August 11, 2001

GREG FURLONG IN THIRD STRAIGHT AFTER SECOND STRAIGHT HEAT CRASH

Oswego, NY - Saturday night at Oswego Speedway Greg Furlong repeated his previous week's winning performance in the supermodified division-literally. On August 4, Greg suffered a damaging crash in a heat and came back to win the feature from way back in the pack. On August 11 he did it all over again. This time, on Nice n Easy Grocery Shoppes-Labatt-TK99 night, it was a little easier for the Hannibal, NY driver. A devastating crash with Keith Gilliam in the third heat, sent Greg to the consolation in his back up car. Starting 19th, Furlong flew up through the 24-car field to capture the point from Otto Sitterly on lap 21. It was Furlong's fourth feature win of the season, and a hard-fought one for the 2000 track champ.

"The car was awesome tonight, said Furlong, "We crashed in the heat race and went to the backup car. I thought we had a good car there in the heat, but unfortunately it only made a lap. We brought this other car out, ran and won the consi. We started toward the back but this car was just on rails. It was hooked. I actually was trying to be kind of conservative out there. I didn't want to be too aggressive and cause us to wreck. But, when the car works that good, it's hard to sit back. The car just wants to go. This car is almost five years old now and it's won us almost $100,000. This car just rocks! It's just awesome. A lot of it is communication between me, my brother and the crew. You know there are a lot of good drivers out there and I don't think it's necessarily that I'm better than they are. I think that we have just found something. The crew has given us a great setup. There's a lot of great talent out there. A lot of them are off from last year like Goutermout and Gareau. Shannon Groves is starting to come on fire and so is Bobby Bond. Once they figure it out, they'll be chasing me down. I enjoy the competition. Last week some people gave me grief for beating Shannon, who ran a great race, but I have to give it all I have. That's what I want to do. That's what my brother wants me to do."

A large crowd turned out for the Nice n Easy Grocery Shoppes-Labatt-TK99 Nostalgia Night and they were treated to some great racing, with the last checkered dropped just before 10 pm. As aforementioned, a scary wreck in the third supermodified heat destroyed both Furlong's and Keith Gilliam's machines, with debris flying to the top of the rear grandstand in the tremendous impact.

Otto Sitterly and Vern LaFave led the supers down to green and it was Sitterly the first leader after a minor spin by Tim Devendorf slowed the action. Sitterly led Tim Gareau, LaFave, Jeff Holbrook, Todd Stowell and Tim Snyder as the initial laps flew by without a yellow in sight.

The top three became Sitterly, Gareau and Todd Stowell as the clock approached the lap 20 mark. But, out in the pack, Greg Furlong was picking off a car a lap. By lap 21 he was up beside Gareau and entering turn three, he made the pass for the lead around Sitterly. The 72 was flying. Greg said later, "When you have a car that's good, it makes the driver look better too." To everyone on hand, the car and driver looked awesome!

But back in the field, no one was giving up on their racing by any means. Sitterly was holding off a battling Gareau, Stowell, LaFave, Trytek, Holbrook, Snyder, Groves and Jamie Moore, all looking for top five spots.

The yellow never flew on this one until just into lap 35 when the 20 of Tim Devendorf spun and pitted. With 11 to go, the lap cars stayed in their place, allowing Furlong a three-lap car advantage over second place runner Tim Gareau. Sitterly, LaFave and Groves were now the top five with Stowell, Trytek, Howie Page, Snyder, Goutermout and Moore still going full bore to toward the front.

Furlong was able to build a great lead quickly as Gareau had to get by the lap cars of LaTulip, Lavery and Eldred. On lap 40, the only major caution of the event took place with six cars affected in one form or another. Vern LaFave had a heavily damaged 97, although he drove a half a lap before stopping. Bill Sharkey was involved as was Jamie Moore, Stowell, Eldred and Tim Snyder. Hooks were out for LaFave, Moore and Snyder, whose crew had performed miracles just to get the 0 back into racing shape after a bad crash on Aug. 4.

