After being rained out the previous evening the 56th Sunoco Race of Champions got underway on Friday evening with four feature events at the Oswego Speedway. In the headline SST Sportsman division TJ Potrzebowski made a late race pass of Earl Paules to take the victory. In the NORA Limited Super Modifieds David Gruel made easy work of the field as he led the final 32 laps after starting sixth. The other two divisions saw multiple winners crowned on this night. In the Street / Factory Stock division Richard Petey was the overall race winner and the Hoosier Racing Tire winner. Meanwhile Mark Spencer who finished second in the race ended up the D. O. T. Street Tire winner in the Street / Factory Stock division. Andre Roggie won his fourth overall Mini Stock win in the last five year, Roggie was also the front wheel drive division winner. Kevin Hoffman who finished third was the rear wheel drive division winner and Josh Delacruz won the dirt car division in the Mini Stocks.
Earl Paules and Johnny Barber brought the 31 car SST Sportsman field down for the start of their 100 lap feature. Paules jumped out to the lead with Barber, Erick Rudolph, Bill Hebing, and Justin Gumley in tow. Defending SST Sportsman champion Tony Hanbury was the big mover early in the race as he came from ninth to fifth in just five laps. Current SST Sportsman point leader TJ Potrzebowski made his presence felt as he passed Hanbury for fifth after starting seventh 15 laps into the race. Paules would open up a huge lead after each restart with the rest of the field bottling up behind Barber who was still second. The complexion of the race started to change on lap 64 as Barber who slipped up the track tried to chop back down into the racing groove. This move saw the Barber car spin and make heavy contact with the inside turn two wall ending his evening. On the restart Rudolph, Hebing, Potrzebowski and Pete Brittain closed up on the back bumper of Paules.
The race took a dramatic turn on lap 74 as contact between Rudolph and Hebing started a turn two melee which took out the strong running cars of Brittain, Hanbury, and Hebing. With this big shuffle taking place Potrzebowski ended up second followed by Rich Petrucco, Mike Florio, and Josh Smith. When the race resumed it didn’t take Paules and Potrzebowski long to pull away from the rest of the field to have their own private battle for the $2,500 win. Potrzebowski made a bold inside turn one pass for the lead just after the leading duo crossed the start / finish line to complete lap 77. TJ Potrzebowski would lead the final 22 laps to win the SST Sportsman 100. Potrzebowski who drives for Ed McGuire drove this same exact car to the win in this race for the second year in a row. Last year Brian Bowen drove the Ed McGuire owned car to victory in this race. Qualifying action for the 42 SST Sportsman’s saw heat wins captured by Potrzebowski, Gumley, Hanbury, Rudolph, and Hebing with Brian Bowen and John Wilbur winning the B Mains.
Pat Mullen and Shawn Walker brought the 25 car NORA Limited Super Modified down to green for their 35 lap feature. Walker would get the early lead with Chris Nafoli, David Gruel, Kevin Knapp, and Lou Levea in tow. Gruel took charge of the race on lap three as he motored around the leading duo to take the lead he would never relinquish. Knapp meanwhile applied late race pressure to Gruel to make it interesting in the end but fell a few car lengths short. Levea came on strong in the end to finish third with Josh LaRochelle nipping Mike Bond at the line for fourth. Qualifying for the 27 NORA Limited Super Modifieds saw heat wins captured by LaRochelle, Gruel, and Walker.
Defending race winner Steve Hoffman and Tim Garlock brought the Street / Factory Stock field down for their 25 lap feature. Hoffman jumped immediately out to the lead followed by Andy Jankowiak, David Cascioli, Garlock, and Richard Petey. The race changed on lap seven with Hoffman still in the lead and Cascioli in second. Entering turn three contact between the front two runners saw both of them spin to bring out the caution. The lead was handed to third place racer Richard Petey in his Richard Petty look a like car. Petey would lead the final 18 laps with ease to make his dismal season to date look a little brighter. Mark Spencer in his first ever time on asphalt after racing this car on dirt at Selinsgrove ended up second with Hoffman coming back to end up third. Jankowiak dropped back to fourth and Cascioli rounded out the top five. Besides the overall winner in the Street / Factory Stock there were two other winners. One winner would be for the cars who raced with actual Hoosier Racing tires on the car and the other winner would be for the cars who used actual D. O. T. stamped road tires. Petey won the Hoosier Racing Tire division and Spencer won the D. O. T. Street Tire division. Qualifying for the 12 Street / Factory Stocks saw heats wins go to Garlock and Cascioli.
