Finally - the weather looks like smooth sailing for Saturday’s race to happen. The season opener was rained out, and last week’s open practice was rained out. So us Oswego groupies are SALIVATING for a race - and this is our week!

My points predictions went over like a fart in church for a lot of people, so why not further embarrass myself by reliving my predictions (from my May 6th Gater column) for opening day?

However, I was apparently using wrong handicap for my previous predictions, so I’ll be modifying my predictions a little from the previous column. Here’s what I’ve got.

The small block super feature will be a cakewalk for Dave Gruel. Dave will start on the front row after winning his heat, and say sayonara to the rest of the field. But the rest of the will be hotly contested.

I’m putting Russ Brown, who cranked off some much-discussed 19.0 second laps with his new Ray Pike Ford powered Hedger car in a track rental, solidly in 2nd. He’ll have to pass some good cars to do it, but a lot of the other top guys will be starting behind him. For example Mike Bond, Kevin Knopp, and Dave Cliff, who I’m putting 3rd-5th, will all be starting behind him.

The rest of the top ten will consist of Brian Sobus, Rob Pullen, Dave Danzer, Jack Patrick, and Barry Kingsley. It will hopefully be a clean race, but word on the street is that season openers can sometimes be chaos.

The MSA winged super predictions aren’t quite so clearcut for me, since I don’t have the handicapping to work with. But I’ll take a shot at it anyway. Because I’m not afraid to look like a tool by putting stupid things on my blog.

In last year’s three MSA events, Timmy Jedrzejek showed his prowess at Oswego, never finishing worse than second. (2nd on May 4th, 1st on June 7th, and 2nd on August 29th.) And the two guys who beat him, Chris Perley and Dave Shullick Jr. will not be here, as they are set to be at Waterford Speedway running with ISMA. Which leaves the door wide open for Timmy J, and he’ll cruise right through it.

I wanted to pick Bobby Bond for 2nd, but I believe he’ll be in Waterford, as well. Damn schedule conflicts!

Charlie Schultz will finish 2nd, followed by Bobby Dawson, Doug Didero, and Bobby Magner, rounding out the top five.

The next five will consist of, in this order, Randy Burch, Jerry Curran, Jack Smith, Otto Sitterly, and Jason Spaulding.

I’ll add on to this blog next week, and come clean with how my predictions worked out, compared to what actually happened. Wish me luck!

NOW then, even more importantly: what are YOUR predictions? Am I all wet? Do you think I’m stupid? Well put up or shut up, smart guy! Click on that
“comment” link down below, and register your prediction. If you’ve got the guts, we’ll compare yours after the race as well, and see who the knucklehead REALLY is.

Do you have the stones to do it?

Let the games begin

How intimidated are you if on open practice day, one team runs a half second to a full second faster than your own car, AND all the other ones?

Should you tip your hand on the first day at the speedway, and show off the fact that you’re the fastest car - by far? Wouldn’t it be better to hold back a little, maybe not slap your cards down on the table, and “sneak” up on the guys a little?

Yesterday at Oswego Speedway, Doug Didero sent chills down the spines of many supermodified competitors by immediately cranking off a lap of 16.5 seconds, on a green track. The Paul Colloca built Xtreme Chassis #3 shocked the supermodified community at Oswego’s last race, the 2008 International Classic last September, by winning the historic event with a brand new car, completed literally hours before the race.

After hours and weeks and months of speculation - as well as several speedway mandated changes to the design of the car - it was hoped by the other teams that the car would be a little easier to catch in 2009. At first glance - not so much. As the speedway didn’t allow access to the AMB Scoring times of the cars on their website the next day, I can’t verify the times of the cars, but I believe only Otto Sitterly was the only other driver to crack a high 16 second lap. That makes Didero at least a half second faster than all of the other cars, on the first day of the year.

Are they that much faster, or just that much better prepared? That remains to be seen. Several teams are surely stressed out about opening day. Some will despair, and protest and maybe even stay home. “What fun is it going to be if I don’t even have a chance to win?”. Others will be motivated. Get back to work. Make more changes. Work harder. What will your team do?

