BOBBY
SANTOS TAKES SECOND CAREER ISMA WIN WITH BUDWEISER SUPER NATIONALS VICTORY
AT OSWEGO SPEEDWAY |
Oswego, NY – Eighteen-year old Bobby Santos of
Franklin, Mass. has been jumping back and forth between different divisions and different
cars this season. Santos likes the variety as he prepares for his future in racing.
Saturday at Oswego Speedway Santos jumped from his NEMA midget ride into the Howie Lane
owned number 9 supermodified as part of a triple-duty driving weekend and went from his
fourth place starting spot to a win over some of supermodified’s best! Santos
inherited the race lead from a high-flying Justin Belfiore when Belfiore’s mount blew
a motor just 17 laps shy of what would have been his second career ISMA win. Santos
survived pressure from first Lou Cicconi and then defending race champion Greg Furlong for
the next 16 circuits to capture one of supermodified racing’s big prizes. And he did
it like a seasoned veteran, playing traffic, despite his relatively short time in the
powerful supermodifieds. The 50-lap Super Nationals event paid $6,000 to win for the Lane
team. The young driver had praise for his crew and his challenger at race end.
“I’d like to thank all the guys on my crew,” said Bob. “ I’ve
also got to thank Greg. He looked like the fastest car at the end but I want to thank him
for running me clean. He could have beaten me if he really wanted to. But he raced me
clean, and again I thank him for that. I tried to use the lap cars to my advantage because
I knew someone behind me was faster. I tried to keep the lap cars beside me as along as I
could. I was trying to buy some time each lap. It worked at the end.”
SUNDAY 9/5
BUDWEISER INTERNATIONAL CLASSIC HERE
Furlong, who had a long road
ahead at the start, indicated at the end, “I told the guys to give me the car I had
in May when I made that pit stop and started coming up through. That’s exactly the
car they gave me. I think I started 15th and the car was a rocket ship. Coming up through
I tapped one guy lightly – I think it was Gosek – and I bent up the front nose
wing. It was straight up and down. That killed all the down force. The car started
pushing. I thought maybe I could get him in traffic but we have to race this car tomorrow
and I figured second place is better than a 24th so we’ll take the second.”
Eighth place starter Pat Abold was pleased with his third place finish. – “It
wasn’t a bad third place run. It was a fast paced race tonight. The car was good in
the long run. I actually got a little loose on entry and I started to fade a little bit.
The caution came out there and cooled the tires a little bit. Then it was really tight for
about five or six laps and I couldn’t get through the middle of the corner. Then in
our run after that it got really good. It was really dangerous going into one tonight at
those speeds. For about one or two hundred feet there going into one you could not see
anything. You couldn’t have seen a wreck in front of you.”
The competitive ISMA 50 lapper began with Eric Shirey taking the early lead and with
continuous green ahead, Shirey took his V2 to a commanding lead, which began to be
whittled down by the 9 of Santos and the 8 of Justin Belfiore. Just before the halfway
mark of the fast-paced race, Belfiore came off four and put both Santos and Shirey into
runner-up spots as the number 8 took over the lead in one swoop.
Belfiore took off in pursuit of his second ISMA win leaving Santos in second. Shirey who
had developed a bad vibration in the rear end, began a backward slide while Lou Cicconi,
Pat Abold, Joe Gosek Mike Lichty, Furlong, Bentley Warren, Russ Wood and Chris Perley were
all hot on the trail.
With twenty to go it was Belfiore, Santo, Cicconi, Abold and Lichty in the top five. One
lap later, Belfiore pulled off turn four and into the pits with a blown motor. As Justin
said afterwards, “this motor which is an old Bellinger motor has the power, more
power than my other motor. I have led four times with it. One time I won.”
The one and only caution of the torrid feature fell on lap 33 for a minor incident
involving Dave McKnight which also saw Santos’ teammate Kyle Carpenter heading
pitside. Mike Lichty’s 84 was stopped here with a bad overheating problem and he too
pitted. The second half of the Lichty team, Dave McKnight finished his race for the day
with an ill handling car.
With sixteen laps left, Santos had Lou Cicconi and Greg Furlong bearing down on him on the
restart, but Bobby pulled away from Cicconi at the green. Furlong soon got by Cicconi who
was losing tire and contracting a motor problem at the same time. It was now the
Santos-Furlong show out front as Cicconi held a precarious third. Abold soon took over
third on lap 46 with Cicconi trying to hold on.
