OSWEGO, N.Y. – After taking the entire season off at Oswego Speedway, Mike Bond returned to the five-eighths-mile oval on Sunday with a singular goal in mind: take the trophy back home.
And in customary Bond style in the Bud Light SBS Classic, he did exactly that at the end of 75 laps.
Bond collected his fourth-straight win – and his seventh overall – in the crown-jewel race for Pathfinder Bank Small Block Supermodifieds with a dominant second-half run in his familiar No. 74.
The wily veteran stalked early dominator and reigning track champion Anthony Losurdo for nearly 20 circuits after taking the runner-up spot prior to the lap-30 benchmark, then finally made his bid for the victory with 28 laps left after a restart just past the halfway point of the small-block feature.
A lap-45 crash involving Jesse Bearup and Greg O’Connor in turn three, which set up the restart, put Bond right on Losurdo’s bumper after the latter had opened up a lead of more than a second earlier on.
When the green flag waved, Losurdo ducked out to a brief advantage from the inside groove, but Bond was ready to pounce and did so three laps later. He ducked to Losurdo’s inside in turns three and four, edged ahead by .005 seconds at the stripe and completing the pass on the turn-one end of the track.
From there, Bond raced away to a 4.211-second victory over Losurdo, adding to previous SBS Classic wins in 2003, 2004, 2009, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
He was calm, cool and collected in victory lane, with a faint smile displayed as he accepted the trophy.
“It was really pretty uneventful,” said Bond of his race. “We had a pretty awesome car; it was hooked up again. I can’t thank my guys enough for giving me such a great car to drive.
“Only coming here this one time … it was probably a little bit of an advantage, because the motor’s fresh, you know?” he added. “Maybe that’s the way we were looking at it. But we wanted to win this one and that’s exactly what we did.”
Bond took home a winner’s share of $2,200 for his efforts on Sunday afternoon.
Losurdo, who led a race-high 42 laps after moving into the top spot on the sixth revolution, was all smiles after coming as close as he ever has to a victory in Oswego’s premier small-block event.
“There’s no one I’d rather lose to,” said Losurdo of Bond. “That’s why he’s the GOAT (greatest of all time), you know? He was just better down the stretch than we were today. It’s not too bad a finish.”
Dave Cliff completed the podium, followed by polesitter Cameron Rowe, who paced the opening two laps. Two-time SBS Classic winner Andrew Schartner crossed the line in fifth.
Brad and Bryan Haynes were sixth and seventh, respectively, while Josh Sokolic finished eighth after leading three circuits in the early going. O’Connor rallied back to ninth and James Babcock was 10th.
The finish:
Mike Bond, Anthony Losurdo, Dave Cliff, Cameron Rowe, Andrew Schartner, Brad Haynes, Bryan Haynes, Josh Sokolic, Greg O’Connor, James Babcock, Dennis Richmond, Jesse Bearup, Russell Bartlett, A.J. Bernys, Mark Denny, Stephen Flack, Ken Moody, Ray Sand Jr., Dave Latulip, Tony Pisa, Mike Bruce, Steve Wood.