The good news for the competition: Didero was I believe the only team that strapped on new rubber. There’s a few tenths right there.

The bad news for the competition: “All of the sponsors have come together, and we’re going to run the full season at Oswego this year”, Paul Colloca told me Saturday at the track.

I’ve never raced at a speedway that has a rule that limits the purchase of tires. Although not completely unprecedented, it’s certainly not a common program - especially when the speedway sells the tires. But for 2009, the small block supermodified division competitors have developed a “tire rule”, and negotiated with the speedway to allow it. This is a groundbreaking program, spearheaded by small block super team owner Tom Aaserud to “save” the division, which has seen substantial drops in car counts over the last couple of seasons. Bar codes on the tires will be logged, and only registered tires will be allowed.

In 2008, more than one team spent in excess of $7,000 in the small block supermodified division - on tires alone!

So after some meetings between competitors, as well as Oswego Speedway owner Steve Gioia, and much research, small block super reps Aaserud and Tim Barbeau have come up with this excellent program, which should cut the tire bill in HALF for the teams who were buying four tires weekly in the past. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Aaserud, Barbeau, and Gioia for their hard work in developing this program. Here’s a quick synopsis of the new tire rules…

-Opening Day through Championship Week. Classic Weekend is completely separate and this rule will not be enforced.
-30 Tires may be entered into a car’s inventory in the computer and in the book to be used throughout the SBS points season, either ALL new tires or some used if need be.
-Cancelled Race before track activity: 2 tires will be subtracted from this total; if 30 are entered and then a race is cancelled then 2 new tires must be withdrawn from the inventory.
-Car does not show up to a race: 2 tires will be subtracted from this total.
- Rain Out during the night: a decision will be made as to what will happen the following week.
- Tires must be entered into the car’s inventory at the responsibility of the driver/team.
-Window to enter tires in the computer and in the book is from the time pits open until the start of heats each race night in the tech barn.
-Any Amount of tires can be entered at one time, but never passing the yearly allotment.
Ex: 12 may be entered one week then none need to be entered until needed, never passing 30.
-Top 5 Finishers will be checked after each feature at the scales.
-Tire Swapping is NOT allowed and you will not get away with it.
Ex: If a team swaps tires with another team, the tires that the teams swap will not match. If car A swaps with car B: tires on Car B will then show up to be tires scanned to car A, and vise versa.
- Penalty: Driver/team receive last place points, last place payout, and pay a $100 fine for each violated tire.
- Classic Tires can be purchased at anytime throughout the season but don’t ever need to be entered into the car’s inventory.
B. CIRCUMSTANCES AND ACTIONS
***If a team runs into problems these are the actions that MUST be taken***
I. New tire ruined or cut in practice A team CAN enter a new tire into the car’s inventory prior to the heat and start their heat race with that tire but the NEW Tire must be recorded at the responsibility of the driver and the ruined/cut tire must be removed.
II. New tire wrecked in the heat race A team cannot ENTER a new tire into competition but can replace with a new tire that’s already been entered in the car’s inventory or they must replace it with a used tire already in the car’s inventory.
III. Car Swap If a driver wrecks and eliminates a car from competition, all 4 tires may be brought to another car for that driver to use that night and that car must have 4 tires from that drivers scanned tires.
Ex: Car A has been eliminated and Car B is available: Car A’s tires can go on Car B to run the rest of the evening as long as all 4 tires are from Car A, they will all match: just for that night.
IV. Old tires What is done with old tires does not matter, they are scanned to the car they were originally scanned to unless someone else scans them to their car as part of their inventory.
***Rules WILL change and be monitored to ensure that the rule is not being violated, abused, or cheated***
E. ENFORCEMENT OF THE RULE
I. Disqualification will occur at the discretion of Oswego Speedway’s Tech Team for violation of any rule.
II. Oswego Speedway management will ensure that the rule is being followed and incorporate the necessary penalty (as seen above) to the proper driver/team supporting the Tech Team’s decision.
III. NO Exceptions will be made to this rule.
IV. Double Feature Night the same rules apply, IE: if you wreck in the first feature you must have some new tires from your inventory saved up or run used tires.
V. Top 5 after each feature will be checked and cleared to receive points or receive penalties.

