[IndyBound]

Saturday August 25th was the beginning of what I call Classic Week activites and while a large number of campers were on the speedway property the attendance at that Saturday nights racing activity was light. Oswego stepped outside of the box and held a stand alone show for the NEMA Midgets, NEMA Lites and Legend cars while I thought the racing was good and the show was over early very few of the regular Oswego competitors or their fans showed up to attend this race. When I first saw this race scheduled as a stand alone event I asked my self how successful this race would be. On the other hand I know first hand what running twin 35 features the week before classic has meant over the years to teams, those races were extremely destructive on equipment and left teams hard pressed to get a car back to the race track a week later. Luckily they did away with that format years ago. Even a regular Saturday night show is hard to run the week before classic the days of 70 to 80 cars showing up to run classic are long gone.

I was a little disappointed to see how few Oswego regulars attended the August 25th race, general admission was only $15.

Onto Classic Weekend action, Friday night was the first round of qualifying for the classic, SBS heats and a Dirt Sportsmen class replaced the Must See Extreme Sprints on the schedule. The top 14 locked into the International Classic were 22 Pat Lavery on the pole, 2 Mike Lichty behind the wheel of a John Nicotra car, 90 Ray Graham, 00 Joe Gosek, 35 Jeff Hollbrook, 6 Davey Hamilton, 88 Randy Ritskes, 01 Danny Connors, 50 Dave Gruiel, 52 Dave Danzer, 11 Rob Summers, 60 Brian Sobus, 26 Shaun Gosselin, 7 Otto Sitterly.

Saturday saw Joey Payne win the TQ midget race, his Dad was Grand Marshall of the race and Joey announced just before the race that he will not run Oswego next year weekly. That was sad news in my book, Joey is a great talent that I first met running midgets long before he stepped up to supermodifieds.

The baby blue Soule #32 Supermodified pilotted by Timmy Jedrzejek won the ISMA Super Nationals on Saturday. Saturday seemed like a very long day, it was the first race my good friend Jackie Manuel, her daughter Kelly and son R. J. were back at the track with the #32 team since Donnie had passed away on July 27th. When Jackie, my daughter Steph and I crossed over into the stands for the heat races it seemed like my eyes were on one car the baby blue #32. When feature time rolled around we had been joined by my four and a half year old grandson. Who for the second time this year would miss his bed time because the baby blue #32 was running at Oswego and of course he had to load the race car after the race.

Timmy was running third early in the feature behind Ryan Coniam and Mike Ordway Sr. and he felt that is where he would finish, then Timmy was in second with Ryan still a good distance ahead, Timmy could see Ryan was smoking and he was catching him, when he caught him and they were in traffic Ryan slid wide and Timmy got by. Timmy was now being pressured by Johnny Benson and Mike Lichty, Lichty slips by Benson and goes after Timmy, each time it seemed like Mike was going to get by, Timmy seemed to find a burst of speed and maintain the lead. The race was caution free 60 laps green to checkered with Timmy J. across the line first. Not only was this an emtional win because of lossing Donnie in July, Timmy's good friend Slim who usually travels with him was in the hospital. Finish: 32 Timmy Jederzejek, 84Mike Lichty, 74 Johnny Benson, 46 Ryan Coniam, 16 Dave Gruel, 11 Rob Summers, 79 John Mc Kennedy, 65 Tim Ice, 97 Eddie Witkum, 37 Jeff Locke, 28 Bobby Dawson, 78 Mark Sammut, 40 Bobby Magner, 94 Craig Rayvals, 18 Dan Bowes, 66b B. J. Mc Donald, 61 Mike Ordway Sr., 75 Lou Cicconi, 77 Joe Gosek, 02 Brandon Bellinger, 8 Moe Lilje, 48 Rich Reid, 96 Lou Lavea Sr.

