OSWEGO, N.Y. — One year ago, Ryan Dolbear left Oswego Speedway with a wrecked race car on the back of a tow truck. In 2024, he’ll bring the DIRTcar 358 Modified Salute to the Troops 150 to the green flag Friday night from the pole.
Dolbear, 24, crashed out of the DIRTcar Sportsman Feature on the fifth lap at Super DIRT Week in 2023, and said he was ready to quit racing at the end of the season. But after some encouragement from his father and a lot of help from his crew, they repaired the car, put a 358 small-block engine in it and brought it to Super DIRT Week 52 with the hopes of qualifying for the main event.
His lap time of 19.868 seconds around the dirt-covered five-eighths-mile oval not only put him on the pole for Friday’s 150-lap feature, it established a new track record in the 358 Modified division — breaking the previous division track record of 20.688 seconds — and earned him the SRI Performance / Stock Car Steel and Aluminum Pole Award.
“Honestly, it surprised me quite a bit,” Dolbear said. “I knew going out in the first group, we had to be in the 19-second bracket to set quick time or at least stay in the top six. The car was hooked-up, and it worked out for us.
“Honestly, I feel a relief right now just knowing we’re starting the feature and we’re locked in. I’ll get nervous before the feature, definitely, but right now we’re happy, and it’s kind of a sigh of relief going into the 150.”
Thursday’s “Super Six” Time Trial sessions also locked five other drivers into Friday’s running of the Salute to the Troops 150. Dolbear will be joined by Stewart Friesen, David Dickey, Gary Lindberg, Anthony Perrego and defending event winner Mat Williamson in the first three rows of Friday’s main event for a shot at the $20,000 grand prize.
All other drivers will attempt to transfer in through a Heat Race and/or Last Chance Showdown on Friday.
“Those guys in that very first group — the track had a lot of grip — we were a couple groups later, and we were able to get in there and then it looked like the track slowed down,” Friesen said. “It’ll be a different story in race trim, but I’m proud of the Halmar team. They brought a really, really fast small block. We’ve done a lot of homework on this race, and hopefully we can be a little bit better than we were the last couple years.”
Friesen, also a five-time winner of the headlining Billy Whittaker Cars 200, has competed in every Super DIRT Week at Oswego, and noted how fast the track conditions were for Time Trials, considering 31 drivers — slightly under one-third of the 98-car field — turned laps faster than the previous track record.
“It was really fast starting out in practice, and with the overcast, it really didn’t slick up too much until the sun kinda peeked out later in the time trial session,” Friesen said.
The results:
Super 6 Time Trials (2 Laps): 1. 31B-Ryan Dolbear, 00:19.868[6]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:19.988[21]; 3. 23-David Dickey, 00:20.095[4]; 4. 37S-Gary Lindberg, 00:20.126[38]; 5. 4*-Anthony Perrego, 00:20.154[7]; 6. 6-Mat Williamson, 00:20.155[18]; 7. 22-Noah Walker, 00:20.186[3]; 8. 18-Brad Rouse, 00:20.267[10]; 9. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:20.327[13]; 10. 31-Lance Willix, 00:20.371[24]; 11. 9-Will Thomas, 00:20.387[15]; 12. 26G-Ryan Godown, 00:20.390[19]; 13. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:20.426[58]; 14. 