Some clouds. Low 62F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Some clouds. Low 62F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Oswego Speedway is marching toward their opening weekend, featuring the ‘Port City 150.’

The May 28 program will be headlined by the 75-lap Shampine Memorial for Supermodifieds, 40-lap Tony White Memorial for Small Block Supers, and a 35-lap Memorial Weekend Special for 350 Supers.

Ahead of that, Oswego hosted practice for multiple divisions on Saturday.

Dan Connors lapped the oval with a blistering 16.875-second lap, translating to an average speed of 133.33 mph. Ryan Locke, a division rookie in 2022, followed with a pass of 16.895. Dave Shullick, the defending Supermodified champion still holds the track record, delivering a lap of 15.694-seconds in August, 2021.

The Small Block Supers were anchored by Noah Ratcliff’s pass at an average of 118.53 mph, stopping the clocks at 18.982. Jesse Bearup was next with a lap of 19.184. Chase Locke was the top 350 super entry, posting a lap time of 17.088, followed by Dave Cliff’s 17.315. Russ Wood lapped the ⅝-mile in 15.704 seconds (143.28 mph) aboard his winged super.

Looking ahead to the weekend’s opening day, Dave Shullick Jr. has an opportunity to join rarified air. With a win, Shullick will be able to join Oswego legends Ronnie Lux, Todd Gibson, Nolan Swift, Jim Shampine, Doug Heveron, Bentley Warren, Greg Furlong, and Otto Sitterly, as drivers to win five or more consecutive Oswego Speedway Supermodified features. Shullick is starting 2022 with a defense of his track title from last year, locking up his second crown by 62 points over Sitterly.

He finished with four straight victories, and that included the 34th Mr. Supermodified and 65th International Classic. Shullick kicked off 2021 with a win in the opener last year, and returns with the Osetek Team for their third season together. Shullick will make the commute to Oswego from his home in Ohio weekly; he has been a regular at Oswego since 2017, racing 2017 and 2018 with Nicotra Racing.

His five-win 2021 championship season is one of only four seasons that saw one driving win more than five times in the last decade. Shullick won five features in his first season with Nicotra in 2017. In all, Shullick has 15 Supermodified wins at Oswego since 2017, nearly doubling that of Otto Sitterly (8 wins) in the same time frame. Michael Barnes (six wins), Keith Shampine (three) and Tyler Thompson (three) are notable multi-time winners in the same span. Otherwise, no one has won more than twice.

Tickets are available at OswegoSpeedway.customsoftwarecreations.com. The full schedule is posted there as well, and reserved season tickets are again being offered for 2022. The cost of a season ticket for all events is $270 excluding Classic Weekend.

Wednesday night, Matt Sheppard won the Thunder on the 1000 Islands event at Can-Am Speedway.

The fast No. 9s won heat 2 and redrew the pole. From there, Sheppard was on the point for all 75 laps. Jimmy Phelps pressured through lap 48, when a charging Stewart Friesen rallied to second. Friesen stayed put, unable to put a meaningful dent in Sheppard’s six-second lead.

Sheppard won over Friesen, logging his second runner-up in a row. The second place effort moves Friesen to first in points with Weedsport Speedway’s Heroes Remembered 100 up next, set for Sunday May 29 and then a tour stop at Lebanon Valley Speedway May 30th.

Tim Fuller took third, ahead of Max McLaughlin and Mat Williamson. McLaughlin charged from 18th to fourth in the order.

Tuesday night, Sheppard scored his 24th career victory in the third North Region event on the Short Track Super Series trail, banking more than $5,000 and jumping back to the top spot in the point standings.

Ranking second in all time STSS wins, Sheppard started sixth and stormed to the front. Billy Decker opened the race with the lead, held off a strong effort from Alex Payne and Danny Johnson. Pat Ward spun on lap 11, and Sheppard rocketed from sixth to second. A lap 15 caution period regrouped the order, and Sheppard was able to solve Decker on lap 18. Sheppard was in command through lap 35, presiding at the front through traffic and a few restarts. Traffic with 15 to go allowed Friesen to close; a caution with four to go took traffic out of the equation. Sheppard stayed on the outside when the race resumed, and Friesen settled for second while trying the inside line. Billy Decker was third ahead of Brett Haas and Alex Payne. The STSS will race the Dirty Jersey 50 at New Egypt Tuesday and then head to the Bloomsburg Fair Raceway for a 50-lap, $7,000-to-win feature.

