Muldoon Dominates For Third Career Supermod Victory At Oswego

Story By: CAMDEN PROUD / OSWEGO SPEEDWAY – OSWEGO, NY – Third generation driver Michael Muldoon drove to his third career Supermodified triumph this past Saturday night at the Oswego Speedway in the FX Caprara, Royal Purple No. 15 Muldoon Chassis racer.

Muldoon, who is one of just five drivers in speedway history to earn a victory through a dead heat finish, was not to be stopped on Century 21 Galloway Realty and Helena Chemical Company Night at the ‘Steel Palace.

The 23 year-old Exelon System Engineer from Baldwinsville started back in the third spot for the 50-lap main event and by lap 2, shot right past polesitter Lou LeVea Jr. and gave chase to early race leader Dan Connors.

A Canale Insurance and Accounting yellow flag would fly on lap 5 for a spinning Jeff Abold in turn 1. Abold nearly collected Otto Sitterly, but SItterly was able to continue on without incident, however Abold was done for the night.

On the ensuing restart, Dave Gruel, who was a late arrival to the track on Saturday after appearing at a sponsorship event at Herb Phillipson’s in Oswego, found himself into the turn four foam hard after going to the top side and losing the handle on the No. 50. Gruel was also out for the remainder of the evening with heavy front end damage.

It was on the next restart that Muldoon made his move by Connors for the lead and the No. 15 machine proved to be all but unbeatable for the entire race, checking out from the field on the long green flag run leading up to a lap 26 yellow flag.

This caution was when more misfortune struck for seven time speedway champion Sitterly, as he had charged from his tenth starting spot up to sixth, but as Sitterly looked under Joe Gosek for fifth, things proved to be a little bit too tight in turn one and Otto lost the handle on the Nicotra Racing No. 7 while trying to stay off of Gosek. Tim Snyder struck Sitterly’s front end as Otto was facing the wrong way in turn one.

Snyder would continue without even having to make a pit stop, but Sitterly had to make a nose wing change in the pit area before coming back out to re-join the field.

The man on the move on the lap 27 restart was eleventh starting Gosek, who brought the crowd to it’s feet after shooting by Connors and Brandon Bellinger for second. Unfortunately for Connors, who had a good run put together early, the 01 ended up against the foam just a lap later in a simple spin which took away his otherwise podium run.

Points leader Dave Shullick Jr, who also had to make a hard charge from back in twelfth, used yet another yellow to his advantage, working to third by Bellinger on lap 29.

Shullick then gave chase to Gosek and was all over ’00 Joe’ for the remaining twenty circuits, but ‘The Shoe 2’ was unable to get by the Burke’s Do It Best Homecenters No. 00 while neither driver appeared to have anything for Muldoon as the trio lead Bellinger and Snyder with ten laps to go.

At that point, the race for the lead seemed over, but Sitterly’s race was just getting started as unbelievably, Otto found his way back inside the top five with 7 laps to go, making the charge past Michael Barnes, Keith Shampine, Tim Snyder, and more to get back inside the top five. Sitterly gave chase to Bellinger in the closing laps, but had to settle for fifth.

Muldoon went on to take the dominating victory ahead of Gosek, Shullick, Bellinger and Sitterly. Snyder, Shampine, Barnes, LeVea and Connors rounded out the top ten. The son of 21 time Supermodified feature winner Mike Muldoon, Michael was thrilled to be back in victory lane, his first ever victory in a 50-lapper that did not come as a dead heat victory.

“The car was pretty good tonight, but still not exactly where we want it,” Muldoon said. “It was solid though and we got to start up front. It’s a long race, I got nervous the last twenty laps or so just hoping we could stay out front. I just decided to sort of save my tires a little bit early to make sure we had enough left in the tank for later in the race. We’ll probably change a few things before next week to see if we can get it going a little better but it was a really good night for us you’ve got to be happy with this.

Gosek, who bas been absolutely rolling since his hard Opening Night accident, picked up his fourth podium finish of the season and fifth top five, pleased with his team’s efforts amongst the very even field of cars. The all-time top five leader in the division is searching for just a little bit more to get his first win since back in 2014.

“It’s a good night, but man it was a tough race up there,” Gosek commented. “There is a lot of good cars, like ten or thirteen good cars so you have to work for every spot you get. We made some major changes before tonight and it was actually a lot better, the car seemed to drive much better tonight so I’m ok with learning a little bit off of that.”

Shullick has been a machine this season in his first full go at a non-wing championship with the Nicotra Racing No. 2 and while he was not as dominant as seen in weeks past last Saturday night, the North Ridgeville, OH talent was happy to make the charge from 11th up to another podium finish, his fourth of 2017 on top of his three feature victories.

“It was pretty good, we were close,” offered Shullick. “I could go the outside, but it was just a little bit slick up there tonight in that groove so I sort of had to crossover a little bit, it just made it hard to pass. I was glad to see Michael (Muldoon) get a win and Joe (Gosek) have a good run, I know the fans want to see other people win so they got what they paid for tonight.”

