Oswego, NY - Fulton's Greg Furlong and Brampton, Ontario's Dave McKnight were the winners in Oswego Speedway's opening night feature events for the supermodifieds. Furlong started from the pole position and led all 50 laps in the Empire Super Series 50 lap event. McKnight picked up the win in the ISMA portion of the Jim Shampine Memorial race, as he grabbed the lead from Howie Page on lap 9, and held back a late race Joe Gosek charge for his first victory of the season.
Furlong and Jerry Curran started the Empire Super Series 50 lap race from the front row, with Furlong taking the top spot as soon as the green flag was shown to the 26 car field. Mike Muldoon, Todd Stowell and Howard Page used the inside groove to come through early race traffic, while Bob Goutermout chose the outside line. Furlong pulled his red and white #72 out to a quick three car length lead, then the first caution flag of the event was thrown as Randy Ritskes experienced a problem in the Witkum #85, and went off on the hook.
Tim Gareau made the move forward on the restart as he came from restarting in sixth place, and picked his way by Bob Goutermout and Doug Boisvert, and now rested in fourth place behind Furlong, Curran, and Shannon Groves.Lap nine Gareau kept his charge to the front going as he shot the black #5 to the inside of Groves on the front straightaway, to move into third.
Jennifer Chesbro's 33 hit the foam in turn 3 to bring out the next caution, bunching the field again. Furlong again drove out to a three car length advantage, but fans attention now shifted to Bob Goutermout and Mike Muldoon, as their cars began to move to the front. Goutermout used the outside to move by Groves and Gareau in successive laps to move up to third place, while Muldoon went by Page on the restart for sixth.
Gareau's run ended on lap 16 as the top five car went off on the hook, with the right front tire off the machine. Muldoon disposed of Groves and Goutermout on the restart, and now was up to third place, moving in on the tail section of Curran's 24 car. The yellow then red flags came out for a grinding wreck on the front straightaway. The 24 of Curran was racing off the fourth turn, and as he entered the front straightaway, the rear end went loose, and caught the right front of the Muldoon 50. Muldoon's car hit the wall, and flipped over on the front straightaway. It took the rescue crew several minutes to get Mike out of the car. He was conscious, but received a rib injury, and a severe hand injury. He was immediately transported to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. The brand new 50 car was severely damaged from the accident.
Once the track was race ready, the top ten now read Furlong, Curran, Goutermout, Groves, Page, Mike Douglas, Tim Proud, Vern LaFave, Todd Stowell and Tim Snyder. The halfway point of the race came, and Furlong built up a comfortable four car length advantage, on the strength of laps at 17.69 and 17.66. Another mid race restart saw Goutermout and Page work their way by the Curran car into second and third places, and they tried to reel in the 72 car, who was now six car lengths ahead.
A yellow, then red flag period on lap 33 saw the top ten cars of Mike Douglas and Tim Proud come together in turn two ending their fine runs. On this restart, Furlong began to lengthen his lead by a car length per lap, as he quickened the race pace to the 17.3 range. Page took to the inside of Goutermout on lap 38 and moved into second place, .74 seconds behind Furlong. There was still time, but there was no time to waste if Page was going to win this race.
Furlong was in command of this race though. The green flag remained out, and he was never seriously challenged the last ten laps of the race. He held on for the 6 car length win over Page, while Goutermout, Curran and Groves filled out the top five.
"It's a good way to start the year, " Furlong commented after the victory. "We had a good car tonight, and even though we led all the laps, it wasn't as easy as that. The car was good, but we'll take it back to the shop this week and try and improve on it a little bit."
The ISMA 50 lap event saw teenage Jamie Timmons and Howard Page on the front row, with Page fresh off a second place finish in the first feature. Page took the lead at the start of the race, with Dave McKnight and Pat Abold falling in behind in the first few laps. Four laps into the race, McKnight began to hound the Page 18 on the top side of the race track, but couldn't make the pass stick. He finally did four laps later, but had to go back behind as the first caution flag of the race came out.
