OSWEGO, N.Y. – The last chance races for Super DIRT Week were wild and wooly Saturday night at Oswego Speedway, with a smooth surface brought about by day of work by the track crew turning to holes and ruts by the end of qualifying for the headlining big blocks.
With the power of the cars increasing with each division from Sportsman to 358 modifieds to the big blocks, the surface peeled up and by the end of the big block finale was down to the asphalt in large swatches of the turns.
The track crew had removed a layer of dirt so that holes that developed wouldn’t be so deep, but the popular four coil spring suspensions had cars bouncing around like basketballs if they hit the holes wrong. Other times, they could cut a beautiful turn if they hit the right spots, so positions changed often and unpredictably.
Keith Flach blasted from row two to the lead as the green flew on round one of the big block races, a position he would hold through five cautions for crashes and flat tires. Brandon Walters appeared set to claim the other qualifying spot for Sunday’s 200 lapper, but pulled off suddenly with four to go and passed the qualifying spot to his race long challenger, Erick Rudolph.
The second last chance race for the big blocks started as a battle between Bob Henry Jr. and Rich Scagliotta, but first Henry dropped out on lap 11, then Scagliotta hit the frontstretch wall on the restart after inheriting the lead. That put Gary Lindberg on the point with Robbie Johnston and Gary Tomkins in pursuit, but the latter soon caught a rut and lost a tire. Meanwhile, Kenny Tremont Jr., who had spun earlier, and Jimmy Horton were making a run on the lead.
Tremont got to second but could not hold it and at the checkers it was Horton and Lindberg grabbing the qualifying spots.
In the 358 modified last chance races, Todd Root and Darren Smith took the checkers. In the opener, Root blasted off from the pole and built up a substantial lead ahead of Ryan Bartlett and Tyler Meeks. Behind the leaders Rudolph and Jimmy Phelps were on the charge from fourth and sixth, respectively, with Rudolph grabbing second on lap six of the 15-lapper. Behind him, Phelps dropped Meeks out of a qualifying spot a lap later and the finish was set. Rudolph closed on the leader but at the flag it was Root, Rudolph and Phelps.
Round two for the 358’s saw Darren Smith scoot away from the field and win easily. The action was behind him, with ninth starting Tommy Collins clawing his way to second.
Last chance qualifying for the sportsman division was a lengthy affair, with multiple caution periods and red flags extending the three 12-lap events to an hour and 15 minutes. With just two drivers qualifying from the 16 car fields, no quarter was given. In the end, round one saw Tyler Murray prevail over Brendan Gibbons while J.J. Courcy and Ryan Murtaugh qualified in round two. The finale went to Nick Hayward with David Boisclair trailing.