Story By: CAMDEN PROUD / OSWEGO SPEEDWAY – OSWEGO, NY – A total of twenty three race cars rolled into the pit area this past Sunday afternoon for Oswego Speedway’s annual open practice session with Aric Iosue in the Novelis Supermodifieds and Mike Bond in the Pathfinder Bank SBS topping the speed charts for the day.
Iosue, a two-time feature winner, made his return to the speedway with the one-time Graham Racing No. 11 recently purchased by his family and did not take long to show speed. The former rookie of the year was the only Supermodified driver under 17 seconds in hot laps at 16.982.
Seven additional Supermodifieds were also in the pit area including rookie of the year contenders Tyler Thompson in the Team Tapout Racing No. 98 as well as Nathan Schultzkie in the former Brian Sobus No. 79.
Both rookies impressed and were not afraid to get on the throttle, each cracking the mid to high 17 second bracket before the final session of the day with Thompson mustering a 17.6 second lap in his first Supermodified track time.
Veterans Brandon Bellinger and Jeff Abold also saw plenty of laps around the ‘Steel Palace’ and were able to get the No. 02 and No. 05 machines down to 17.1 and 17.3 seconds, respectively.
Lou LeVea Sr. in the Buske Racing No. 66, Lou LeVea Jr. in the WFO Motorsports No. 83 and Guard Nearbin in his new Shark Motorsports No. 71 ride were all pit side as well, but none of those drivers ever got fully up to speed.
LeVea Sr. took a scary ride into the first turn foam following a parts failure on the No. 66. LeVea was taken to Oswego Hospital as a precaution and was later released and returned to the race track. Car owner Steve Buske stated that the team is “already pulling the motor” and placing it in the sister car to the chassis that was crashed on Sunday.
On the Pathfinder Bank SBS side of the pits, a strong showing of 16 cars all took advantage of the pre-season track time with Bond topping the board overall at a blistering 18.639 which was just over a tenth of a second slower than the 18.504 official track record lap set by Russ Brown in 2016.
Brown was also in the pit area shaking down the newer No. 13 Hedger house car and it was no surprise when the two winningest drivers in the division’s history were fastest by the end of the day as Brown also had his ride in the 18.7 second range just behind Bond.
Other drivers to crack the 18 second bracket included Missile Motorsports teammates Anthony Losurdo in the No. 1 and returning campaigner and former speedway PR director Danny Kapuscinski in the Joe Gosek throwback No. 00M.
‘Hawk’ Losurdo pulled off an 18.8 in the JP Jewelers sponsored machine while ‘Danny K’ impressed at 18.9 in his first time out with his new ride.
Veteran Cameron Rowe also hit the 18’s with his new look No. 77 while Camden Proud’s No. 54 and Dalton Doyle’s No. 01 each went 19.0 to go sixth and seventh fastest for the day.
Greg O’Connor in the G.O. Premiere Motorsports No. 90, defending champ David Cliff in the Barbeau Racing No. 50, and returning campaigner David LaTulip in the family owned No. 27 all went 19.3 or quicker on Sunday to fill in the top ten times while Cameron Black and Jack Patrick each turned in laps at 19.7 seconds.
Three rookie of the year contenders were present in the SBS division as well showing a sign of good things to come at Oswego Speedway with former quarter midget racer Joshua Sokolic very impressive in his family owned No. 26 Hedger Chassis. Sokolic made consistent laps at 19.7 seconds while fellow rookies Steve Flack and Tim Glidden Jr. were not able to get up to speed in their respective hot lap sessions.
Racing action at Oswego Speedway begins this Saturday, May 26 with the track’s 68th annual Season Opener presented by Holiday Inn Express and highlighted by the Jim Shampine Memorial Twin 50’s for the Novelis Supermodifieds as well as the Tony White Memorial 35 for the Pathfinder Bank SBS. To purchase tickets, please call the box office at (315)-342-0646.
2018 Oswego Speedway Open Practice – Sunday, May 20
Novelis Supermodifieds (Best Time): 1. 11 Aric Iosue (16.982), 2. 02 Brandon Bellinger (17.111), 3. 05 Jeff Abold (17.328), 4. 98 Tyler Thompson ® (17.686), 5. 26 Nathan Schultzkie ® (17.942), 6. 66 Lou LeVea Sr. (18.208), 7. 83 Lou LeVea Jr. (18.578), 8. 71 Guard Nearbin (19.779)
Pathfinder Bank Small Block Supers (Best Time): 1. 74 Mike Bond (18.639), 2. 13 Russ Brown (18.785), 3. 1 Anthony Losurdo (18.837), 4. 00M Dan Kapuscinski (18.990), 5. 77 Cameron Rowe (18.998), 6. 54 Camden Proud (19.067), 7. 01 Dalton Doyle (19.086), 8. 90 Greg O’Connor (19.125), 9. 50 Dave Cliff (19.225), 10. 27 David LaTulip (19.378), 11. 23 Cameron Black (19.717), 12. 9 Jack Patrick (19.777), 13. 26 Joshua Sokolic ® (19.797), 14. 32 Steve Flack ® (23.922), 15. 94 Tim Glidden Jr. ® (No Transponder)
