Oswego, NY — (August 6, 2011) — The black supermodifieds of Stephen Gioia and Brian Sobus paced the 26-car field coming down to Donnie Forbes green flag, with Sobus jumping out to the early lead. The inside line was the choice of Joey Payne and Joe Gosek, while Graham and Sitterly went to the outer reached of the speedway to move forward early.
Payne had the 99 on the move early, as he came from his eighth starting spot to fourth on the first lap. Danny Connors took the lead from Sobus with a front straightaway pass on lap 2, with Payne and Graham following the 01 through on lap 2 for second and third spots.
Lap four the first slowdown of the race came, as Michael Muldoon looped the 20 in turn three. The restart saw Connors, Payne, Graham, Sobus, Shawn Muldoon, Michael Barnes, Pat Lavery, Otto Sitterly, Stephen Gioia and Randy Ritskes fill out top ten spots.
The green came out momentarily, then yellow quickly again, this time for a turn one shot for Jerry Curran and Dave McKnight. McKnight’s car just spun and returned, while the Curran 24 tapped the foam and was out of the race with minor front-end damage.
Three laps later the carnage continued as Tim Snyder’s night ended in the same place Curran’s did, with right front parts bent on the 0 car after a chain reaction incident. The red flag came out to allow for refueling just 9 laps into the 50-lap event.
With Connors, Payne and Graham in control early, Otto Sitterly moved his #7 into contention on the take off, shooting by Lavery and Sobus, and began to chase down Muldoon and Barnes. The trio up front turned in laps at 17.34 and 17.29 as they opened up a gap back to the pack.
Sitterly continued his charge, wheeling by Muldoon on lap 14 for fifth, 4.37 second behind the 01, 99, 90 and 98 cars. As the leaders came into slower cars, Payne found the opening he needed and took the top spot along the back straightaway in lapped traffic on lap 19, with Graham following the 99 by the 01 car.
Payne’s first lap up front was clocked in at 17.32, with Graham glued right on his bumper. Connors faded a bit, with Barnes catching and passing the 01 on lap 22 for third. Sitterly followed the 98 by Connors for fourth the next lap.
At the half way point of the race, Payne turned in a 17.26 lap as held a five car length lead over Graham, who in turn led Barnes Sitterly and Connors by 6.41 seconds, as they raced into slower lapped traffic.
The next slowdown came on lap 27, as Keith Gilliam’s 87 hit the fourth turn outside wall hard, ending his night. Keith was ok, but the car was bent severely.
The restart didn’t stay green long, as three more cars were eliminated in turn three. Shaun Gosselin’s26 appeared to blow a motor, with Dave Shullick’s #15 and Dave McKnight’s 08 getting into the fluid and ending their nights as well.
During this red flag period, leader Joey Payne’s car was pushed pitside for what he called, “a $10,000 flat tire”, as the leading 99 car had a tire going flat. Randy Ritskes’ 88 also went to the pits, for what he called, “we had to do something, as we were going no where.”
The new line up showed Graham, Barnes, Sitterly, Connors, Muldoon, Gosek, Lavery, Bobby Haynes, Sobus and Holbrook in top ten spots. Graham pulled out on the get go, with Sitterly dogging Barnes for second. The 7 got below the 98 on the front straightaway on lap 31 for second, half a second behind the leader. Within a few laps, the 90 and 7 cars raced bumper to bumper, with Sitterly waiting for the slightest bobble on the Graham 90.
Lap 35 the next caution flag period waved, as the Haynes 44 and Muldoon 1 cars were in a wad in one, with the back end of the 44 rest high on the front side of the Muldoon 1. They were racing for sixth spot when the contact occurred. Both drivers walked away from the accident.
As Graham and Sitterly looked to settle this one themselves, Joe Gosek raced into contention, bringing Ritskes and Payne along with him back upfront. The 90 and 7 led the 98, 00 and 88 race by 3.68 second with 5 laps left. The pack tightened as Connors pulled the 01 out of harms way with engine problems with a few laps left.
Graham and Sitterly raced away, with Gosek, Ritskes and Gosek moving by the ailing 98 car for top five spots. Graham led, with Sitterly following in the 90 tire tracks, looking for a way by. Lap after lap, the duo raced up front, as it appeared the race was going to be settled between the two of them.
As they raced along the back straightaway on the last lap, Sitterly looked to get below the 90, but the 7 took a turn, and went viciously into the inside hub rail entering turn three. The car broke apart, and shot across the track into the outside wall. The 7 was destroyed from the engine forward, and severely bent on all four corners of the car, but Sitterly pulled himself out of the car and walked away from the hit may pitside observers called the hardest hit ever seen.
