July 19, 2003

MIKE ORDWAY CLAIMS FIFTH MR. SUPERMODIFIED TITLE

Oswego, NY - It was a wild one at Oswego Speedway Saturday - but that's pretty much tradition when the big money Dunkin Donut/Galloway Century 21 night rolls into town. Eighty-three cars were in the pits looking for the gold. When the dust settled, Mike Ordway had walked away with a record-breaking fifth Mr. Supermodified title and $10,000 to boot. Rob Pullen led most of the way in the Mr. Limited Super event with Kris Meyn tapping at the back door for the last nine laps to take that $1,000 check. Doug Reaume inherited the lead from Chris Lupa in the Mr. Super Stock main with just seven to go when Lupa broke, taking home the $500 check as Joe Miller was hot on his tail .

The large crowd on hand was witness to one great 4-way battle for the Mr. Supermodified 10 grand. Todd Stowell, the early leader, had Tim Gareau, Joe Gosek and Mike Ordway bearing down on him lap after lap after things strung out, but he held his ground until just 20 to go. Gareau exited suddenly with a broken injector screw leaving Ordway one less car between him and lead. With Gosek giving up Mike's line at this point, Ordway took the Wilwood Brakes, Harrington Trucking & Paving sponsored-61 around Stowell and was headed easily to his 5th Mr. Supermodified win.

"Five times," said Mike. "It's awesome just to win this race once. I kind of wanted to get my rhythm going and to stay out of trouble for a while. I almost got into trouble doing that. It was a tough one. I had a few tough calls. I'm pretty well worn out. I don't know how I got through that mess on lap 12. I figured I was all done right there. That was a pretty good battle with Todd, Joe and Timmy. I was just waiting - waiting for my line to open up. Joe was out in my line, but he couldn't make it work. I had to get under him and go. I wanted to be patient. It only takes the last lap to win. I finally figured that out and it's working. I'm ready for Classic now."

Gosek, who was in the hunt all night, came up a distant second to the high flying Booth-owned 61. He stated matter-of-factly, "We finished where we were supposed to. We had the second best car out there. We'll just keep plugging away. I thought we had a better car until we changed the car during the week to go a little faster and we hurt ourselves. If it were a little bit better we might have given Mike a run. He's just too stout right now. We're in the point race here. If we finish in the top two every week like we have been doing, we'll be happy. The guys work hard. The car's been very consistent. We kind of wore it out a little bit early tonight in that battle between Stowell and Gareau. And, Mike was just sitting back there.... I could hear him, right on my rear end. It was just a matter of time before he was going to blow me off. Once I got down out of the high groove, he came around on the top side. They are just too strong right now. But we'll keep working to try and beat them, that's for sure."

And, for third place runner, Dave Trytek, it was just a matter of avoiding trouble throughout the reds and yellows. "Third place. We learned something tonight. We got in that first red flag and tore the nose off the car and actually it ran a lot better without a nose. So we're going to something new in the front. But, we survived. That's all it was was survival tonight. "

An early motor problem put Greg Furlong out of the action just prior to the green flag, which sent Shannon Groves into the fray. Twenty-five supers roared to action as the flag waved, but yellow flew suddenly for Lou Cicconi, driving the Strong 96. One lap later, former Mr. Supermodified titlist Bob Goutermout, headed pitside with a broken torque arm.

Stowell had his new car cranking and off he went on the restart, leaving Hal LaTulip, Craig Rayvals, Bill Peri, Jerry Curran and Tim Gareau way behind.

Red bunched the field on lap 12 as a massive pileup occurred in turn two. Jerry Curran's 24 got sideways, possibly with help, and everyone piled in. As the massive cleanup ensued, pounding and banging could be heard throughout the pit area. Done at this early juncture were Cicconi, Bob Bond, Brian Sweeney, Ray Graham, and Bobby Santos III.

Once more Stowell had command on the restart, but Gareau was now tacked to the rear of the 89. Joining Timmy moments later were Joe Gosek and Mike Ordway and then the classic battle began. Lap after lap, Stowell held his line. Lap after lap, Gosek would pull alongside Gareau as they tried to get by Stowell. Ordway just waited. Stowell described the scenario later, "The new car really holds a tight line. I knew Timmy, Joe and Mike were back there because of all the camera flashes. I knew they were back there having fun."

Fun wasn't what Gareau eventually had as he suddenly pitted on lap 29 leaving the other three to continue the fight. Coming up through the field was Rayvals, Trytek, Peri, Gilliam and Sitterly, but Hal LaTulip, in fifth, held them all back.