It was a shootout now to the end with Gareau starting right on Furlong's tail. But, Furlong disappeared as soon as the green dropped. Said Gareau later, "We might have been able to win the race but we had a problem with the right front. The car was pushing terrible. I think we could have had something for Greg there at the end but it was pushing so bad. We'll take second and a couple weeks to work toward the Classic. We have a couple handling problems. I want to thank all my crew, my mom and dad and my sister to sticking by me and of course, my sponsors."

The checkered flew for Furlong in solo flight while Gareau, and Groves were second and third. Groves, who almost won his first-ever feature a week ago, was content with another top three. "The car was good," said Groves. "We came up through the pack from ninth. It was fun. Furlong was fast, but oh well, we got another top five and the car was good. The last caution it loosened up more than I would have liked it to. We might have gotten another spot, but I'm happy. The car is all together and we have another top five."

Page pulled his 18 into fourth place, a happy one for that luckless driver. "The last ten laps were good for me," said Howard. " A lot of lap cars got in the way and it worked good for me. We definitely weren't the best car out there, but good enough to get up through there at the end. At the end everybody loosened up or whatever happened and it worked good for us. We finished the race. We haven't finished one in about four races. I'm happy about that."

And speaking of no luck, Bob Goutermout, who has not finished a race this year except the one feature he won, finally remained on the track for fifth. Said Goutermout, smiling from ear to ear, "We feel GREAT about fifth! Our goal tonight was to roll it back on the trailer. It didn't matter where I finished. We're trying to get ready for Classic. We're out of the points chase now. But, the car is starting to run good again. I'm not sure if I got faster out there or some of the cars came back to me, but we're ecstatic to finish fifth."

CAR COUNT: Supermodifieds (28) / Limiteds (34) / Super Stocks (17)

SUPERMODIFIED HEAT #1
1. Tim Gareau Jr (75) 2. Dave Trytek (70) 3. Shannon Groves (07) 4. Howard Page (18) 5. Jamie Letcher (58) 6. Brian Sweeney (3) 7. Johnny Payne (2) 8. Tim Devendorf (20) 9. Gary Syrell (08) 10. Dave Halstead Jr (34) DNS

SUPERMODIFIED HEAT #2
1. Otto Sitterly (79) 2. Tim Snyder (0) 3. Bob Bond (25) 4. Todd Stowell (89) 5. Bob Goutermout (77) 6. Scott Eldred (15) 7. Pat Lavery (99) 8. Eric Lewis (28) 9. Randy Ritskes (85) DNS

SUPERMODIFIED HEAT #3
1. Jeff Holbrook (35) 2. Vern LaFave (97) 3. Jamie Moore (88) 4. Bill Sharkey (52) 5. Hal LaTulip (56) 6. Ray Graham Jr (90) 7. Keith Gilliam (87) 8. Greg Furlong (72) 9. Joe Hawksby Jr (21) DNS

SUPERMODIFIED CONSI
1. Greg Furlong (72) 2. Johnny Payne (2) 3. Tim Devendorf (20) 4. Gary Syrell (08) 5. Pat Lavery (99) 6. Eric Lewis (28) 7. Joe Hawksby Jr (21)

SUPERMODIFIED FEATURE (45)
1. Greg Furlong (72) 2. Tim Gareau Jr (75) 3. Shannon Groves (07) 4. Howard Page (18) 5. Bob Goutermout (77) 6. Otto Sitterly (79) 7. Dave Trytek (70) 8. Jeff Holbrook (35) 9. Jamie Letcher (58) 10. Bill Sharkey (52) 11. Bob Bond (25) 12. Todd Stowell (89) 13. Pat Lavery (99) 14. Hal LaTulip (56) 15. Scott Eldred (15) 16. Vern LaFave (97) 17. Jamie Moore (88) 18. Tim Snyder (0) 19. Tim Devendorf (20) 20. Brian Sweeney (3) 21. Ray Graham Jr (90) 22. Eric Lewis (28) 23. Johnny Payne (2) 24. Gary Syrell (08)