This rule is somewhat controversial for some. One team strongly fought against it at a meeting, and raised a lot of great questions. While no idea is perfect, it remains to be seen if this new plan will do as it is expected. Only time will tell, but it’s clear that SOMETHING has to be tried to help car counts.

Some concerns include:

Q. Self-policing - Concern is that the speedway should handle enforcement of this rule - not the competitors. A. It would be great if we didn’t have to “self-police". It’s kind of bogus, and not that common that a division has to monitor itself. But it’s not unheard of. Hey - it would be great if the track would handle this. But I don’t think they have the manpower to do this right now. And they’re not going to put an extra person on to handle something that is OUR idea, not theirs. That being said, I wouldn’t be shocked if that if this program works out, that maybe they’ll take it over for 2010, after we get all of the “kinks” worked out. Sure, the whole program should be THEIR mud puddle, but I don’t see that happening right now. Bigger fish to fry, I would guess.

Q. Who’s paying for this barcode scanner, laptop, and building the software to handle this? A. Tom Aaserud put out the cash to purchase this equipment, based on the money that it would save his team alone. I submit that Aaserud should share this expense, and that at some point teams should chip in toward the equipment.

Q. Who is the “tire manager” going to be? Should a member of a competitor’s team be the enforcer of the rule? A. What could the tire enforcer do to benefit their team? Would they fudge something to make another car illegal? Or would they allow their team to get extra tires? You can bet that there will be a million eyes on that person’s team’s car that would keep him from running extra tires. I think it would be hard to cheat. Maybe I’m missing something.

Q. You have to find someone who is not/hasn’t been affiliated with a team. A. I would think that that would be pretty impossible. I doubt that there’s anyone in that pit that’s never been affiliated with a car. I agree that it would be better, but there’s no such person.

Q. How about a competitor taking all that data home with him all week? A. What could be learned from barcodes? That doesn’t tell sizes or anything. Unless I’m mistaken, the only info anyone can get from barcodes is when you bought them, and when you used them. I don’t think that information could give him an advantage. Plus, Aaserud has stated that the computer will be stored only at the speedway, in the same secure location as the track’s scales and other tech equipment.

Q. What happens if you lose or flat spot four tires in a heat race? Do you have to then run those tires for two weeks? A.That is a good question, and one that will take some thought. Any suggestions about how to handle that one?

Q. Since he may be selling less tires, won’t Steve Gioia raise the price of the tires to make up for it? A. Gioia has stated that he will NOT raise prices as a result, as he feels that he will sell MORE tires in the long run, especially if more cars race as a result of this rule. (Prices went up 3% in 2009 at Gioia Sales - the same amount that Hoosier raised his prices.)

Q. What if they accidently scan one team’s tires to someone else’s car? Could you be DQ’d the next week? A. I think that’s why there will be a paper backup, as a double check, just so that doesn’t happen. I don’t understand it completely, but I think that’s the reason for that.

Q. The rule should be enforced by the speedway. A. We don’t have that option right now. But as I said at the beginning, if this works out, I predict that they would take it over.
Long story short - there are a lot of potential problems. But these are desperate times - and desperate times call for desperate actions. This class is in a tough spot. This rule is “grasping at straws"‘ I admit. But I don’t have any other plans to help stop the bleeding. If anyone has a better / quicker salvation idea, I’ll get behind that also. Or instead of.
I hope everyone can see their way clear to be open minded, give this a shot, and help to find a solution. Sure, there are logistics. Let’s work on it, give it a shot, and see how it goes. If this turns into a big mess and causes a lot of problem at the track, I’m positive that the speedway will shoot it down immediately. “Steve Gioia assures me that the track will only intervene if it was forced, by a group of team owners boycotting or having a huge problem that would cost him car counts", said Aaserud. They’re not going to put up with any baloney, if that’s what it turns out to be. That’ll fly for two minutes, then it’ll be back to a “tire free-for-all". Let’s try it. Maybe it’ll surprise us. You will certainly admit that if by some chance it DOES work out okay, it helps EVERYONE.

