in a lot of races here, this is great! The car was great, and I can’t thank everyone on the crew, enough for everything they did. The car was excellent, and I finally have an Oswego win.”
“Another second here at Oswego,” Ice commented about his second runner up finish in three years in the KoW race. “The May car ran good, and running green to checkered was something else. It takes a little getting used to. We had a good starting spot too, that helped, but the car was really good too. Only one more spot to go from here.”
Third place finisher Tim Jedrzejek was happy as well. “I’m getting to know these guys, and they’re getting to know me and what I like in a car. We just were so far back once we broke free, and there were no cautions, that didn’t help us. But, we’re getting there. Fourth at Stafford, third here, we’re on our way.”
Nate Sitterly and Jason Simmons drew front row starting assignments for the 30 lap, SBS $1000 to win special, with Sitterly taking command of the race when the green flag came out. Bond, starting twelfth, went right to the inside to move forward, as he’s been the guy to beat in 2011.
An early Dennis Rupert bunched the field again, with Sitterly keeping Simmons, Cameron Rowe, Rob Pullen, Tim Barbeau, Barry Kingsley, Mike Bruce, Andrew Schartner, Mike Bond and AJ Bernys behind.
Bond went right to work wheeling by Schartner and Bruce on the get go, while Sitterly kept the 79 at the head of the class. Lap 9 the 79 drifted up a lane out in turn four with Simmons filling the whole and taking the lead. Pullen, Barbeau and Bond followed through, shuttling Sitterly back to sixth in a hurry.
A Bryan Haynes spin in the #43 brought out the yellows flag on lap 9, with the 77 of Cam Rowe winding his night pulling pitside, ending his top three run. Simmons, Pullen, Barbeau and Bond separated themselves from the field on the restart, as it was apparent this race was going to be settled among these four drivers.
Pullen went high to move by Simmons, but that opened up the bottom, and Barbeau and Bond squeezed their way by the 2, for second and third positions. Lap 12, the race changed as Barbeau raced side by side with Simmons heading into turn one for the lead, as the 99 and 50 cars touched, sending the lead car, the 99 of Simmons, spinning. Barbeau continued on, bringing Bond with him.
At halfway, Barbeau and Bond were going to settle this among themselves, with 19.65 laps in the books, as the two cars broke away from the field. Bond went to the inside of the 50, and the pair raced side by side for a lap, before Bond inched his way ahead on lap 19.
From there it was all Mike Bond and the 26, as he pulled out and wheeled on for his fourth win of the season, career win #25, and padding his point lead in the SBS series.
“The guys give me a great car every week,” the winner said post race. “They were in the garage four nights last week, going over it. They pay attention to detail, and we’ve been on a good run so far this year.”
News and Notes…..31 supermodifieds and 20 SBS cars were pitside. Cameron Rowe, Mike Bond and Jack Patrick won SBS heats, while Bobby Dawson, Randy Ritskes and Ted Christopher won supermodified heats, Tim Snyder won the consi. Otto Sitterly set fast time for the supermodifieds with a lap of 15.358. Paul White took a hard ride into the wall in the Steve Miller 16 car in practice, as the car lost a wheel, spun around and slammed the wall. Paul was uninjured in the hit. This week is a regular night of racing, with a full set of qualifiers, then the SBS 30 and supermodified 50 lap main events.
Order of finish MSA 50
1)Mike Lichty 8, 2)Tim ice 77, 3)Tim Jedrzejek 32, 4)Trent Stephens 19, 5)Randy Ritskes 88, 6)Bobby Dawson 28, 7)Ted Christopher 61, 8)Charlie Schultz 7, 9)Lou Cicconi 49, 10)Jeff Locke 37, 11)Moe Lilje 08, 12)Joe Gosek 00, 13)Dave Danzer 52, 14)Bobby Bond 25, 15)Stephen Gioia III 9, 16)Otto Sitterly 7, 17)Mark Sammutt 78, 18)Bob Magner 40, 19)Pat Lavery 22, 20)Tim Snyder 0, 21)Ray Graham 90, 22)Jim Paller 64, 23)Ed Witkum Jr 97, 24)David Gruel 50, 25)Andy Noto 48
Order of finish SBS 30
1)Mike Bond 26, 2)Tim Barbeau 50, 3)Rob Pullen 3, 4)Jack Patrick, 5)Mike Bruce 22, 6)Barry Kingsley 23, 7)Andrew Schartner 18, 8)Nate Sitterly 79, 9)Mark Castiglia 90, 10)Brian Osetek 00, 11)AJ Bernys 24, 12)Chad Carson 78, 13)Lou Levea Jr 95, 14)Dalton Doyle 1, 15)Dave Latulip 27, 16)Dennis Rupert 99, 17)Kreig Heroth 44, 18)Jason Simmons 98, 19)Cameron Rowe 77, 20)Will Hadcock 43