Otto Sitterly continued his dominance at Oswego Speedway this season as he picked up his fourth win of the year Saturday night in the Novelis Supermodified division. Dave Gruel became the sixth winner in six races in the PathFinder Bank Limited Super division and Rick Zeigler made it back to back wins in the Jakes Automotive Super Stock division.
Andy Noto and Shawn Muldoon brought the 21 car supermodified field down to Donnie Forbes' green flag on Oswego Sub Shop and Rudy's night. Muldoon drove off to the early lead, as the field scattered behind, looking for racing room. Sitterly and Tim Snyder chose the inside route, while Bentley Warren and Mike Barnes went to the outside of the race track. Craig Rayvals made an early statement, as the 94 was running well. At the end of lap one, he had the black 94 by Muldoon in the lead. As Rayvals tried to distance himself from the pack, Sitterly was slicing through the field at a rapid fashion.
Lap 5 he pulled the 79 to the inside lane and cranked by Jerry Curran for fifth place. The next lap he shot by Noto for fourth. Lap 7, Sitterly made possibly the move of the race as he wheeled by both Bob Bond and Muldoon on the front straightaway to move from fifth to second don three laps. Lap 8, Sitterly shifted lanes and went to the outside by Rayvals for the lead coming out of the fourth turn. He quickly put some daylight between himself and the pack, as he clocked in a 17.06 his first lap up front, in building a 1.31 second lead. Yellow came over the speedway on lap 10. The leaders came up to the slower car of Mike Casey, and Casey bobbled a bit, taking out the Todd Stowell 89.
Sitterly took off on the restart, but his closest competitor this year, Tim Snyder, began to come forward. BY lap 17, Snyder raced his way to third place, as Sitterly cranked off 16.96 laps. Snyder moved to the runner up spot on the restart by Bond. Fans attention shifted to rookie Mike Barnes, as he began using the outside groove to his advantage. Barnes took the 72 to the high side of the speedway, as he slipped by Muldoon and Gareau. Lap 21 saw the caution flag come out again, as Pat Lavery’s 99 run ended in turn one, with a banged up car and fluid pouring from the engine. Jerry Curran pitted here for an overheating car, and Bentley Warren was in and out of the pits, working on the tire stagger.
Sitterly and Snyder shot out on the restart, as the pack behind raced for third. Tim Gareau pulled the 5 to the inside by Bond and Muldoon, as he went from fifth to third in one straightaway. Barnes went back to work as he got by Bond for fifth. The caution lights flashed again, this time on lap 33 as top five running Craig Rayvals 94 ended up in the third turn wall after a three wide move on the back straightaway. The front end on the 94 was wiped out, and Rayvals nice run ended n the back of a tow truck. Sitterly and Snyder raced away from Gareau, Barnes and Bond on the restart. Snyder couldn’t catch Sitterly, as the 79 pulled away a couple of car lengths per lap. As the race wound down, Sitterly put more distance on the field, as he closed in on win #4. Sitterly lapped more of the field, as he crossed under the checkered flag. Snyder held on for second place, with Gareau, Barnes and Bond in the top five.
“The crew really earned this one,” the happy victory said. “I’ve said how good the car and motor are, but the crew is really doing everything it takes to put the car in victory lane My tire guy hit it perfect, and everyone does their jobs so well. This is a total team effort.”
Dave Gruel made it six winners in six weeks in the limited supermodified division. After a four win season last year, Gruel hasn’t had the kind of season in 2006 that he had in 2005. That luck resulted in a closer to the front starting position than he is used to.
The Auburn driver took full advantage of that, as well as a finely tuned car as he knocked down his first win of the year. Gruel started the 25 lap feature from inside of the fourth row, and made quick work getting to the front. Alan Barker and Star Matteson started the race up front, and ran side by side the first full lap, each racing the other clean as they looked for the lead. Barker nosed his #60 in front, as the field fell into formation. Mark Regan, Lou Levea, Chris Proud and Gruel raced their way into the top five by lap 5. Gruel took the 18 to the outside of the speedway in an effort to move forward. Lap 7 he pulled by Levea for fourth place. Lap10 Gruel shot by both Proud and Regan, as he was now in second, 20 car lengths behind leader Barker.
