He's the "King of Wings," and now Mexico's Bobby Bond is the ruler of the Classic. Bond drove the #25 car to victory Monday in the 54th Budweiser International Classic at Oswego Speedway.
He added the Classic title to the triumph he achieved earlier this season in the winged supermodified "King of Wings" race at the track.
Those were his first two feature wins at Oswego Speedway. This one was worth $15,000 plus contingencies.
"I really can't believe it yet," Bond said after the race. "At the beginning of the race, we really didn't have the best car, not even close."
Still, after qualifying ninth fastest in time trials, Bond stayed within sight of the leaders, and his car kept getting better and better. Going into a restart on lap 153, Bond stood in fourth place, trailing three former Classic winners - leader Otto Sitterly, Sitterly's teammate Davey Hamilton, and Greg Furlong.
Furlong got under Hamilton for second place on lap 169, and Bond followed Furlong to take over third. Furlong later brushed the outside wall on the front stretch as he tried to get around Sitterly. Bond inherited second place with 180 laps in the books. Bobby Santos III, driving the #05 car prepared by Mike Muldoon, passed Hamilton for third. Santos had pitted for a right-rear tire after a lap 110 caution flag, and appeared to be in good position to challenge for the win.
Sitterly, the 2009 Classic winner and the track champion in the Novelis Supermodified division the past three years, began to have fuel pick-up problems in the John Nicotra-owned #7 car. Bond took advantage and drove under Sitterly to take the lead on lap 187.
Two laps later, Bond clocked a time of 17.391 seconds, the fastest lap of the race to that point.
Santos passed Sitterly for second place, and through 196 laps, the top three were Bond, Santos, and Ray Graham Jr.
On lap 197, Sitterly spun in turn 2. During the ensuing caution period, both Santos and Todd Stowell ran out of fuel. That set up a green-white-checkered finish, with the race restarting on lap 205. Bond held on for the win over Graham, Hamilton, Russ Wood, and Randy Ritskes.
Bond said he wasn't concerned about hanging on to the lead at the end.
"The tires were still there, and the car felt good. I wasn't too worried," he said.
Oswego's Pat Lavery started on the pole after setting fast time with a lap of 16.523 seconds in time trials. But on the first lap, outside pole-sitter Doug Didero came down in front of Lavery going into the first turn. The cars made contact, and Didero came away with the lead. Lavery spun on lap 110 while running fifth. He wound up 23rd. Didero spun on lap 129 after apparently being contacted by Furlong's #72 car from behind. Didero was in third place at the time, and he finished 20th.
Earlier, Sitterly maneuvered under Didero for the lead on the front stretch of lap 23. Sitterly and Hamilton ran 1-2 for most of the race until the wild finish.
Completing the top 10 were Randy Burch, Stowell, Brian Sobus, Sitterly, and Santos.
Earlier on Monday, Ben Seitz won the 50-lap Bud Light ISMA Super Nationals, and Steve Abt led every lap to win the Bud Light SBS Classic 100.