The point standings continue to work in the favor of Shullick and Nicotra Racing as he leads teammate Sitterly by nearly 60 points into this coming weekend’s C’s Beverage ‘Summer Championship’ ahead of Barnes, Gosek and Shampine.

This past Saturday night’s Pathfinder Bank SBS main event at Oswego Speedway saw a familiar face in victory lane at the end of the 30-lap feature in Fulton’s Jack Patrick, who picked up his seventh career victory behind the wheel of the No. 9 Mopar powered machine.

The field was lead to green by Mike Bruce and Camden Proud and it was Bruce the early leader, jumping out to the top spot from the inside of the front row. Proud dropped back a bit early on the outside, falling back to the five spot before Patrick, along with fifth starting Brad Haynes and seventh starting Russ Brown found their way back under Bruce battling for spots in the top five.

Patrick made his move by Bruce for the lead early on lap 2 and checked out before a yellow flag flew early on lap 6 for Rookie of the Year contender Tony Pisa, who found the first turn foam in the No. 89. Pisa was done for the night.

On the restart, Brown later worked by Haynes and Proud to take second with Dalton Doyle pulling in behind the No. 54 of Proud to try and take the four spot.

Patrick and Brown pulled away from Haynes and fortunately for the driver of the Step One Creative sponsored Small Block, Proud was able to find his way under the No. 88 of Haynes, who was running rather strong this past weekend inside the top five, to take the third spot away on lap 22. Doyle followed suit into fourth as Haynes fell to fifth.

As Brown stalked Patrick for the lead in the all new Hedger Fabrication No. 13 with the laps winding down, it appeared Patrick would hold Brown off and that was solidified on lap 29 when the caution came out just after the white flag for Brown as he had radiator issues which caused the 21-time SBS feature winner to leak water over the racing surface.

Brown was stopped on the start finish line and then asked to take the 13 to the pits, handing second to Proud and third to Doyle with Haynes moving back up to fourth.

The restart was green-checkered and Patrick was able to hold off Proud without issue to go on to win the 30-lap main event, the seventh of his career. Proud settled for second, with Doyle in third, Haynes in fourth, and invader Tyler Shullick, who spends most of his weekends working for ThorSport Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, drove the Four Sevens Motorsports No. 67 machine up to a fifth place finish.

Championship runner up Andrew Schartner, a hard charging Kreig Heroth, polesitter Bruce, Rob Pullen in the Castiglia 69, and Cameron Rowe filled in the remaining top ten positions.

Patrick was very excited to pick up his first victory of the season and the first with his girlfriend Kristie, as well as to keep Brown in his tire tracks for the duration of the eventful 30-lap feature.

“There’s no doubt about it, this car was really fast tonight,” said an excited Patrick. “I just want to thank my entire crew, my girlfriend, my sponsors Longley Dodge, Kool Kitty Toys, Big Kahuna Party Rentals and Red Baron Pizza for all the support. My car was fast all night right after we pulled it off the trailer, this thing was a rocketship. We just fine tuned it and had it going really good for the feature. I saw Russ (Brown) back there, I could tell he was back there and I just knew if I hung onto my line that he wasn’t going to be able to get by me. You never forget about the guys that are behind you when you start up front. Just try to keep your head down, not look at the TV screen, hit your marks and don’t give up the bottom and it handled their great tonight.”

Proud, who has moved from ninth to third in the points race over two weeks of compeition, was thirlled with another runner up effort but the 18 year-old speedway PR director and recent high school graduate remains very hungry in search of his first career Pathfinder Bank SBS triumph driving his homebuilt Proud Chassis machine.

“Two seconds in a row isn’t bad at all,” Proud commented. “I’m just wondering when that first win is coming. It was tough starting on the outside pole, I knew Mike (Bruce) would give me a good look out there and try to take my momentum away. Unfortunately I allowed that to happen and we fell back a bit. I think we’ve had a winning car the past two weeks, it just took me too long to get by the 88 tonight, but once I did it was smooth sailing in third. Russ (Brown) had some misfortune that we were able to take advantage of to bring it home runner up. All in all I couldn’t be prouder of this small family team to put together two awesome runs in a row, we’re right back in the points race and hopefully the win we’re all waiting for is coming soon. I think we’ve really hit on something.”

Doyle, who was behind Proud all race long, was never quite able to sneak his way by despite trying the top side on multiple occasions with his Hawk Jr. Chassis No. 01 machine. The former quarter midget racer was strong all evening long and went on to pick up his second top five of the season.

“Luck was on our side tonoght and we ended up with a podium,” Doyle said “I thought things would get interesting on the last restart, I tried the outside as a last ditch effort to gain some more position but couldn’t make it happen. Overall we are happy with the podium, the car is one piece and that’s all you can ask for.”

Approaching this Saturday, July 15th’s C’s Beverage Summer Championship, defending champion Dave Cliff, who found himself with an unfortunate eleventh place result this past weekend after getting caught up in a jam up between Jesse Bearup and Shullick, still leads the standings by nearly 30 points over Schartner, Proud, Doyle and Patrick.

