10/16/2025
Oswego Speedway
A Lifetime of Dedication and Excellence Earns Jim Paternoster Well–Deserved Place in Oswego Speedway Hall of Fame
OSWEGO, NY (October 16, 2025) – Few people can say they’ve devoted more of their life to Oswego Speedway than Jim Paternoster, a lifelong Oswego native whose career around the Steel Palace has spanned more than 60 years as a car owner, builder, mechanic, and restorer.
From sneaking into the pits as a 12-year-old in 1964 to still fielding championship SBS machines today, Paternoster’s journey has been one of passion, craftsmanship, and lifelong friendship – and this Friday night at the Oswego Elks Club, he’ll be recognized for that remarkable body of work when he is inducted into the Oswego Speedway Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
“It all started when I was about 12 years old,” Paternoster recalled with a laugh. “We used to sneak into the pits back then – sometimes I would sneak in inside a tire. It was pretty cold one night, and nobody wanted to hold the STP can for the team I was with, that gooey sticky stuff you used to put in the motor to cling on to the bearings. Nobody wanted to do it, so I did. I was about as proud as I could be. I thought, ‘Man, I’m working on a race car.’ Little did I know, I had the worst job going – but to me, it was the best job in the world.”
That night would change his life forever. “I looked up and saw Harry Caruso standing there,” he continued. “He knew me from my father, and he looked down at me under his fedora hat and gave me the death stare. He just shook his head, turned, and walked away – but he let me stay. That was 1964. I swear, if he had kicked me out and sent me to the stands that night, my whole life in racing would have been different. Everything I’ve done since then, I owe to him for not throwing me out.”
That first night working on a car for Jack Nichols – pouring STP into the motor – became the start of a lifetime in the pits. Nichols, a driver from Michigan, had a friend who moved to Oswego and rented an apartment from Paternoster’s grandmother. Through that connection, Jim was introduced to him and began tagging along to races. “Every time he came down, I went in the pits with him,” he said. “They took me to Sandusky and all over the place. That’s why my cars have always been #41 – that was Jack’s number, and he was my first favorite driver.”
From there, the path was set. “I hung around with Ronnie Wallace, I was with the Dunnigans, then the Rutledges, and Warren Null took me under his wing with his No. 26,” he said. “Warren was probably my biggest mentor. He taught me so much, not just about cars, but about life and business. I’d go up and down the road with him all summer. I’d leave home when school got out and come back when it started again. He was a great businessman and a great man.”
After working with Null and several others, Paternoster bought his first Modified at just 17 years old. “I quickly learned that my hands held tools and a welder a lot better than they held a steering wheel,” he joked. “Some guys never figure that out, but it didn’t take me long.”
Through the years, he bounced around helping different teams and car owners before getting involved with the budding Limited Supermodified division in the early 1990s. “When the Limiteds came out, I got really interested in that class,” he said. “Before that I was with Ronnie (Wallace), and I had owned a car with Scott Merz when the Limiteds first got started. Scott and I split up and I called Dean Hoag and asked if he wanted to work with me, and from there Dean and I were together from 1993 through the end of 1998. We won two track championships, a Classic, and 16 features in that stretch.”
In 1998, Hoag shifted his focus to helping his young son Alex, and Jim began to explore new opportunities – including stints at the highest levels of open-wheel racing. “I did two years in IndyCar and about 10 years in USAC Silver Crown,” he said. “In IndyCar, my first year was with a small group called Liberty Racing – that was with Joe Gosek. The next year, I worked for Eddie Cheever the year after he won the 500. I did some races with them that season, but it was tough to leave home with my business growing. Both times I moved out there for about six weeks.”
The Silver Crown years were a major chapter. “We did that for 10 years, traveling all over,” Paternoster said. “I never really got married to one driver – I just dated,” he laughed. “We had some great drivers: Dave Darland, Jay Drake, Jeff Bloom, Levi Jones, P.J. Jones, and Ryan Moore through Toyota. The last two years, we were the house car for Riley Technologies. We did really well considering who we were racing against.”
Eventually, Jim’s path led him back home to Oswego. “I drifted back, helped Otto Sitterly and Johnny Nicotra here and there, and took some load off Otto when they were running extra cars,” he said. “In 2018, Dave Shullick Jr. and John Nicotra came to me and asked if I wanted to run Dave out of my shop. We did that for a year – won three features, finished second in points, had the fastest lap of the year, and started outside pole for the Classic. That was a really good year.”
But more than the wins, Jim remembers the hard work. “My best memory from that year wasn’t the victories – it was one night we got wrecked really bad. Between me, the Hawksbys, and the guys, we put it back together and won the next week out. That’s something I still feel really good about.”
During COVID, Paternoster helped redesign and build the Speedway’s 2-Seat Supermodified and even created the beautiful street signs on Shampine Drive and Swift Drive, with help from Matt Hubbard, who did the artwork.
