OSWEGO, N.Y. — Richard Murtaugh has climbed the Super DIRT Week ladder to call himself a winner.
In his fourth career appearance aboard a DIRTcar Sportsman, the Fulton, N.Y., native claimed his first Great Lakes 75 win in a display of driving that saw both dominance and defense.
Gavin Eisele took the lead over polesitter Zachary Buff as Murtaugh maintained his position behind the two drivers through the initial stage of the Feature.
On Lap 5, Murtaugh threw his No. 33 around the bottom of the track to move Buff up to the top of the track in his overtake for second place.
When the first caution fell for 2022 Sportsman champion Cody McPherson on Lap 8, it gave the field behind Eisele a chance to jump at the chance for the lead. Murtaugh did not waste a single second on the Lap 13 restart as he forced Eisele to the top of Turn 1 and got clear with the point exiting Turn 2.
As Eisele and Buff lost momentum from the lost positions, Cody Manitta and Emmett Waldron filled their podium spots, respectively, as Murtaugh began to find his rhythm around the middle lane through to the midway point of the Feature.
As the grip on the bottom withered away, the 23-year-old struggled when he ran the bottom lane – opening the door for Manitta and Waldron to catch Murtaugh with 25 laps remaining.
As Murtaugh went searching for a new avenue of race-winning pace around the five-eighths-mile race track, Manitta kept his machine to the bottom as Waldron found his groove around the top to overtake the No. 6 for second place and took his turn to place pressure on Murtaugh.
Though Waldron got to within 0.145 seconds of the lead, Murtaugh discovered the speed on the high side and turned to the advantage he needed to take the score.
Through the final 20 circuits, Murtaugh left Waldron and Manitta in the dust by gaining 0.5 seconds per lap until he crossed the twin checkered flags with a five-second gap for his first Super DIRT Week win.
“I really didn’t know where to be,” Murtaugh said. “I was really good, and then my dad told me to get to the bottom. So, I went to the bottom, and I was just really bad. I couldn’t quite hit it, so then I was searching back around because he was telling me the bottom every single lap, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to win on the bottom.’ So, I started moving around, found the grip, and I was able to drive it away.”
Leaving Oswego Speedway with a second-place finish, Waldron sits four points behind Shane Pecore in the Sportsman championship as the final race in Brockville awaits him.
“I think I just showed him the line there,” Waldron said. “I should have just followed him for a minute. I was trying my best to get to the front before Pecore did, and I see that he got fourth. But I’m just glad we’re going into Brockville four points behind. He runs really good there, and we just need to have a good run there.”
Manitta crossed the finish in third place after spending the final 55 laps without brakes and relying on momentum to track down Murtaugh in the closing stages for his first Great Lakes 75 podium.
“We had a good run at the beginning,” Manitta said. “The first 19 laps, my front brakes were there. We lost the brake bias midway through on Lap 20, and I lost all front brakes, so I decided I had to deal with what I had to deal with. So, it’s not too bad. I like that we were able to get up to second and run down Richard. But, with the brakes (broken), I couldn’t throw any good passes without being in the way, or dooring someone out of the way.”