19-Tim Fuller, 00:20.444[35]; 15. 98-Rocky Warner, 00:20.460[16]; 16. 49-Billy Dunn, 00:20.504[28]; 17. 72-James Friesen, 00:20.515[44]; 18. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:20.524[23]; 19. 35-Mike Mahaney, 00:20.530[50]; 20. 9M-Tyler Meeks, 00:20.560[2]; 21. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:20.594[55]; 22. 91D-Billy Decker, 00:20.598[32]; 23. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:20.609[39]; 24. 20S-David Schilling, 00:20.626[8]; 25. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:20.644[86]; 26. 57H-Remington Hamm, 00:20.651[30]; 27. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:20.662[96]; 28. 01-Chris Raabe, 00:20.668[93]; 29. 74-Dave Flannigan Jr, 00:20.672[9]; 30. M1-David Marcuccilli, 00:20.684[76]; 31. 3J-Marc Johnson, 00:20.687[59]; 32. 58M-Marshall Hurd, 00:20.693[79]; 33. 35X-Nelson Mason, 00:20.699[56]; 34. 21R-RJ Tresidder, 00:20.704[14]; 35. 15-Nicholas Root, 00:20.717[65]; 36. 83-Daniel Johnson, 00:20.720[1]; 37. 91-Felix Roy, 00:20.721[52]; 38. 88H-Chris Hulsizer, 00:20.723[33]; 39. 0-Glenn Styres, 00:20.723[11]; 40. 27J-Danny Johnson, 00:20.734[48]; 41. 64-Tyler Corcoran, 00:20.752[26]; 42. 20-Jay Mallory, 00:20.771[12]; 43. 24-Adam McAuliffe, 00:20.797[31]; 44. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:20.839[66]; 45. 25-Erick Rudolph, 00:20.841[95]; 46. 92-Andrew Buff, 00:20.842[45]; 47. 77Z-Zachary Payne, 00:20.859[78]; 48. 18W-Scott Webb, 00:20.869[40]; 49. 01R-Robert Gage, 00:20.874[74]; 50. 87-Neil Stratton, 00:20.877[49]; 51. 4SL-Bob Hentschel, 00:20.879[70]; 52. 26R-Corey Cormier, 00:20.889[51]; 53. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:20.900[85]; 54. 5H-Amy Holland, 00:20.916[27]; 55. 12-Darren Smith, 00:20.947[89]; 56. 42P-Pat Ward, 00:20.948[69]; 57. 3RS-Dalton Slack, 00:20.952[77]; 58. 32R-Ronald Davis III, 00:20.952[81]; 59. 10C-Tanner Van Doren, 00:20.954[37]; 60. 19C-Brandon Carvey, 00:20.971[42]; 61. 7S-Shaun Shaw, 00:20.973[88]; 62. 22W-Brandon Walters, 00:20.979[64]; 63. 38-Kevin Stevens, 00:21.004[22]; 64. 4V-Billy VanInwegen Jr, 00:21.006[36]; 65. 17G-Garrett Poland, 00:21.015[25]; 66. 427-Carter Gibbons, 00:21.023[20]; 67. 39X-Alex Therrien, 00:21.063[68]; 68. 44S-Kyle Sheldon, 00:21.102[34]; 69. 39-Ryan Bartlett, 00:21.104[54]; 70. 77X-Max McLaughlin, 00:21.111[97]; 71. 35C-Chris Curtis, 00:21.114[82]; 72. 6B-Kyle Strickler, 00:21.126[63]; 73. 44T-Gordon Smith, 00:21.127[53]; 74. 02-Roy Bresnahan, 00:21.145[75]; 75. 14S-Brian Swarthout, 00:21.145[90]; 76. 11S-Steve Lewis Jr, 00:21.157[57]; 77. X-Chad Phelps, 00:21.169[73]; 78. 28-Alan Fink, 00:21.187[67]; 79. 42-Tucker O’Connor, 00:21.200[17]; 80. 39A-Alan Therrien, 00:21.267[72]; 81. 94X-Willy Decker Jr, 00:21.271[80]; 82. 26-Michael Mandigo, 00:21.277[43]; 83. 20B-Joey Bonetti, 00:21.287[46]; 84. 27W-Nick Webb, 00:21.316[71]; 85. 16-Aaron Jacobs, 00:21.324[5]; 86. 66W-Derek Webb, 00:21.332[91]; 87. 7M-Paul Mancini, 00:21.343[61]; 88. 26K-Kyle Richner, 00:21.351[60]; 89. 369-Jim Walsh, 00:21.352[29]; 90. B2-Bob Henry Jr, 00:21.361[87]; 91. 36-Brian Whittemore, 00:21.515[94]; 92. 31A-Zach Aubertine, 00:21.584[84]; 93. 61-Dale Gray, 00:21.603[41]; 94. 117JR-CJ Castelletti, 00:21.604[47]; 95. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 00:21.759[83]; 96. 11-Matt Caprara, 00:22.058[62]; 97. 14-CG Morey, 00:22.058[98]; 98. (DQ) 19BC-Addison Bowman, 00:22.058[92]