In recent years, he reunited with his lifelong friends, the Hoag family. “When Alex and Dean wanted to come back to Oswego a few years back, I got involved again,” he said. “It was not long after that Dean got diagnosed with cancer, so we put it on hold, but after he passed, Alex and I put things together, brought the car up here, and we’ve been doing good ever since. He’s like the kid I never had. There are pictures of 11-year-old Alex with Dean and I winning races. I’ve watched him grow up. My cousin Joe has been with me forever, and his son Brian and Alex are about the same age, so we have all these victory lane photos from years ago – now Alex is driving, and Brian is helping work on the car. It’s full circle.”
Their operation today is small but tight-knit. “It’s a small bunch of people – not a lot of guys jockeying for position,” he said. “Alex comes up and takes care of the tires and works on the chassis. I pretty much maintain the car myself. This is the first car I’ve ever had that I don’t do the tires on, and that’s pretty cool. Everything’s good – his wife’s involved, my wife, his two kids, his mom comes to the races most of the time – it’s really nice.”
Over six decades, Jim’s fingerprints have been on countless race cars, wings, bumpers, and restorations. His shop today houses several historic machines: the Rear-Engine Shampine car, the Wedge car, the Shampine Sprint car, and a Northern Steel car from the late 1960s. “That Northern Steel car – that one’s special,” he said. “There is a photo of me, Harry Caruso, and that restored Northern Steel car on the front straightaway, and I always think back to that moment at the track in ’64. He could’ve changed my life for the worse.”
Though progress has been gradual, the restoration work continues to come together piece by piece and is a passion project for Jim. “The rear-engine car, I always said that was my retirement project,” he explained. “Every time I start on it, someone brings me another project – the two-seater, Alex’s Limited, something else. So I do side jobs to fund that rear-engine car. It’s all organized and assembled from the front to the seat now, it’s got the steering, both pedals – everything. The rear end’s upside down and backwards, two driveshafts, a dry sump pump, all packaged like a shoebox. It’s hard to do, but when I officially retire, that’s the first thing I’m going to finish. People are so interested in that car and keep asking me when it will be done. It’s in a safe, climate-controlled place, and I’ve got everything – the right motor, correct wheels, period Goodyear tires, even a left-rear Halibrand wheel I paid $1,500 for. I always do my stuff as authentic as I can.”
Of all the accomplishments and memories that define his decades at Oswego Speedway, perhaps none mean more to Paternoster than his lifelong friendship with Dean Hoag, which adds an emotional layer to his induction. “Dean was the best man in my wedding 51 years ago,” he said. “We went to college together – he, my wife Patti, and I were inseparable. We were Industrial Arts majors together. He was my best friend my whole life.”
The parallels between his bond with Dean and his partnership with Dean’s son Alex aren’t lost on him by any means. “It’s kind of crazy how similar it is,” Paternoster said. “My strengths seem to be Alex’s weaknesses and vice versa. We complement each other so well. He’s the son I never had, and I’m happy to be there and help him. We’re going to come back for 2026 and try to do at least one more year of it. I think I can still do it. My age hasn’t caught up to me too bad yet.”
Over the past two seasons, Paternoster has housed and maintained the championship-winning SBS car for Alex, the defending SBS track champion. Fittingly, he was also of course the 1996 Classic-winning car owner for Dean, and now, the Hoag father-and-son duo has become the first pair of family members to win back-to-back championships in division history – with Dean capturing titles in 1996 and 1997, and Alex doing the same in 2024 and 2025, both with cars prepared by Paternoster.
Looking back, he has accomplished just about everything there is to do at Oswego. “Four championships, two Classic wins with Dean, well over 20 feature wins in two divisions between all of my drivers, the two-seater, the signs, the restorations – there’s a big body of work there for sure,” he said. “When they called my name on Classic Weekend to come to the podium though, I’ll be honest, I was shocked. I said, ‘What the heck did I do?’ People were congratulating me, and I was really choked up. I’ve had a good career there, but I was pleasantly surprised.”
As for his proudest moment? “My first feature win with Alex last year,” he said without hesitation. “Of course I’d gone through all of this before with his dad, then we lost Dean, then Alex and I got together – and how our relationship formed was so special. There are some great pictures of us after that win. That’s my favorite memory.”
Now 73, Paternoster continues to contribute to the Speedway he’s called home for more than six decades – still building, fabricating, and mentoring, with his sights set on some final goals: more feature wins and another championship with the Hoag family, and finishing that famous rear-engine Shampine car. “When Alex has had enough or I can’t do as much anymore,” he said, “then I’ll do the rear-engine car – and I’ll be done, but what a ride it’s been, and we are still having fun together.”
Submitted By: Oswego Admin