What are YOUR thoughts?

So who had the best looking Oswego Speedway car at the Gater News Motorsports Expo?

I’ve got it narrowed down to four. And they’re all small block supermodifieds! All four cars looked great, and show a TON of quality detail work. Great representatives for our division and our speedway.

Steve Abt had the brand new Balance Motorsports FFB Chassis #85 at the show. Steve has a brand new car for the 2009 season, and looks pretty sharp decked out in red body panels with yellow flames. Sponsors on the car include Meeshell’s Restaurant and Sports Bar and Liverpool Tire.

The Dave Gruel driven #50 was also proudly displayed near the Oswego Speedway booth. Tim Barbeau owns the sweet looking FFB Chassis, which displays sponsorship from Chris Nelson Insurance, Lighthouse Lanes, White’s Car Care, and others.

Rob Pullen’s TMS Motorsports #25 is the third FFB Chassis machine that was chosen to represent the division at the Oswego Speedway booth. Terry Solazzo owns the car, which will be a teammate to Mike Bond, in the #26 TMS ride. Woodchuck Saloon, Scotty’s Towing, and G.S. Steamers, are some of the companies represented by Pullen.

Tom Aaserud displayed the always spotless Crow Motorsports #18, which will this year be piloted by rookie Andrew Schartner. The lone representative of the Hedger Chassis competitors is sponsored this year by such companies as Airgas, Ukranian National Club of Auburn, and Arnold’s.

Pictures of all of these sweet cars can be seen at the NORA website at http://www.norasbs.blogspot.com/.

My favorite of the four? I’m not usually a fan of green, and since I’m a “Hedger Guy”, I hate to say what I’m getting ready to say. But I’ve got to be honest - that #25 TMS ride just looks really sweet. Just the way the colors are mixed, with the silver and the checkers and the diaamondplate graphics really came out great. The car was designed by Luther’s Wayout Graphics, and looks great! There - I said it.

And would you like to know which Oswego supermodified was my favorite of the Oswego supermodified s in attendance? Uh - I’d love to choose one, but I can’t. According to my calculations, there were a total of ZERO representatives of the Oswego supermodified division at the speedway. Just like last year.

I contacted our accounting department to double check my figures. They informed me that: A. there were, in fact, no supermodified s at the show (ISMA’s Soule Racing #32 was there, sporting a wing), and B. we do not have an accounting department.

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Fundraiser season is here!

I’ve been notified of a couple of upcoming fundraisers that will be held to benefit some of the local race teams….

April 4th - “Big Daddy” / Shawn Walker Racing will be holding a chicken BBQ on Saturday, 4/4. It will be held at the Front Door Tavern, in Oswego, from noon until sold out. Runaway Entertainment provides the music. Tickets are $8.00.

April 19th - Jon Shumway will be having a benefit on April 19th at Greene’s Ale House, to raise some capital for his dirt sportsman. That benefit will feature the famous JP Shaggy, and probably some of Shumway’s sweet dance moves.

April 25th - The Balance Motorsports Team of #85 Steve Abt and #20 Bill Moore Fundraiser will be on Saturday, 4/25. It’s at Meeshell’s Restuarant, 609 Rte. 48, Fulton. Food featured will be a picnic menu (hotdogs, burgers and chicken), with beer included. Time is 1-5pm. $10.00/ticket includes music from members of “Under the Gun” and “Brand New Sin“. For information or tickets call Steve Abt @ 315-877-8825 or Bill Moore @ 315-727-7491.

May 2nd - Benefits the TMS Motorsports #26 small block supermodified team, driven by Hall of Famer Mike Bond. The event will be held on Saturday, May 2nd, right after the open practice at Oswego Speedway. Friends and fans are invited to stop by Lighthouse Lanes and enjoy pulled pork, raffles, 50/50’s, and other great events. Music and entertainment are on the schedule, and the highlight will be a special “Dancing with the Stars Moment”, featuring Mike Bond and teammate Rob Pullen. The NASCAR Richmond night race will also be on the huge screens. Starting time for the fundraiser is 5:00, and a great time will be had by all!

