This weekend at Oswego Speedway, one of the biggest events during the regular season in quite some time gets the green flag.  The first ever MSA-Oswego Wings event takes to the lakeside oval Saturday evening.  Winged supermodifieds from the Midwest, Oswego, and ISMA will join together in an effort to aid the supermodified division.

Car counts in all the supermodified classes have been dwindling in years and the powers at be knew something had to be done in order to help the class.  Pat Furlong, Steve Gioia, Kevin Jaycox and Randy Birch collectively put together this three race series which has all of the supermodified community buzzing.

This is a three race series, with the first one this Saturday.  Race two also at Oswego on July 14.  The finale is at Sandusky, Ohio on September 15.  Formula 1 style time trials begin the event, as four to five cars will go out on the speedway at once, putting in a time trial lap.  After time trials, they will run heat races.  The conclusion will be a 40 lap feature event.

Over 30 cars are expected for the race, showing that this idea surely is solidly supported.  MSA promises to bring upwards of 18 cars, including DJ Shullick, Moe Lilje, Jack Smith, Gene Lee Gibson, Bobby Dawson, Charlie Schultz, and Jon Henes are expected to tow from Ohio.  Racing for the first time in a few years, Timmy Jedrzejek comes out of retirement and will drive the Reed’s Salvage #8.  Word has it that current Oswego high point man Randy Ritskes will drive the Burch 52, as Randy will be at a graduation ceremony, but still wants to support the show, so he is sending his car.  Most of the Oswego regulars including Joe Gosek, Greg Furlong, Michael Barnes, Stephen Gioia, Otto Sitterly, Timmy Snyder, Pat Lavery, and Keith Shampine are expected go with a top this weekend.  From ISMA, look for Ray Graham, Johnny Torrese and Scotty Martel (Budnick 88) to join in the fun.

Qualifying will be at a premium, as it looks like teams will have to race their way to the show, with over 30 cars expected and only 25 feature spots.  It also appears that Bentley Warren’s track record of 15.633 set during the first ever Supernationals in 1994 is in serious jeopardy.  Any one of a handful of drivers has a chance to set a new mark, should the conditions be right.

Rounding out the evening is the SBS series running a full slate of qualifiers and a 30 lap main event as well.  The SBS series currently has 4 winners in four races this year, and we could go for quite a while this year before we have a repeat winner, as any one of a dozen or more teams have showed the capability of running up front.

This past weekend showed that hard work and dedication are the mainstay of the supermodified division.  Two weeks ago, both the Joe Gosek and Greg Furlong machines went off the track pretty much in a basket.  Both cars were involved in grinding crashes that saw both drivers aggravated and dismayed.  They couldn’t even put a time table on their return to the track, as their cars were severely wadded up.

Both teams went above and beyond both in the hard work and checkbook.  Both garages saw work every night going past might night.  In Gosek’s case, Friday night turned into 3:30 a.m. Saturday, then back at it at 7:30am. They worked at it all Saturday, and pulled the 00 in the back gate minutes before warm ups concluded.  Joe took to his heat race with no previous track time Saturday.  The Furlong’s had team members pull all-nighters Friday night, grab a quick nap, and back at it.

Both teams fixed their cars right, as they battled it out in the closing laps for the feature win.  Both were quick, turning laps in the 16.9’s at the end of the race.  Joe went on for the win, his second in three weeks.  Greg had his best run of the year by far, wheeling the 72 home in a close second.  Both of these teams went above and beyond, not only getting their cars to the track this weekend, but having them in top form.  Thanks for all your work guys, it really is appreciated!

I felt bad for Otto Sitterly and his guys this past weekend.  Like the 00 and 72, Otto and his guys spent  a full week in the garage fixing a bent up race car.  Otto was turning the fastest laps he had all year in his heat race in the #6.  A couple of laps from the end, he banked it off the inside hub in four, which sent the car to the outside boiler plate.  The result was significant damage to the front end of the car.  Many teams would have packed it up and put it on the trailer. 

We’ve seen this team perform miracles before, and they did it again.  The car was fixed during the SBS main, and the 6 was feature race ready.  He took the green flag, and looked for another storybook ending.  This time they weren’t as fortunate.  Travis Bartlett spun in one, a seemingly harmless spin.  Otto spun to avoid.  A car further back didn’t pick up the caution as quick, and slammed the back end of the Sitterly car.  All the drivers weren’t hurt, but the 6’s tail section was bent like a pretzel.  All the scrambling the Sitterly crew did went for naught.  Thanks for the effort guys, the hard work will pay off.

Each and every show has been exciting this year at the speedway, this weekend has potential to top them all.  All full field of winged supermodifieds are expected, and anticipation is as high for a regular season show as I have seen since the first ISMA show back in the 90’s.  This should be one for the ages, and the grandstands surely will be as full as the pit area.

The gates will open for winged supermodified practice from 2:30pm until 4:00pm.  At 4pm,the grandstand will be cleared, then fans will be admitted back at 5pm for the MSA-Oswego wings show. Time trials start at 6:30pm, with heats and features to follow.  This plans on being one of those “can’t miss” shows.

See you at the races.