Ordway made his move after Gareau's demise and was in the lead on lap 30 off turn four. Red fell one lap later to stop the action again. Affected were Gilliam, Bill Sharkey, Bob Magner and Doug Kells. In the interim, Gareau's team had fixed his problem and he went back out to finish the race, although two laps down.

Ordway was sailing out front of Gosek, Stowell, Trytek and LaTulip as the race wore down. One more red flag saw an extremely hard hit by Tim Snyder on the front stretch. Snyder apparently brushed tires off four and ran high on the front wall on two wheels before ending in the blocks in turn one. He was okay, but the 0 was in bad shape, nose to tail.

This was the last stop of the race as Mike Ordway now had a fifth Mr. Super title in his sights. Gosek cruised behind with the action now on Trytek, Sitterly, Stowell, Howie Page and the remainder of the field. Ordway and Gosek took the checkered well out front of Trytek, Sitterly and Stowell in the top five.

Sitterly commented on his fourth place, "Well, we got wrecked. Lap 12 in one of the wrecks. We bent the axle. We straightened it out the best we could. Other than being a little bit tight at the end, it wasn't too bad. We'll take fourth tonight."

And, Stowell, who had looked to have a possible first Mr. Supermodified race in his grasp, was not displeased with fifth. "There was some stout equipment in the field tonight. My hats off to Clyde and Mike. A top notch team, top notch owner, and a top notch driver. We're pretty happy to finish fifth. The car was really good until we had all those red flags and yellows and heat cycles in the tires. The car went from quite good, to neutral to real loose. So, we held on. Compared to where we ended up last year, we're really happy. Thanks to my family, crew and sponsors Haun Welding, Clearview Home and Leisure, Colosse Cheese, East Coast Resorts, Real Rock 100.7, Dudley Construction and Rometco. It's our first top five in two years. "

Finishing up the top ten were Page, Rayvals, Peri, Pat Lavery and LaTulip.

CAR COUNT: Supermodifieds (32) / Limiteds (36) / Super Stocks (15)

SUPERMODIFIED HEAT #1
1. Tim Gareau Jr (5) 2. Tim Snyder (0) 3. Hal LaTulip (56) 4. Jerry Curran (24) 5. Ray Graham Jr (90) 6. Jeff Holbrook (35) 7. Keith Gilliam (87) 8. Joe Hawksby Jr (22) 9. Lou Cicconi (96) 10. Joe Chillemi (41) 11. Dennis Wilson (20)

SUPERMODIFIED HEAT #2
1. Todd Stowell (89) 2. Mike Ordway (61) 3. Joe Gosek (50) 4. Howard Page (18) 5. Pat Lavery (99) 6. Bobby Santos III (44) 7. Bob Bond (25) 8. Bob Magner (40) 9. Shannon Groves (07) 10. Doug Kells (39) 11. Robert Parrow (21)

SUPERMODIFIED HEAT #3
1. Bob Goutermout (77) 2. Otto Sitterly (79) 3. Bill Peri (14) 4. Dave Trytek (70) 5. Craig Rayvals (94) 6. Brian Sweeney (3) 7. Bill Sharkey (52) 8. Dave Halstead Jr (34) 9. Randy Ritskes (27) 10. Greg Furlong (72)

SUPERMODIFIED CONSI
1. Bob Bond (25) 2. Keith Gilliam (87) 3. Lou Cicconi (96) 4. Greg Furlong (72) 5. Bill Sharkey (52) 6. Bob Magner (40) 7. Shannon Groves (07) 8. Doug Kells (39) 9. Dennis Wilson (20) 10. Johhny Payne (22) 11. Joe Chillemi (41) 12. Robert Parrow (21) 13. Dave Halstead Jr (34)

MR SUPERMODIFIED FEATURE (50)
1. Mike Ordway (61) 2. Joe Gosek (50) 3. Dave Trytek (70) 4. Otto Sitterly (79) 5. Todd Stowell (89) 6. Howard Page (18) 7. Craig Rayvals (94) 8. Bill Peri (14) 9. Pat Lavery (99) 10. Hal LaTulip (56) 11. Jerry Curran (24) 12. Shannon Groves (07) 13. Doug Kells (39) 14. Tim Gareau Jr (5) 15. Keith Gilliam (87) 16. Tim Snyder (0) 17. Bill Sharkey (52) 18. Jeff Holbrook (35) 19. Bob Magner (40) 20. Ray Graham Jr (90) 21. Brian Sweeney (3) 22. Bob Bond (25) 23. Bobby Santos III (44) 24. Lou Cicconi (96) 25. Bob Goutermout (77)