Otto Sitterly staved off a strong challenge from Tim Snyder to win a 75-lap feature and retain his place atop the supermodified point standings at Oswego Speedway Saturday night. Last season, Sitterly was on the verge of excusing himself from the Steel Palace with his previous No. 79 car on the auction block, although he did drive for certain other drivers and never closed the door on Oswego Speedway altogether. Now, he finds himself surrounded by well-wishers and autograph seekers at the close of each successful race.
“I did a lot of soul searching I guess is what I wanted to say,” said the Canajoharie driver, adding that he feels Oswego Speedway is a special place that he could not easily remove himself from. With this new incarnation of the No. 79 car at his disposal, propelled by the now-famous Hawk chassis, Sitterly has been practically unstoppable on the young season. The Saturday night triumph was his third of the season.
Snyder has been Sitterly’s closest rival on the season, but his efforts Saturday night saw him once again fall short. A mechanical issue in heat laps forced Snyder to make an unplanned trip to the garage in order to fetch a multitude of parts. The driver himself could be seen scurrying across the track and then through the pits with a large chunk of an unspecified part in his hands. A heroic effort on the part of Snyder’s crew was enough to return the No. 0 car to the track. A spot near the back of the pack was a handicap but Snyder was unfazed. By lap 24, Snyder was menacing the top five and on that same lap, he had intruded as far as third place.
In the early phases of the race, longtime Oswego Speedway stalwart Hal LaTulip’s run at first place drew cheers from the crowd. Earlier in the evening, LaTulip had won a heat race and one observer noted that the crowd reaction from that victory was the loudest he had ever heard for a heat-race result. During the feature, LaTulip held on to a spot in the top five for the first 50 laps. After he slid back into the pack, LaTulip’s night would end with misfortune. On the 71st lap, his No. 56 car slammed into the near straightaway wall so fiercely it shook the press box and LaTulip’s night ended with his car on the hook.
The primary spectacle Saturday night was the duel between Sitterly and Snyder. Last season, Oswego Speedway fans eagerly anticipated an emerging rivalry between then-invincible Greg Furlong and the quickest of the previous season, Mike Ordway. Both of those drivers left the track early in the evening. Furlong had opted to the No. 22 car, leaving the more familiar No. 72 to the hands of Chris Purley. The No. 22 suffered an unfriendly meeting with the wall in between turns three and four during the first heat race of the night, however. Ordway’s No. 61, appearing at Oswego Speedway for the first time this season, had the look of a car back on form but a mechanical failure sent the car back to the pits during a caution on lap nine. In the second heat, Ordway was a hair quicker than Sitterly but conceded first place to the eventual feature winner in order to save the car. During the feature, the unpainted No. 61 car could be seen creeping along in the No. 79 car’s wake before the early exit. On the restart following the lap nine caution, Sitterly wasted no time in infiltrating the top five, slipping past Keith Shampine almost immediately. Once he was in the top five, Sitterly needed just nine laps to pass LaTulip to take the lead.
On lap 25, the No. 0 car trailed the top five having come from virtually last place and four short laps later he was threatening Sitterly’s lead. The leaders made their first foray into lapped traffic on the 35th circuit. In contrast to the other Hawk-chassis cars, Sitterly said his own model has struggled on restarts but that he was confident he could swamp Snyder among the chasing supermodifieds. Restarts nearly proved Sitterly’s undoing. A red flag fell on lap 44 and on the ensuing start, Snyder made an earnest effort to outflank the No. 79 car.
A lap 57 restart saw Snyder finally seize first place. Snyder first investigated a pass on the outside but then swerved inside to take first place. A the head of the column, the No. 0 car was never quite a convincing race leader and, seven laps later, Sitterly slid the No. 79 inside on the far straightaway to retake the lead. Sitterly as once again able to keep Snyder behind him once the leaders were sifting through lapped traffic and the Canojoharie driver simply needed to keep his fingers crossed that the cautions would be limited during the final laps of the feature. LaTulip’s collision on lap 71 bunched the column once more and Snyder made several late charges for the final five laps, but none were decisive enough to pass Sitterly.
Complete Supermodified order of finish:
1. Otto Sitterly (79); 2. Tim Snyder (0); 3. Tim Gareau (5); 4. Pat Lavery (99); 5. Pat Abold (95); 6. Todd Stowell (89); 7. Keith Gilliam (87); 8. Kelly Miller (16); 9. Stephen Gioia III (9); 10. Travis Bartlett (03); 11. Keith Shampine (85); 12. Dave Halstead (34); 13. Gary Morton (70); 14. Hal LaTulip (56); 15. Bob Bond (25); 16. Jerry Curran (24); 17. Bill Peri (14); 18. Ray Graham (90); 19. Chris Perley (72); 20. Johnny Torrese (91); 21. Mike Ordway (61); 22. Andy Noto (19); 23. Craig Rayvals (94); 24. Mike Casey (11). Heats were won by Craig Rayvals, Otto Sitterly and Hal LaTulip.
Supermodified recap by Luke Eggleston from Oswego Daily News.