When is your team’s fundraiser? I’m more than happy to promote your fundraiser here, as well as in my column in the Gater News, a national trade paper. Just give me your information, and I’ll update immediately. Give me the word - and I’ll spread it!

A lot of people are getting cranked up about the USAC Silver Crown event that is coming up this summer at Oswego Speedway on Thursday, August 6th. A lot of big time racers are involved with this series on the side, which brings up a lot of speculation about whether or not any of them will be in attendance at Oswego.

Adding fuel to that fire is a phone conversation that I had with speedway owner Steve Gioia last week about that subject. Since this race is scheduled for the same August weekend that the Nextel Cup drivers are in nearby Watkins Glen (about 80 miles - probably a half hour helicopter ride for a rich dude), it seems as though this could be a golden opportunity for some Cup people to check out the famous Oswego Speedway that many of them have only heard about. Steve Gioia confirms that there are such talks in the works, but no amount of my asking would get a name out of him. “There may be an announcement soon, but you’re correct that something is in the works.”, admitted Gioia. “Is it a Cup driver?”, I pried. “It’s more than one”, Gioia admitted. “Maybe more than three or four…”,Gioia teased.

Maybe more than three or four? Wow! Can you imagine the crowd that would be there if there was even ONE confirmed Cup driver scheduled to be there? I remember a few years ago when Tony Stewart made an appearance at the speedway. The buzz leading up to this appearance was huge, and so was the crowd. Many people paid $100 for a meet and greet with Stewart, and hundreds more came to the track, that probably only came just to see him. (Stewart backed out of the modified ride at the last minute, but still made his appearance. Kenny Schrader wheeled the car instead, and put on a great show.) But how about if there were a few “name” pilots?

Tony Stewart: Tony Stewart Racing fielded two cars for the season-opening Silver Crown events at Phoenix in February. Levi Jones and Tracy Hines drive those cars, and sit 3rd and 4th in the point standings as this is written. You think Stewart, with an open wheel background, wouldn’t love a crack at the track sometimes known as
“the Indy of the East”? I’ve got to think that there’s another car somewhere in his fleet to help fill out the field, along with his first two drivers.

Carl Edwards: The Carl Edwards team sits 2nd in points right now, with driver Jesse Hockett. Edwards is one of the best pure wheelmen in the country, and would absolutely drive the wheels off of one of his cars at Oswego. I’ll even let him land his helicopter at my used car dealership, and give him one of my finest units, on a dealer plate, to make the 10 minute drive to Oswego Speedway. (See www.andrewsauto.com for a shameless plug.)

Ryan Newman: Now that he’s Tony Stewart’s wingman, I’d bet that he could very easily coerce his new rolling partner to give him permission to run this show. Newman won a modified race in February at Volusia County, so it’s obvious that the boss will free him up if he asks nicely. And he knows the Silver Crown cars - he competed in the series in 2008. He’ll piece a ride together, I’d bet.

J.J. Yeley: You have to respect a guy that copies the nickname of one of his favorite old-time racers, by adapting his initials. (I was very flattered, to say the least…). Yeley competed in the Silver Crown series in 2008, and appears to have some time on his hands in 2009 after losing his ride in the Cup series. J.J. - call me - if nothing else, I’ll get you some laps in your idol’s small block supermodified. I’ll have my car ready for you in case you can’t line up a Silver Crown deal. (Unless, of course, Stewart or Edwards want to take it….)

Ray Evernham? Willy Evernham? Erin Crocker? All three of these bigwigs took some laps in those funny looking SST Sprints last year, and all have the connections to put a Silver Crown ride together if they were so inclined. Anything’s possible.

Speedway management will absolutely step up dollar wise to get some name drivers for this event. They’d be crazy not to. I think this could be one of the biggest shows at the speedway in years, and I’m very excited about it. And I’m not the only one.