Traffic, as Santos had said, was his friend as he heard Furlong’s thunder behind.
Abold was soon joined by Russ Wood and Joe Gosek as Cicconi fell back in the waning laps.
Chris Perley tried to move by Gosek to no avail as time ran out on the race.
Wood was more than happy with fourth. Said Russ, who had won a heat earlier, “We
ended up fourth. We were a little too tight. I stopped using the brakes and it stopped
pushing. Some guys were slowing down there at the end and we picked up a few spots in the
last couple laps. It wasn’t too bad a weekend. Pat was third and I was fourth.”
And, Joe Gosek, driving the May 77, was also satisfied with a fifth. “We’re
really happy with fifth,” said Joe. “Everybody worked hard on the car. We really
struggled most of the day. We weren’t really one of the fastest cars. We made some
changes for the main because we had blistered a tire in the heat finishing second. In the
main we sort of started fifth and finished fifth. It was tough out there. It was a good
run for us. There were a lot of green flag laps. As I said we had struggled and we’re
just happy to come away with a top five. There were a lot of good cars around me –
Abold, Cicconi, Woody, Perley and they were still there at the end.”
Bentley Warren, who brought the Dunigan Racing 25 home in 8th, picked up an extra $588
from the Jim Shampine Memorial fund.
SUMMARY
ISMA LUCAS OIL/HELPING HANDS of AMERICA
Supernationals at Oswego Speedway - 9/4
HEAT 1: 1.
Jennifer Chesbro (33) 2. Bobby Santos III (9) 3. Justin Belfiore (8) 4. Bentley Warren
(25)
5. Joey Payne (4) 6. Rick Wentworth (10) 7. Vern Romanoski (5) 8. Moe Lilje (19) 9.
Tim Jedrzejek (7) 10. Johnny Payne (88) 11. Vern LaFave (96)
HEAT 2: 1. Russ Wood (29) 2. Joe Gosek (77) 3. Mike Lichty (84) 4. Nokie
Fornoro (32)
5. Joe Petro (32) 6. Kyle Carpenter (97) 7. Mark Sammut (78) 8. Jack Smith (09) 9. Dan
Osmeloski (01) 10. Larry Lehnert (92)
HEAT 3: 1. Lou Cicconi (75) 2. Pat Abold (26) 3. Chris Perley (11) 4. Eric
Shirey (v2)
5. Greg Furlong (72) 6. Scott Martel (14) 7. Jamie Letcher (58) 8. Dave McKnight (94)
9. Dave Shullick, Jr. (49) 10. Kevin Tourigny (86) 11. Joe Grunda (1)
CONSI: 1.
Tim Jedrzejek (7) 2. Jack Smith (09) 3. Dave McKnight (94) 4. Dave Shullick, Jr. (49) 5.
Johnny Payne (88) 6. Vern LaFave (96) 7. Kevin Tourigny (86) 8. Dan Osmeloski (01) 9.
Larry Lehnert (92) 10. Moe Lilje (19) 11. Joe Grunda (1 - DNS)
OPTION: Moe Lilje (19)
DNQ: Vern LaFave (97) - Kevin Tourigny (86) - Dan Osmeloski (01) -
Larry Lehnert (92) -
Joe Grunda (1)
FEATURE (50 Laps): 1. Bobby Santos III (9) 2. Greg Furlong (72) 3. Pat Abold (26) 4.
Russ Wood (29) 5. Joe Gosek (77) 6. Chris Perley (11) 7. Nokie Fornoro (32) 8. Bentley
Warren (25) 9. Tim Jedrzejek (7) 10. Lou Cicconi (75) 11. Joey Payne (4) 12. Scott Martel
(14) 13. Rick Wentworth (10) 14. Joe Petro (99) 15. Mark Sammut (78) 16. Jamie Letcher
(58) 17. Johnny Payne (88) 18. Moe Lilje (19) 19. Jennifer Chesbro (33) 20. Dave Shullick,
Jr. (49) 21. Vern Romanoski (5) 22. Kyle Carpenter (97) 23. Dave McKnight (94) 24. Eric
Shirey (v2) 25. Mike Lichty (84) 26. Justin Belfiore (8) 27. Jack Smith (09) |
