Saturday July 22nd is one of the red letter days at the Oswego Speedway in 2006, as it’s the $10,000 to win Mr. Supermodified race. Other than Classic, this is the one everyone wants to win. The rest of the purse is exactly the same as a regular night. The only exception is, the winners take goes from $2000 to $10,000! This increase has made for some of the closest racing you will ever see, as well as some of the most intense drama out on the race track. Picking a winner out of this one is no easy task.
Currently, Otto Sitterly is the King of the Hill in 2006. Otto has five wins in six races this year in his Hawk Chassis #79. He has won every conceivable way too. He has completely blown away the competition, he has made late race passes for the win, and last week was by far the most dramatic. He flipped the car in his heat race, after contact with another competitor. His car was so severely damaged, Otto even changed into shorts and began to ride hunt. Joe Hawksby Jr., the car builder, looked over the 79 and asked Otto if he wanted to try and fix it. What ensued was the stuff legends are made of. Joe, Otto, and seemingly half the pit area thrashed on the 79, and rebuilt the front end of the race car. In typical storybook fashion, Otto went out and won his fifth feature after the repairs. How can you bet against the hottest thing at the speedway?
Greg Furlong had a remarkable year last year, and if you read internet message boards, will be in the 72 this weekend. Greg set the speedway on its ear last year winning everything except a couple of shows. He is a two time and the defending champ of this race. Since winning the Classic last year, Greg has been snake bit. Can’t think of a better weekend to break the spell than this weekend.
Simply put, Mike Ordway owns the Mr. Supermodified race. In 19 races, Mike has won six of them. When the big dollars are on the line, Mike and Clyde are at their best. The 61 has only been here once this year, and broke a torque arm early in the feature. Before it broke, the 61 was as fast as ever. Clyde is the master diagonstician, and Mike has a heavy right foot. These guys ran the table three years in a row in this race, four out of five years could be in the cards for them this weekend.
Tim Snyder has the only other win this year in the 0. In the past couple of years, Tim has been the ultimate bridesmaid. Last year, he played second fiddle to the 72, and this year he is seemingly glued to the 79’s back bumper. Tim is a smart, calculating driver. They played around a bit last weekend with the 0, and missed the set up. You have to play around to get faster, look for the 0 to be in the lead group, possibly in front of it Saturday night.
How can it be, that Bentley Warren has never been crowned Mr. Supermodified? The king of our sport for a couple of decades, and luck just hasn’t fallen his way in this race. Stranger things have happened, but it seems like Bentley should have the title of Mr. Supermodified attached to his name.
Tim Gareau won his first ever Oswego Supermodified feature on Mr. Supermodified night and is the only driver to be both Mr. Supermodified and Mr. Limited Super. The last month, Tim and Darcey Kerfien have meshed well, and they currently are riding a streak of three straight podium finishes. Pat Abold is a former two time event winner, and he’ll be in the Rayvals #95 this weekend. Pat could make a shopping cart go fast. Todd Stowell and Craig Rayvals are looking to end a few years absence from victory lane. Ray Graham and Bob Bond have been knocking on the door for their first Oswego win, a win could be in the cards for them too. The Mr. Supermodified race is always an entertaining one, and the 2006 version should be no different.
After you buy your race ticket on Saturday and before the racing action starts you can turn recyclable cans into Classic week tickets. Novelis and Habitat for Humanity representatives will be in front of the Oswego Speedway from 3:30 to 6:30 collecting cans. For the first 100 cans a fan turns in they will receive two tickets to the Friday night events on Classic Week. Each additional 100 cans earns an additional ticket. The first time this was done on June 24 th with no Supermodifieds on the schedule, Habitat for Humanity smashed all previous collection records with a generous donation of over 14,000 cans in just over two hours from the Oswego race fans that night. This week's collection should even top that current record.