July 31, 1999

AMAZING BATTLE TO THE WIRE AS ABOLD BESTS WEST

Oswego, NY - Oswego's Saturday Cellular One show continued into Sunday after heavy thunderstorms postponed the event just after Winston Cup's Brett Bodine waved off the first modified heat. But the action the next day was more than any race fan could have wished for. The three main events each went down to the wire in two-car battles. In the supermodifieds Jeff West held the lead until on the backstretch of the 50th lap when lapped traffic allowed Pat Abold to sneak underneath, earning his first Oswego win in almost two years.

Driving the Clyde Booth-designed machine, Abold came up from 10th to challenge West in the waning laps, grabbing the victory away with less than a half lap of racing to go.
Said Abold after the stunning victory, "First of all it's good to be back here at Oswego Speedway. I just love this place. The best fans in the country are right here. It's the first time in a long time that I've been in a great race car. Clyde and Susan Booth have put me in a situation where I'm just having a ball. Today was a lot of fun. This car is all Clyde Booth. He never stops working on it. I just have so much confidence in him that I knew this was going to be a lot of fun today and it was right down to the end. I'd like to thank Michael Dean and Cellular One. Those guys have been behind me for five or six years. I'm proud to be associated with a great company like Cellular One. It isn't easy pickings here by any means. There's Gareau, Muldoon, Goutermout and so many more like Shannon Groves who drove a great race today. It's tough to get by anybody. Anybody who says it's easy to win here is wrong.

The final Empire Sports Super Series 50 of the season was led initially by Canadian Shannon Groves with a quick precautionary yellow slowing things as the 06 of Jack Carr pulled pitside. Groves took up the point on the green with Jeff West, Ray Graham, Joe Gosek and Howard Page right behind.

Groves was running his best race ever, holding off West, until a lap 8 yellow bunched the field as the 67 of Doug Boisvert was planted heavily into a foam block. Also affected were Bobby Smith, Tim Devendorf, Mike Bond and Bob Bond. Heading into the pits here were Mark Sammut, Mike Muldoon, Todd Stowell and Dan Connors. Shortly thereafter a red and a refueling were called as the track was being cleared.

Back to green, Groves put the pedal down and was able to hold off West as Gosek pursued. Graham held back Page and Tim Gareau out back. Lap 11 saw another slowdown as some pieces were flying off the Devendorf 76, which had been involved in the previous melee.

This time, Shannon Groves was not able to hold back West, but he made a great attempt at it, forcing West to hang outside him for half a track before getting by to lead lap 12.

West was off like a shot now, putting some distance between his 01 and the 07 of Groves. Gosek, Gareau and Graham held up Pat Abold, Howie Page, Bob Goutermout and Mike Muldoon all doing some intensive racing.

At the midway mark, West was putting some of the slower cars down a lap and it looked like Jeff was not to be caught. Groves was still holding off Gareau, Abold, Gosek and Muldoon in the run of his life. Abold would eventually present his greatest challenge as the laps ticked away with West out front.

On lap 36, a yellow flew for another piece of debris on the track, with the boys now nose to tail once again on the restart.

The direction to the green was West as Groves still held off Abold's quick #6. Gareau, Gosek and Muldoon kept the leaders in sight as did Bob Goutermout and Howie Page.

On lap 44, with West gaining ground out front, Abold finally got by the flying 07 and now headed directly for West with only six to go.

Pat smoothly closed in on the 01, which now had more traffic to contend with. Jeff was able to hold off Abold as the white flag fell, but coming out of two, Jeff met with a pack of slower cars. Abold used the opportunity to dive low and take over the lead with less than a quarter mile to go. West broke through the traffic to finish second as the crowd cheered the wild ending. Groves, in his highest feature finish ever, and Gareau crossed in third and fourth, while Muldoon was able to take fifth from Gosek in the waning laps. Behind Gosek in the top ten were Goutermout, Page, Todd Stowell and Tim Snyder.

Heat 1: Howard Page, Joe Gosek, Pat Abold, Dan Soule, Hal LaTulip, Tim Snyder, Mark Sammut, Dave Halstead, Mark VanLuven

Heat 2: Jeff West, Tim Gareau, Ray Graham, Todd Stowell, Bob Bond, Bob Smith, Tim Devendorf, Dan Connors, T.J. Potrzebowski, Jennifer Chesbro

Heat 3: Mike Muldoon, Shannon Groves, Greg Furlong, Bob Goutermout, Billy Whittaker, Mike Bond, Doug Boisvert, Jack Carr Sr., Scott Eldred

Consi: Tim Devendorf, Doug Boisvert, Mark Sammut, Dave Mazzoni, Dan Connors, Jen Chesbro, Todd Stowell(2nd car, 1st car developed motor problems after qualifying in heat), Jack Carr, Mark VanLuven, Scott Eldred