In the 25 lap Mini Stock feature defending race winner Andre Roggie and Lewis Szoke brought the field to green. Roggie bolted to the lead that he would never give up as he lapped up to the second place car in the non stop feature.
With the win Roggie has won four out of the last five Mini Stock Sunoco Race of Champions features. Al Brigham was second with Kevin Hoffman in third, Jimmy Zacharias in fourth and Szoke in fifth.
In the Mini Stock division there were three winners with Roggie winning the front wheel drive class, along with the overall win. Hoffman won the rear wheel drive division and Joey Delacruz claiming the dirt car division win. Qualifying for the 15 Mini Stocks in competition saw Brigham and Roggie win the heat races.
NOTES; With rain canceling the Thursday practice and inner track show, the Mini Stocks were added to the Friday racing program and the Legends Cars and Four Cylinder Enduro were scratched from the schedule. The Thursday practice session was added to the program on Friday morning with close to 150 cars in all divisions participating. In the morning hot laps Earl Paules had motor troubles and after they were repaired encountered front end troubles. Wayne Lent hit the turn two wall with his one race old car putting him behind the eight ball the remainder of the day. Rick Zacharias chased a variety of problems all day long and was making a great charge in the feature until getting the front end bent up in a racing incident. Chris Finocchario and Erick Rudolph were both black flagged in the feature for going through an accident area on the track two wide in an attempt to pass cars. Drivers were told in the drivers meeting that anyone caught doing this more than once would be disqualified. SST Sportsman provisionals were taken by Dick Kluth, Lent, and Richard Thomas.
56TH SUNOCO RACE OF CHAMPIONS SST SPORTSMAN FINISH; TJ Potrzebowski, Earl Paules, Rich Petrucco, Mike Florio, John Wilbur, Kirk Rutherford, Jeff Hammond, Zack Shove, Josh Smith, Justin Shepker, Charlie Sharpsteen, Jason Hearne, Richard Thomas, Andy Lewis, Don Pringle, Dick Kluth, Wayne Lent, Tony Hanbury, Erick Rudolph, Chris Finocchario, Bill Hebing, Pete Brittain, John Price, Johnny Barber, Rick Zacharias, Nicholas Cappelle, Frank Booker, Jr., Justin Gumley, Jerry Gradl, Jr., Brian Bowen, Daryl Lewis, Jr. DNQ’S; Ricky Knapp, Jr., Bobby Osgood, Jeff Polaski, Phil Johnson, Steve West, Jim Pierce, Pat Crawford, Craig Dolphin, Mike Van Weir, Gene Sharpsteen, Dan Matthews. DNS; Steve Fuchs, Dan Hoag, George Kent, James Love, Kevin Lewis, Phil Slater, Brian Bowen ( 84 car ).
56TH SUNOCO RACE OF CHAMPIONS NORA LIMITED SUPER MODIFIEDS FINISH; David Gruel, Kevin Knapp, Lou Levea, Josh LaRochelle, Mike Bond, Shawn Walker, Stan Gater, Mark Regan, Rob Pullen, Jack Patrick, Rick Zeigler, Star Madison, Chris Lupa, David Danzer, Mike Farrow, Chris Nafoli, Jason Simmons, Tim Knapp, Chip Wood, Barry Kingsley, Greg Davis, Pat Mullen, Doug Reaume, Cameron Rowe, Ken Pierce. DNS; Sam Bradford, Dennis Rupert.
56TH SUNOCO RACE OF CHAMPIONS STREET / FACTORY STOCKS FINISH; Richard Petey, Mark Spencer, Steve Hoffman, Andy Jankowiak, David Cascioli, Tim Garlock, Russell Knutsen, Brad Mosher, Shane Porter, Kevin Mendel. DNS; Howie Bott, Jim Yamelski, Brad Kline.
56TH SUNOCO RACE OF CHAMPIONS MINI STOCK FINISH; Andre Roggie, Al Brigham, Kevin Hoffman, Jimmy Zacharias, Lewis Szoke, Josh Scherer, Ward Crozier, Jr., Bob Curren, Dan Nellist, Tom Gush, Stan Wesonlski, Doug Gibson. DNS; Gene Purvis, Joey Delacruz, Chuck Powelczyk.