Keith Shampine busy working on new ride for 2006

Keith Shampine picks up the 2005 Terrells Potato Chips Supermodified “Rookie of the Year” award from Oswego Speedway representative Debbie Bond at the year-end banquet last October.

As the Central New York snow banks turn into puddles, thoughts begin to turn to the local racing scene. Teams have been working all winter long, with May 13 circled on Oswego Speedway calendars. Opening day is just seven weeks away, and everyone begins the final crunch to get ready for the 56th consecutive season of racing at Oswego Speedway.

There is one new team that has been tucked away in the garage all winter, getting to know their new machine. 2005 Supermodified Rookie of the Year Keith Shampine and his father Ed have started their own new team for the 2006 season. At the end of Keith’s rookie year, they went to work looking for a car of their own. After looking high and low, and lot of hard work, they hit pay dirt. Keith explained, “We looked at the Witkum 85 car a few weeks after the season was over. Joe called me one day, and we began to put a deal together.”

“Pat (Strong) had a 3 car team last year.” Keith continued. “That’s a lot. This year, they want to concentrate on the 99. You can’t blame them, three cars is tough. Mort took the 96 back to Canada. I think the 4 from last year is sitting idle. About 2/3’s of the way through last year, my dad really got into it,” Keith added. “He learned all about it. He got into set ups, and anything he could learn. Pat let us basically go on our own, set up wise. That helped a lot.” It was the initial gesture from Pat Strong that still sticks with Keith today. He explained “I really want to thank Pat Strong for all the help. In days like today, just think of what he did. He gave me a chance to drive one of his supermodifieds, something I have never done before. That was something else. You don’t see that in this day and age, and I really thank Pat and his team for my start and all the hard work last year.”

The Strong-Shampine team went out and put the Shampine name on one of the few award it had never seen-Supermodified Rookie of the Year. The team got stronger as the season went on. They ended the regular season with three consecutive top tens, including a season’s best 6th place in the season ender in October. They ended the year 12th in the final point standings, a nice accomplishment for a new team. Keith realized a lifelong dream when he put the 4 car in the Classic. He drove a smooth race, completing 195 laps and ending his first Classic with a fine 13th place finish. “All in all, we’re fairly happy with last year,” Keith reflected. “We had issues early in the year with the car, but we over came that.  We made a lot of progress at the end of the season. We hoped for better things sooner, they came, just later than we though. We ended the year carrying momentum, hopefully we’re carrying that into this coming season.”

This year the new Shampine team has pretty much the same agenda as Keith did in 2005. “We’re a new team, and we’ll have our growing pains,” he said realistically. “We’ll be a good addition to the field, as this is where we want to be now, racing supermodifieds at Oswego Speedway. We want to get track time, and improve every week. I’m still a new driver, and still learning. We want to run up front, and want to improve weekly. We have a big learning curve, and want to gain experience. We want to be hitting our full stride by Classic. That’s the big one for us.”

They think they will turn a few heads when they unload the former Witkum 85 this year. “The general perception of the car was it wasn’t the prettiest, didn’t have a sleek paint job, some people thought it was junk. That’s not the truth,” Keith emphasized. “The last two drivers in it never drove supers before, and had great runs with it. Look at what Mike Barnes did in the Classic last year. He put it in the show, and ran great early in the race. He was coming through the field, until something broke.” Keith went into a little more detail about what he likes about the car, “It’s an original Graves car. I’d rather have an original Graves than a Graves copy. We’re working on it, and doing a lot to it. We’re updating the car, making it more like a new revolution car. We made every change we needed to, and then some. When he unload it, they won’t know it’s the Witkum 85.”

Keith will keep the number with the car, as it will be the 85 this year as well. There is some significance to the number, as Keith picks up the thought process, “We’re keeping it 85. 8 for Jimmy Shampine and 5 is the number I ran growing up. That, and Joe also asked if we could keep it 85. It just seemed to work.”

They have a modest crew putting in the hours in the Cicero garage, as Keith, his father Ed, his cousin Brian Sternberg and John Coe have been making the modifications to the machine. The team has signed Chandler Automotive, Siemens, Cheap Seats Bar and Grill (Oswego), and Saves Auto Body as sponsors for this summer.

Racing season is quickly approaching, and teams are beginning the final stretch run to be ready for opening day. Keith Shampine and his father put together a new team for the 2006 season, and have been hard at work all winter doing major work to a familiar car. Opening day can’t get here soon enough for the Shampine’s, as Keith said in closing, “We’re ready to go!”