Saturday night’s 71st season opener at Oswego Speedway was billed as the Jim Shampine Memorial Port City program, but the crash-filled 75-lap main event for the supers turned into a battle of survival.
When the checkered flag was finally waved, there were just seven starters left on the track, with only three on the lead lap, but a smiling Brandon Bellinger was parked in victory lane with his fourth career win in the Oswego’s main event.
In the pre-race time trials, Michael Barnes set a supermod track record of 15.681 seconds, but the new record holder was knocked out in a first-lap crash with Tyler Thompson. Canadians Logan Rayvals and Bellinger led early on, but Jeff Abold took the lead on the 34th homer.
Abold blew an engine shortly after, which left Bellinger first. Soon after, Dave Danzer and Dave Shullick were closing in on the leader, but the two got tangled up when Danzer had engine trouble and they pounded the outside wall at turn three.
Bellinger then held on for the win with Danny Connors Jr. and Lou LeVea second and third.
UNBEATEN HOLMES: Bobby Holmes ran 350 supers twice at Oswego, and the Lockport rider won them both. Holmes led all 35 laps of their main event without warning in his purple Terry Strong Tribute 350. Chase Locke finished second, followed by Jeff Battle, Brian Sobus and Mike Bruce.
DANNY K WINS: In the 40-lap super main event at the Tony White Memorial in Oswego, defending SBS champion Danny Kapuscinski took the lead on lap eight and took the win. Josh Sokolic and Noah Ratcliff finished second and third.
EXTENDED RECORDING: One of the biggest local short track racing records was extended on Saturday when Alan Johnson won the Big Block DIRT Modified Feature at Land of Legends Speedway. This is the 48th straight year that Johnson has won at least one modified features race on dirt. Johnson has now won 560 career main events, including 126 on the Canandaigua LoL track. Erick Rudolph and Justin Haers finished second and third.
FONDA: Stewart Friesen took the lead from Craig Hanson with five laps remaining and took his second Fonda victory of the year.
VISIT OF WHELEN: Mike Christopher Jr. won Saturday night’s Whelen Modified Tour event at Jennerstoen (Pennsylvania) Speedway.
SEARS WINS AGAIN: Tim Sears Jr. won his fourth Fulton 358 feature of 2022, followed by Andrew Ferguson and Dave Marcucilli.
HSE: In the Empire Super Sprint event at Fulton on Saturday, Paulie Colagiovanni took the win, with Jordan Poirier and Danny Varin second and third.
SANTOS WINS TWO: Bobby Santos III won both USAC races Friday night at the Carb Night Classic at Indianapolis Raceway Park. In USAC’s first 30-round midget game, he went from 10th to first in a machine owned by Jeff West. In the 100-lap Silver Crown final, the Franklin, Mass., rider beat Cody Swanson in the stretch for the double sweep.