Oswego Speedway

Saturday, July 8 2017

Novelis Supermodifieds

BOX SCORE

Timed Hot Laps: 1. 7 Otto Sitterly – 16.444, 2. 2 Dave Shullick Jr. – 16.641, 3. 68 Michael Barnes – 16.693, 4. 15 Michael Muldoon – 16.712, 5. 55 Keith Shampine – 16.723, 6. 00 Joe Gosek – 16.786, 7. 72 Dave Danzer – 16.850, 8. 02 Brandon Bellinger – 16.857, 9. 05 Jeff Abold – 17.027, 10. 0 Tim Snyder – 17.045, 11. 50 Dave Gruel – 17.141, 12. 01 Dan Connors – 17.276, 13. 83 Lou LeVea Jr. – 17.327

Heat 1 (12 laps): 1. 7 Otto Sitterly, 2. 50 Dave Gruel, 3. 05 Jeff Abold, 4. 72 Dave Danzer, 5. 68 Michael Barnes, 6. 83 Lou LeVea Jr, 7. 55 Keith Shampine, 8. 71 Bill Sharkey

Heat 2 (12 laps): 1. 2 Dave Shullick Jr, 2. 0 Tim Snyder, 3. 00 Joe Gosek, 4. 01 Dan Connors, 5. 02 Brandon Bellinger, 6. 15 Michael Muldoon, 7. 56 Hal LaTulip, 8. 78 Guard Nearbin

Feature (50 laps): 1. 15 Michael Muldoon, 2. 00 Joe Gosek, 3. 2 Dave Shullick Jr, 4. 02 Brandon Bellinger, 5. 7 Otto Sitterly, 6. 0 Tim Snyder, 7. 55 Keith Shampine, 8. 68 Michael Barnes, 9. 83 Lou LeVea Jr, 10. 01 Dan Connors, 11. 56 Hal LaTulip, 12. 71 Bill Sharkey, 13. 50 Dave Gruel, 14. 05 Jeff Abold, 15. 78 Guard Nearbin, 16. 72 Dave Danzer

Lighthouse Lanes Hard Charger: 00 – Joe Gosek

Lighthouse Lanes Up and Comer: 83 – Lou LeVea Jr.

Brad Penn Oil Supermodified Heat Winners: Dave Shullick Jr, Otto Sitterly

Pathfinder Bank SBS

BOX SCORE

Timed Hot Laps: 1. 13 Russ Brown – 18.739, 2. 9 Jack Patrick – 18.878, 3. 54 Camden Proud – 19.034, 4. 67 Tyler Shullick – 19.102, 5. 22 Mike Bruce – 19.142, 6. 04 Kreig Heroth – 19.146, 7. 37 Jesse Bearup – 19.147, 8. 01 Dalton Doyle – 19.163, 9. 50 Dave Cliff – 19.250, 10. 77 Cameron Rowe – 19.287, 11. 74 Mike Bond – 19.312, 12. 91 Barry Kingsley – 19.367, 13. 18 Andrew Schartner – 19.402, 14. 89 Tony Pisa – 19.440, 15. 69 – Rob Pullen – 19.444, 16. 88 Brad Haynes – 19.554, 17. 90 Greg O’Connor – 19.568, 18. 15 James Babcock – 19.868, 19. 23 Cameron Black – 20.024, 20. 99 Dennis Rupert – 20.051

Heat 1 (10 laps): 1. 74 Mike Bond, 2. 9 Jack Patrick, 3. 01 Dalton Doyle, 4. 22 Mike Bruce, 5. 90 Greg O’Connor, 6. 89 Tony Pisa, 7. 23 Cameron Black

Heat 2 (10 laps): 1. 13 Russ Brown, 2. 37 Jesse Bearup, 3. 67 Tyler Shullick, 4. 88 Brad Haynes, 5. 18 Andrew Schartner, 6. 99 Dennis Rupert, 7. 77 Cameron Rowe

Heat 3 (10 laps): 1. 69 Rob Pullen, 2. 50 Dave Cliff, 3. 54 Camden Proud, 4. 91 Barry Kingsley, 5. 04 Kreig Heroth, 6. 15 James Babcock, 7. Steve Wood

Feature (30 laps): 1. 9 Jack Patrick, 2. 54 Camden Proud, 3. 01 Dalton Doyle, 4. 88 Brad Haynes, 5. 67 Tyler Shullick, 6. 18 Andrew Schartner, 7. 04 Kreig Heroth, 8. 22 Mike Bruce, 9. 69 Rob Pullen, 10. 77 Cameron Rowe, 11. 37 Jesse Bearup, 12. 50 Dave Cliff, 13. 90 Greg O”Connor, 14. 91 Barry Kingsley, 15. 13 Russ Brown, 16. 74 Mike Bond, 17. 99 Dennis Rupert, 18. 15 James Babcock, 19. 89 Tony Pisa, 20. 23 Cameron Black, 21. 93 Steve Wood

D&S Landscaping Hard Charger: 18 – Andrew Schartner

Sherwood Racing Wheels Lap Leader Award: 9 – Jack Patrick

White’s Car Care 4th Place Award: 88 – Brad Haynes