On Saturday night my dad and I drove up to Oswego Speedway in Oswego, NY for the Saturday night races for the 57th Budweiser International Classic. Four different types of cars participated on Saturday night. These being, Classic Midgets, Three-Quarter Midgets, Small-Block Supermodifieds and the ISMA Supermodifieds. By far the loudest would have been the Supermodifieds, which can hit speeds around the half-mile oval, known as the Supermodified capital of the world, of 150 MPH.
We arrived during one of the ISMA practices, and just in time to watch the qualifying time trials. The previous lap record was held at just over 15 seconds by Mike Lichty. However, toward the end of the session, DJ Schullik in his #94 car set at blistering time of 14.972 seconds at a top speed of 150.281 MPH. As soon as "14.972" appeared on the lap board the crows went berserk. It was genuinely exciting. Second in time trials was previous lap record holder Mike Lichty, with a time of 15.054, third was Chris Perley at 15.145, fourth was Ray Graham at 15.296, and fifth was Lou Cicconi at 15.372 seconds.
The first feature of the race was the American Three-Quarter Midget Racing Association's 25-lap race. It was a relatively short race, but with lots of racing action around the shortened track, which cut through the infield between corners three and four. First place was the #33 Frank Fischer, second was #1B Ryan Tidman, Matt Roselli came third in #98, fourth was Ian Cummins in the #29, and fifth was #02 Joey Bailey.
Next up was the longest and most exciting race of the night, the 75 lap feature for the Small-Block Supermodifieds. The race started out clean enough, with the first caution being brought out by the #44 of Zach Amo for spinning in turn 1. Early on in the race, the leader were single file, until they came up on the lap traffic of the Greg O'Conner in the #90. The leaders, namely the #93 of JJ Andrews, the #18 of Andrew Scharnter, and the #11 of Jason Simmons. O'Conner spun on his own in turn two, collecting Andrews and tapping Schartner. This ended O'Conner's race and put a damper on Andrews'. This occurred after the blue flag was given to O'Conner numerous times. (The blue flag basically means that the leader are going to lap you, get the heck out of the way) I felt that O'Conner probably could have given the leaders more room, but after all, racing is racing.
The race continued, with Schartner leading, and the #13 of Russ Brown close behind. Another caution came out after the #44 of Zach Amo spun again out of turn four and hitting the inside wall, ending his race. Schartner led the rest of the race, despite the hard charging Brown, and the #04 of Kraig Heroth coming from third. Schartner won the race, with Russ Brown coming in close second, and Heroth took third. Fourth place was the #9 of Jack Patrick, and fifth was the #11 of Jason Simmons.
The third and final event of the night was the 60 lap feature for the ISMA Supermodifieds. By far the loudest and fastest cars of the night. This was a very fast paced race. The event started out with a significant caution after Tim Ice, Bobby Magner, and Danny Shirey got together at the exit of turn two. Lap Record holder DJ Schullick started way back in the field, but made the race very exciting by charging up through the pack into second. However, by then, previous lap record holder Mike Lichty had checked out from the field and went on the the win. Second was Schullick, third was the #71 Lou Cicconi, fourth was #38 Alison Cumens, and fifth was #74 Rob Summers. Good racing from the front to the back, hard chargers coming through the field, and exciting incidents made for a great evening at the race track.
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