by Dan Johnson

Ray Graham entered the Oswego Speedway record book Saturday night becoming the 85th driver in track history to win a supermodified feature event, as he sped his way to the lead when the field took the green flag then held back a furious challenge throughout the second half of the race from Doug Didero and Otto Sitterly to win the 4-lap feature race.

Graham and Bobby Magner started on the front row as the 22-car feature field took the green flagd. The pair stayed side by side as they roared into turn one, with the field behind shuffling for racing room. Doug Didero and Dave McKnight pulled to the inside lane, while Pat Lavery and Mike Ordway went to the high side of the speedway looking to move up.

From his ninth starting spot, Didero mastered the low side early as he moved the 3 car to fourth spot on lap 2, then passed the Greg Furlong 72 coming out of turn four and set sail on the lead trio of Graham, Sitterly, and Magner. As the lead quartet started to pull away with laps of 17.46, veteran drivers Dave McKnight and Mike Ordway were bottled up in heavy early traffic.

Graham and Sitterly raced wheel to wheel a few lengths ahead of Magner and Didero just before the first caution flag of the night, which was flew when Todd Stowell hit the foam barrier in turn three. Once racing resumed, Didero again used the inside lane to move up as he steered his machine to the inside of Magner’s 22 on the grandstand straightaway.

The race pace quickened as Graham’s purple 90 circled the 5/8’s mile in consecutive laps at 17.21 and 17.25. As the crossed flags came out for halfway, it was a three car race involving Graham’s 90, Sitterly’s 7, and Didero’s 3, now 3.4 seconds ahead of the fourth-place battle involving Magner, Furlong, Pat Lavery, and Jerry Curran.

Graham was turning lap speeds of 17.22 half way into the race when Sitterly decided to challenge him in the untested outside groove. As the 7 went to the high side, Didero filled the inside opening and took away second spot from the defending track champ. Didero closed up to the back bumper of Graham’s 90 as Sitterly pulled the 7 car back up to make it a three-car lead group once again.

Sitterly went right back to work on the outside, looking to pin the leaders in traffic on lap 33, but had to back out as they came upon the slower car of Bob Reis. For the first time in over 25 laps, the yellow flag came out again on lap 36 as a car slowed on the east side of the speedway.

The interruption gave Graham time to re-think his game plan, and also closed the fourth-place battle back up to the lead trio. On the restart, the race immediately went back to caution as Dave McKnight and Keith Gilliam spun on separate parts of the speedway simultaneously. On the second restart, the top three again pulled away again.

After the restart, former track champion Mike Ordway began to make his move, as he wheeled the Steve Stout 49 car from ninth spot all the way to sixth as he found the outside groove to his liking and passed Curran, Joey Payne, and Lavery.

In the race for the lead, Didero went to the inside on the restart but the car broke traction enough that he could not make the pass out of turn four. Graham held the preferred line and drove just far enough off the guardrail not to give Didero any room to make an inside pass.

As the leaders came to the white flag, Didero lagged back a car length looking to make a dash on the final lap. He gained momentum on the final lap and Didero went for the win along the outside wall, but as the two leaders drove wheel to wheel inches apart to the finish line, Graham kept Didero behind him and won the race. Sitterly finished a close third to Didero.

“I have the easy part, I just drive the car,” the newest member of the $1,000 club said in victory lane. “My crew guys do all the work. I just show up and drive. We did a lot of work on the car and changed a lot, and I have to thank Clyde Booth also, as he helped us with a lot of the changes.”

Didero commented after his second-place finish, “Ray drove a great race, and ran a perfect line. It’s going to be a great summer of racing here at Oswego Speedway, as there is a great field of cars and drivers here. You have to really work to win one of these things.”

“Congratulations to Ray and his guys,” said third-place Otto Sitterly. “It’s a much better start to the season for us than last week. The car was good, and racing up there with Ray and Doug was a lot of fun.”

In the small-block supermodified division, Dave Gruel made it two for two as he led all 30 laps of the main event en route to earning his second consecutive feature victory.

Gruel and Barry Kingsley started up front with Gruel taking the lead by turn one. Kevin Knopp, looking to bounce back after a sub-par opening day last week, looked to clear traffic early in the black 04. On lap 7, Knopp made it to second place, as he worked traffic to perfection.

SBS track champion Russ Brown put the 60 car to the high side to advance, overtaking Tim Barbeau then Steve Abt on laps 11 and 12 to move into the top three.

Gruel ran at laps of 19.52 and 19.55 as he opened his gap to 2.86 seconds ahead of the battle between the 04 and 60. Abt, Barbeau, and Dave Cliff went at it for fourth, just out of reach of the podium spots. Cliff started his move by passing Barbeau on lap 16, then by Abt a few laps later.

Gruel’s large advantage was erased on lap 25 as sixth-running Dave Danzer spun the 52 putting the 04, 60, and 06 in contention. Mike Bond and Andrew Schartner brought out the caution flag with their third-turn accident on lap 27, setting up a three-lap dash to the finish.

Knopp went for the pass with an inside move when the green came out, but had to back out as they reached turn one. Gruel drove maintained the lead to win his second race of the year, and third consecutive feature dating back to 2008.

“The car is just running perfect,” the two-time winner said after his victory. “Starting up front helps, but the car is just on a rail, and is a pleasure to drive.”

News and Notes… 23 cars were pitside for both the supermodifieds and small-block divisions. Dave Danzer, Kevin Knopp, and Mike Bond won SBS heat races, while Bobby Magner, Doug Didero ,and Mike Ordway won supermodified heat races. Shawn Muldoon’s 1 car was virtually destroyed in a warm-up accident when the throttle stuck open sending the car into the first-turn wall at full speed. Muldoon was transported to a Syracuse hospital with injuries to his leg and elbow. Both feature winners led all the laps on their races, with Gruel leading all 65 laps of feature racing in the SBS series this year. Racing resumes this Saturday with a regular program, the qualifying heats and consolation, then a 30-lap SBS race and 45-lap supermodified feature.

Supermodified Feature finish (45): (1) Ray Graham 90, (2) Doug Didero 3, (3) Otto Sitterly 7, (4) Bobby Magner 22, (5) Greg Furlong 72, (6) Mike Ordway Sr., 49, (7) Pat Lavery 2, (8) Joey Payne 99, (9) Jerry Curran 24, (10) Jason Spaulding 23, (11) Keith Gilliam 87, (12) Tim Snyder 0, (13) Lou LeVea 03, (14) Dave McKnight 08, (15) Bob Reis 88, (16) Stephen Gioia 9, (17) Tim Timms 33, (18) Johnny Torrese 91, (19) Todd Stowell 89, (20) Lou Levea Jr. 04, (21) Danny Connors 01, (22) Hal Latulip 56.

SBS Feature finish (30): (1) Dave Gruel 50, (2) Kevin Knopp 04, (3) Russ Brown 60, (4) Dave Cliff 06, (5) Tim Barbeau 58, (6) Steve Abt 85, (7) Brian Sobus 79, (8) Barry Kingsley 23, (9) Jack Patrick 9, (10) Shawn Walker 68, (11) Billy Moore 20, (12) Dave Danzer 52, (13) Rob Pullen 25, (14) Chip Wood 2, (15) Mark Castiglia 90, (16) Jason Simmons 91, (17) Mike Bond 26, (18) Andrew Schartner 18, (19) Stan Gates 28, (20) Guard Nearbin 78, (21) Dennis Rupert 95, (22) Brian Haynes 86, (23) David Knight.