Write a commentJoining the winged ISMA Supermodifieds for round two of the Shea Concrete 'Steel Palace' ISMA SuperSeries presented by Crop Production Services Saturday will be Oswego's own Pathfinder Bank SBS.
Last Saturday night, Russ Brown, Jeremy Pitcher and Dalton Doyle all raced onto qualifying heat race wins in the division as dark skies loomed over the Speedway.
Brown took advantage of contact between Mark Castiglia, Anthony Losurdo and Mike Bond to inherit the lead in a hotly contested qualifier. Castiglia, Losurdo and Bond would all have to go to the tail side of the field with Losurdo and Bond managing to work their way back into handicap qualifying positions. Brown was chased across the line by fellow Hedger Fabrication racer Andrew Schartner in the first heat event.
The night's second qualifier saw rookie Pitcher run away with the first checkered flag of his SBS career at Oswego. Pitcher of course won the Bud Select 55 Sportsman Modified championship at the Speedway last Classic Weekend, but Saturday he started on the outside of row one in heat race number two and never looked back on his way to the win.
Quite a distance behind Pitcher, a battled raged on between Mike Bruce, Jason Simmons, JJ Andrews, AJ Bernys, Brian Sobus and Dan Abt for a handicap qualifying position. Abt, another rookie in the series, ran up front for much of the 10-lap event before fading back at the very end.
Sobus is back in SBS racing on a more regular basis for the first time in several years, although he did finish on the podium in last year's RoC event at the Speedway. The former driver of the Mike Murphy No. 60 Supermodified is back behind the wheel of his family owned SBS mount, now numbered No. 6.
As skies continued to darken last week, Doyle ran away with the third qualifier ahead of Josh Kerr and Kreig Heroth. After a dismal start to his season, Doyle is now seeing a bit of a turnaround and will actually be the new leader of the June 1 make-up feature coming up on June 15, after leaders Kerr and Losurdo tangled on lap 10 last weekend.
A 35-lap main event will be on tap this Saturday for the Pathfinder Bank SBS with the rookies of the field again having a bit of an edge as they will start toward the front of the line-up.
Pitcher, driving the TNT Motorsports No. 14, will look to add his second qualifier win of the season while Losurdo will be back in action on Saturday but in a different ride.
With heavy damage to his brand new No. 1 machine following last Saturday's front stretch accident, Losurdo will jump behind the wheel of the Heagerty Racing SBS driven in 2012 by Tim Barbeau and Dan Kapuscinski.
Barbeau drove the car to seventh in the standings in 2012 with several podium finishes, while most recently Kapuscinski drove the ride to a third place finish in the Fall Championship at the Speedway last September.
Tremendous side by side racing should continue to be the norm coming up this Saturday in the SBS series as car counts continue to rise. Last Saturday, a consi was scheduled for the series, but impending weather forced its cancellation, allowing all cars to start the main event in order to save time.
Former SBS feature winner Chris Proud is also expected to make a return to the Speedway with a brand new home built machine any week.
For more information on Oswego Speedway visit online at www.oswegospeedway.com; LIKE on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OswegoSpeedway; or FOLLOW on Twitter @OswegoSpeedway. To speak with a Speedway representative call the box office at 315-342-0646.