Onto Sunday's International Classic, Pat Lavery jumped out to the early lead then was passed by Mike Lichty but Joe Gosek was coming, Joe took the lead and looked like he was well on his way to another classic win. I will admit I was distracted from keeping track of what happended on what lap because those two little grandsons being in the stands on Sunday. I know at one point I thought to myself it was a rather caution free race and the ones we had were minor, well that all chanaged when the 25 of Bobby Bond road the wall going down the back stretch flipping over directly in front of where we were sitting, luckily Bobby was able to get out of the car without injury, the car however was destroyed. The race was red flagged when this accident ocurred and when the race was restarted Joe Gosek had a vapor lock and took going to the pits to refire. Shortly after Bobby Bond's accident Pat Lavery hit the back stretch wall hard coming out of turn 2, he finally came to a stop at the back pit entrance with a destroyed race car. The Classic race is usually filled with high and low emtions and this years race was no different, some of the top running teams needed to make late race pit stops for fuel or tires.

On a side note many in the Oswego pits on Sunday were found wearing teal ribbons to rise awareness of Ovarian Cancer, two of the race teams competeing in this years Classic have a loved one currently battling this disease. Some of you won't be surprised to know I wore my ribbon both Saturday and Sunday.

Classic Finish: Otto Sitterly and Davey Hamilton bring the John Nicotra team home in first and second, followed by Dave Gruel in the Billy Samuels 50, Tim Snyder, Joey Payne, Shaun Gosselin, Brian Sobus, Kody Graham, Gary Morton, Joe Gosek, Dan Connors, Shawn Muldoon, Tim Devendorf, Brandon Bellinger, Dave Mc Knight, Timmy Jedrzejek in a strong backup car crewed by the Soule team, Jerry Curran, Jeff Locke, Randy Ritskes, Mike Barnes, Pat Lavery, Bob Bond, Craig Rayvals, Jeff Abold, Jeff Hollbrook, Mike Muldoon, Jason Spaulding, Stephen Gioia, Bobby Haynes Jr., Mike Lichty, Johhny Benson, Kelly Miller, Dave Danzer, Ray Graham.

I will say I started this post off talking about the August 25th race because of some of the comments made under the DuQouin post. None of the divisions at Oswego that day had a huge car count, I think I can safely say the next time they are back at Oswego it won't be as a stand alone race. Another thing I know none of us want to see our favorite form of racing or race track go away. I was there when Manzy went away and had feared Oswego might meet the same fate, luckily a family that grew up watching their Dad race at Oswego came along to buy it last year. This year they tried to change the schedule on several occasions, bring back different classes that hadn't been there in years like NEMA and try a new one with the MUST SEE EXTREME SPRINTS; as long as we have car owners like them willing to try something different we will have race tracks to attend races at. I love the Silver Crown cars and can't tell you how disappointed I was a few years ago when they came to Oswego and weren't back the next year. When Manzy was lost to Phoenix so were the Silver Crown cars. I don't have an answer for any of you and like most of you I fear there fate but I don't think anything will be resolved on IOW to save them.

[davidm]

Very nice write up on the racing at Oswego! The Classic is high on my racing to-do list, even more so after getting a taste of the exciting racing there earlier this year.

[SC90]

Thanks for the update, Patti! I was in the area all weekend, but decided to attend the horse races at Saratoga instead. Their attendance was up 7% over last year. We went to Saratoga on Saturday and Monday, and Utica Rome Speedway to watch the mod action on Sunday.

[IndyBound]

Your welcome, Sharon!!! My daughter lives just off Exit 10 of the Northway Sharon, we have talked about getting to the horse races some year it just never seems to happend. My son-in-law worked there a few years ago when he was between jobs. An of course Labor Day Weekend would be out for this family it is spent in Oswego for Classic. The oldest member of the fourth generation of this family to spend Labor Day Weekend at Classic is becoming very in tune with the race cars at four and a half. Maybe someday we will see Donovan out there racing.

Hope you enjoyed your time in N. Y., Sharon. Have you heard how Johnny is doing lately? Hope all is going well for him!!!!

Patti