The top ten in the early stages of the ISMA 50 were Page, McKnight, Randy Ritskes, Lou Cicconi, Pat Abold, Jamie Timmons, Joe Gosek, Scott Martel, Timmy Jedrzejek, and Doug Saunier. McKnight made the pass stick on the restart, as he slung the blue #94 to the outside of Page. Another quick caution flag flew as the top five car of Lou Cicconi had a suspension part break in the third turn., sending the Miller #4 off on the tow truck.
Joe Gosek had the 26 on a rail as he moved the Dunigan #26 up to third place as he wheeled the ride by Abold on the restart, then chased down Page the next circuit. McKnight circled the 5/8's mile at a clip of 16.38 seconds, eight car lengths ahead of teammates Ritskes and Gosek.
A lap 18 caution again slowed the event, this time because of a fluid leak on the 97 of up and coming driver Timmons. Ritskes began to show his hand at this point as he worked on the McKnight car pretty hard, looking for a way by. While this race for the lead was going on, perennial front runner Chris Perley came to the leaders in the Vic Miller 11. he quickly brought the car from seventh place, by Martel and Page, up to a top five spot 20 laps into the event. Three laps later, Perley moved into fourth as he worked his way by Abold , 3.38 second behind the leaders.
Back up front, McKnight stopped watches at a 15.91 and 15.99 clip, as he picked up the pace. Doug Boisvert looped the 66 in the fourth turn, slowing action again, and closing Perley up to the lead trio.
On the restart, Ritskes put the Dunigan owned 29 in the high groove out of the fourth turn, and took the lead from McKnight. His first lap in the lead was timed at 16.09, and immediately backed it up with a 15.88 trip around the track. He came into lapped traffic for the first time on lap 37, which he handled with ease. The next time around, the traffic got a bit heavier, and Ritskes and a slower car came together, damaging the radiator on the lead car, sending him out for the rest of the race.
McKnight inherited the lead back, now with Gosek, Perley, Abold and Kenny Bell in the top five. One lap under green flag, saw the yellow flag out, as Pat Abold's 61 car ran out of fuel, slowing on the race surface. The red flag was brought out to let teams refuel their race cars.
McKnight took off on the restart, and led Gosek by a few lengths. There were a few car lengths between each of the top five cars of McKnight, Gosek, Perley, Bell, and Scott Martel. One last caution flag came out on lap 48, giving Gosek one last shot at the win. It was not to be, as McKnight took right off, and drove away from the Dunigan car. McKnight timed in his last lap at 16.31, and crossed the checkers with Gosek right on his back bumper. Perley, Bell and Martel finished third through fifth.
"This is excellent!, " McKnight exclaimed after his victory. "We've been struggling, we've been fast here two or three times, but the car was just excellent tonight. The guys did a great job on the car. This is great for the team. We've been together for a short time, and have been so close, and had it taken away from us. Tonight is just great."
News and Notes.....31 ISMA supers and 32 Empire series supermodifieds took to the track Saturday night....ISMA heat race wins went to Howard Page, Joe Gosek and Dave McKnight, while non winged heat races were won by Doug Boisvert, Greg Furlong, and Jerry Curran. Consolation races went to George Brothers and Todd Stowell. Joe Hawksby Jr had two cars there, but ran into problems with both during practice and was done for the night. Joey Payne had the rack break on the 06 in warmups, sending him into the fourth turn wall. Repairs were made, and he came away with a top ten finish. Greg Furlong took the early lead in Oswego points, while the Dunigan owned 26 car of Joe Gosek lead ISMA, with two wins and a second place finish in three races. Howard Page took the award for best combined finish of the two races with a second and sixteenth. He also took the prize for best finishes with the same car, a combined winning of $1500. Randy Ritskes, Doug Boisvert, and Doug Saunier all also qualified for both feature races.