After the lengthy clean up, Graham put his foot into it, and drove to the checkered flag unchallenged for his second consecutive win, and $10,000 payday.
“Tough one would be an understatement,” the winner said in Victory Lane. “what a dogfight. Not sure what happened with Otto, hope he’s ok. We had just enough I guess. The car was good right from the start, it was getting tighter as the race went on. “
Cameron Rowe and Jason Simmons led the pack of 19 SBS cars for their 35-lap big payday, with Rowe getting the bite at the start and putting the 77 at the head of the class early on. Former Mr. SBS winners Andrew Schartner and Mike Bond found each other at the start, and looked to work together to move up. The pair worked into the top ten, but was caught behind traffic, with the 26 getting contact, sending him high in turn one, falling back in the pack.
Lap 5 saw Rowe, Kingsley, Simmons, Rob Pullen Mike Bruce, Kreig Heroth, Tim Barbeau, Schartner, Jack Patrick and Mark Castiglia in top ten spots. Rowe turned in laps in the 19.7 area, as he raced to a 2 ½ second lead coming into lapped traffic.
Rowe kept opening his lead, as by the time he exited the slower cars, the gap was over 3 seconds back to Kingsley, Pullen, Bruce, and Heroth.
Yellow flew over the event for the first time on 16, for a multi car spin. Three cars were involved. Once racing, yellow flew quickly again for another three car spin session. During this slowdown, leader Cameron Rowe pulled his 77 off the track in the fourth turn area of the speedway, out of the lead and pushed to his pit, out of the race, handing the lead to Barry Kingsley.
The 23 had Pullen, Bruce, Heroth and Barbeau on his tailpipes with less than half the race to go. Pullen tried for the lead on the outside, but had to back out. Heroth then shot by Bruce on lap 23, then Pullen for second.
Kingsley was up front and protecting the inside line. If someone was going to pass the 23, they would have to do it on the outside. Bruce saw that, and went high on lap 34 to get by Heroth as they received the white flag. He stayed outside, looking for the race win.
The cars were side by side as they came out of turn four, with the checkered flag waving. The 23 down low, and the 22 outside. They came across the finish line side by side, with the 23 just inches ahead of the 22. Barry Kingsley crossed the line first, taking his biggest career SBS win.
“That was a race,” the newly crowned Mr. SBS started after the win. “I knew I had the guys behind, as I could see the numbers on the board, but we did everything we could to stay up front, and we got the win.”
News and Notes…30 supermodifieds and 20 SBS cars were pitside. Ray Graham, Danny Connors and Joey Payne won supermodified heats with Andrew Schartner, Mike Bond and Jack Patrick taking SBS heats. Dave Shullick Jr won the consolation event. Lou Levea in the #66 and Howard Page in the #23 were pitside for the first time this year. The start of the night was delay until 8:15pm with persistent showers in the Oswego area covering the racetrack in the late afternoon. Racing this weekend is a regular race night, with the on track autograph session as well. Gates open at 4pm, with the autographs at 5:45pm and heat racing at 6:30pm.
Mr. Supermodified 50 lap results
1)Ray Graham 90, 2)Joe Gosek 00, 3)Randy Ritskes 88, 4)Joey Payne 99, 5)Dave Gruel 50, 6)Michael Barnes 98, 7)Pat Lavery 22, 8)Jeff Holbrook 35, 9)Bobby Bond 25, 10)Howard Page 23, 11)Brian Sobus 79, 12)Otto Sitterly 7, 13)Hal Latulip 56, 14)Michael Muldoon 20, 15)Danny Connors 01, 16)Shawn Muldoon 1, 17)Bobby Haynes 44, 18)Kody Graham 21, 19)Keith Gilliam 87, 20)Shaun Gosselin 26, 21)Dave Shullick Jr 15, 22)Dave McKnight 08, 23)Stephen Gioia 9, 24)Steve Abt 85, 25)Tim Snyder 0 26)Jerry Curran 24
Mr. SBS 35 lap results
1)Barry Kingsley 23, 2)Mike Bruce 22, 3)Kreig Heroth 44, 4)Andrew Schartner 18, 5)Rob Pullen 2, 6)Tim Barbeau 50, 7)Jack Patrick 9, 8)Mike Bond 26, 9)Dave Latulip 27, 10)Jason Simmons 98, 11)AJ Bernys 24, 12)Mark Castiglia 90, 13)Brian Haynes 37, 14)Dalton Doyle 1, 15)Lou Levea Jr 95, 16)Will Hadcock 43, 17)Cameron Rowe 77, 18)Brian Osetek 00, 19)Dennis Rupert 99