Rookie Barker was running smooth and quick, as he held a big lead. Gruel began chopping into the lead, but laps were clicking off the scoreboard. Lap 14 saw Barker’s lead wiped out, as the caution lights flashed, closing up the field. That was the break Gruel needed, as he went to the inside of the 60 on the front straightaway for the lead. Two laps later, Barker’s nice run was eliminated, as he went into the fourth turn wall hard. The car turned right, and slammed the foam with great force. A brief fire broke out, but the safety crew quickly were on the scene and put out the flame. The 60, which had just had his best run of the season going, went off on a tow truck banged up.
Gruel took off on the restart, and wheeled away from the pack. It was closed up again, this time on lap 20 as the top ten cars of Lou Levea and Josh Larochelle ended up against the front straightaway wall. A jam up occurred coming off the fourth turn, and ended with the 96 and 10, both feature winners this year, damaged too severely to continue.
Chris Proud now ran in second, but didn’t have anything for the 18. Gruel drove off for win one on the year, with Proud, Brian Sobus, Russ Brown and Mike Bond in top five spots.
Rick Zeigler made it two for two as he picked up the win in the 20 lap super stock feature.
Alan Barker, Chris Proud and Lou Levea won limited super heats, Jeff Merritt and Rick Zeigler won stock heats, with Otto Sitterly, Andy Noto and Tim Snyder took supermod qualifiers. Zack Catalone won the limited consi.
Novelis Supermodified finish (45)
1)Otto Sitterly 79, 2)Tim Snyder 0, 3)Tim Gareau 5, 4)Mike Barnes 72, 5)Bob Bond 25, 6)Keith Gilliam 87, 7)Shawn Muldoon 1, 8)Stephen Gioia 9), Keith Shampine 85, 10)Bentley Warren 22, 11)Travis Bartlett 03, 12)Dave Halstead 34, 13)Hal Latulip 56, 14)Andy Noto 19, 15)Craig Rayvals 94, 16)Jerry Curran 24, 17)Pat Lavery 99, 18)Kelly Miller 16, 19)Todd Stowell 89, 20)Mike Casey 11.
PathFinder Bank Limited Supermodified finish (25)
1)Dave Gruel 18, 2)Chris Proud 3, 3)Brian Sobus 79, 4)Russ Brown 13, 5)Mike Bond 90, 6)Kevin Knopp 94, 7)Rob Pullen 2, 8)Jack Patrick 9, 9)Larry Muroski 38, 10)Shawn Walker 68, 11)Star Matteson 82, 12)Doug Reaume14, 13)Tim Barbeau 50, 14)Zack Catalone 06, 15)Cameron Rowe 85, 16)John Ketcham 11, 17)Barry Kingsley 23, 18)Chris Natoli 33, 19)Guard Nearbin 78, 20)Jay Andrews 93, 21)Bill Moore 95, 22)Mark Regan 4, 23)Lou Levea 96, 24)Josh Larochelle 10, 25)Alan Barker 60
Jakes Automotive Super Stock finish (20)
1. Rick Zeigler, 2.Jason Spalding, 3. Joe Miller, 4.Bobby Newman, 5. Eric Conners
6. Dave Fetterly; 7. Jeff Merritt; 8. Mike Scorzelli; 9. Scott Dinzler; 10. Randy Storms; 11. Brian Haynes; 12. Mike Deloff; 13. RJ Wyman; 14. Chad LeRoy; 15. Todd Rhoads; 16. Jason Dinzler; 17. Ken Traver; 18. AJ Woods; 19. Eric Wood.