Outlaw Speedway was scheduled to be off Friday.

Fulton Speedway braved the weather and finished their program just after 9 pm Saturday night. Tim Sears Jr. scored his third straight win, coming out ahead of Ron Davis III. Dave Marcuccilli, Marshall Hurd and Corey Barker rounded out the top five Modified finishers. Cody Manitta won over Brett Sears in the first of two Sportsman features; Chris Mackey was third. David Roger won the second 25-lapper, with Joe Kline and Kyle Devendorf in the top three. Jim Evans tallied the hobby stock win over Brandon Barron and Brennan Fitzgibbons. Jason Parkhurst won the novice sportsman feature and Michael Mullen won the mod lite feature.

At Genesee Speedway, Chad Homan won the RUSH Late Model feature over Brady Wonderling and Bill Holmes. Doug Ricotta and Jimmy Johnson rounded out the top five. Jim Harbison won the Sportsman feature with Cam Tuttle in tow; Phil Vigneri III, Dave Conant and Kyle Richner filled the top five. Bill Taylor won the Street Stock feature ahead of Mike Kelly and Jacob Vick. Olivia Coniber tallied the mini stock main over Bill Weller Jr. and James Gayton. Greenly George picked up the Novice Sportsman checkers. Jaeden Tarr won the youth four cylinder feature, taking the lead on the final corner to tally his first career win.

Ryan Jordan scored a Modified feature at Thunder Mountain Speedway. Alan Barker, Darren Smith, Rusty Smith and Eric Leet filled the top five. In DIRTcar 358 action, Lance Willix took the checkers ahead of Rusty Smith and Darren Smith. Alan Fink won the DIRTcar Sportsman feature over Cody Jackson and Hunter Lapp. Jerry Lobdell took the Street Stock checkers. Chris Jordan won the 600cc modified feature. Buck Mills Jr. won the factory stock main, while Lucas Kastenhuber won the Open Vs. Crate Sportsman feature.

Land of Legends canceled, citing the questionable weather forecast. CRSA Sprints will be back at Land of Legends June 18.

Tim Sears Jr. won his second straight Modified main at Brewerton Speedway, racing from 14th to win the main. Jimmy Phelps and Tyler Trump were next, with Tom Sears Jr. and Chris Hile filling the top five. Ron Davis took the top finishing 358-Modified bonus. Ryan Dolbear won the 25-lap Sportsman feature ahead of Zach Sobotka and Savannah Laflair. Kyle Demo won the Mod Lite 20-lapper ahead of Clayton Brewer, and Damien Bechler scored the four-cylinder super stock checkers.

Tim Fuller won his second straight DIRTcar 358-modified feature at Can-Am Speedway, topping Ryan Bartlett and Scott Webb. Tyler Meeks and Billy Dunn filled the top five. Tyler Stevenson scored a wn in the DIRTcar Sportsman feature; Mike Fowler and Josh Reome were next at the line. Keegan Nier won the Limited Sportsman main. Josh Verne won the 602 Crate Sprint feature and Justin Pope was victorious in the Thundercar feature.

Friday night, Alex Yankowski became the youngest modified feature winner in Utica-Rome Speedway history. Willy Decker was the early leader, and Yankowski followed his early pace before leveraging a great launch off turn two to forge a pass entering the third turn before completing lap 9. There was a single caution with 22 to go, and Matt Sheppard was primed to strike. He tore through the top five, and secured second with two to go but could not unseat the leader, settling for second ahead of Willy Decker, Jessica Friesen and Darren Smith. Dave Richer picked up the 30-lap Sportsman win over Matt Janczuk and Allan Hodge. Jay Corbin was triumphant in the Pro Stock feature, with Jason Morrison and Beau Ballard following. Alex Hughes won the LImited Sportsman finale. Slappy White (DOHC) and Hank Wedgren (SOHC) posted winning efforts in four-cylinder action. Brett Putnam (All Star) and Blake Banek (Junior) took slingshot wins.

Chris Marquart’s “Motorsports” appears every Tuesday during racing season. Contact Chris at (315) 729-3999 or at smashedempirefilms@gmail.com.

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