PUTNEY CAPTURES HIS
BIGGEST WIN EVER BY WINNING THE RoC 75 AT OSWEGO
BY JR KENNERUP ( RoC ASPHALT MEDIA )
Oswego, NY … He’s been coming to the track since 1994 to race asphalt
Modifieds and in all of those years Billy Putney has gone winless at the
Oswego Speedway. That all changed on Saturday night as the East Aurora, NY
driver led all 75 laps from his outside pole starting spot to win the Race
of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour event. With the win Putney became the
third first time winner and third different winner in three races at the
Oswego Speedway this year.
Putney got the jump on pole sitter Rusty Smith at the start and never looked
back. Although the Putney car seemed to slow down after the race went green
for more than ten consecutive laps. Putney caught a big break with the final
caution coming out on lap 62 just before he was about to enter lapped
traffic. Putney led the final 13 laps with ease to win his first career
Lee Sherwood who started third dogged Putney the final 43 laps but didn’t
have enough to make the pass for the win and settled for second. Pete
Brittain used a new set up in his Troyer car and found success with it as he
finished third. Multi time Oswego winner Jan Leaty ended up fourth with new
RoC North Region point leader Earl Paules coming home in fifth.
“ This is a terrific place to be as I’ve been coming here a long time“ said
the very happy winner. “Little Kelly from Make A Wish
came down and told me before that he likes Dale Jarrett and also likes the
car number 88. That must have been the little extra we needed to get the win
tonight. “
Kelly was at the track with the Make A Wish Foundation on this night. Kelly
received a pace truck ride around Oswego, many Dale Jarrett ( his favorite
driver ) gifts, a signed shirt from all the racers in the pits on this
night, and the news that he was going to meet Dale Jarrett this week at
Watkins Glen.
The key point of the 75 lap feature was the original start as Putney out
dragged pole sitter Rusty Smith into turn one to get the lead. “We had a
really good initial start“ said Billy. “Rusty was running a couple of car
lengths behind us until something broke on his car. He dropped out and then
Sherwood pulled up there and he was within a car length for much of the
race.“
Through the entire race Putney had the fastest car for the first ten laps
after a green flag came out and then his car would slow down a little bit.
Billy spoke about it. “We were good for ten laps and then I would try and
conserve. The more I would conserve the worse my line would get. With the
caution with 13 to go I said I’m done conserving as I’m just going to put
the pedal to the metal and see if I can keep a few car lengths between us
and keep Lee from challenging me.“
Late in the race when entering the corners the brake rotors on the Putney
car would light up cherry red. Billy was asked about this condition on his
car. “I was braking it early to try and keep it on the bottom “ answered
Billy. “ If I kept it on the bottom Lee wouldn’t have an opportunity to get
under me for a pass. If Lee was going to try and pass me, he was going to
have to go around me. I’m just always hard on the brakes, my crew will tell
you that I’m really hard on the brakes and I ride the brakes and when I get
nervous I ride them even worse.“
“The guys on the crew did a super job tonight as it was handling really
well“ said the $2,800 winner. “Lee, Pete, and Jan along
with Earl were back there and they all run strong here and all of them have
won here before. I just kept hustling it and luckily we had enough with this
Rittling sponsored car to win.“
“Huge win for us “ said Putney.“ Probably the biggest win we’ve ever had.
Been coming here a long time and I’ve been telling the guys for years that
if there is a track that I wanted to win at, that track is
“I knew Lee was running really well and if I gave him an opportunity he
would have been right in there“ said Billy . The car worked great, the crew
worked really hard to make the car great, the Morgantini motor ran great and
all of that got us to victory lane.“
Billy summed it all up by saying. “I have to thank all the guys, they’ve
been coming here with us all through the years and I appreciate their help.
My dad has been coming here for years with me and other drivers in his car
before me, I’m just glad to be in victory lane and this win is for Kelly.“
“The car was good but Billy ( Putney ) was just awesome tonight“ said second
place finisher Lee Sherwood. “There wasn’t anything we could do with him as
he was turning some great lap times out there tonight. Even at the end of
the race he was turning some good laps and we had a good car but not good
enough to pass him.“
Sherwood who won the first race of the year at
Sherwood who would lose ground to Putney on restarts would reel in Putney
after ten or more consecutive laps of green spoke about the restart problems
on this night. “I just kept spinning the tires there on those restarts. I
was trying not to do that to keep the momentum up but Billy was getting good
restarts and he opened up a gap there. I could run Billy down but it took an
awful long time to do that.“
“We didn’t need that caution with 13 to go“ said Lee. “Billy was better than
we were on all the restarts as it took a few laps for my car to come in. If
I would have caught him who knows if I had anything for him because he was
turning some really good laps there at the end.“
During the middle stages of the race Lee also was showering sparks from a
cherry red left front brake rotor. “I was on the brakes that much” said Lee.
“I did have too much front brake in the car early in the race and then I
adjusted it as the race wore on.“
Lee who has had success at
Pistol Pete Brittain authored a nice drive from his fifth place starting
spot to end up third in the Terry Zacharias prepared Troyer. “The
track was tough to pass on tonight and our car was set up for the long runs“
said the Oakhurst, NJ driver. “After 15 to 20 laps we would close in on the
top two but after that we couldn’t get any more green flag laps.“
The veteran driver spoke about a new setup that was used on this night with
success. “This is a new setup on this car for me. We’re trying to find some
stuff for the 200 and I think we found something here tonight. We have a
couple of more tricks and we’re going try and see if we can get it to go
faster.“
“Everybody is looking for that little edge “ said Pete when speaking about
trying to find more speed. “Everybody is making their car better all the
time as it gets tougher year after year and you have to stay on top of it.“
Qualifying for the 27 asphalt Modifieds in attendance saw heat wins go to
Sherwood, Dave Wollaber, Brittain, and Putney, no B Main was run.
STEEL PALACE NOTES; The tough season for three drivers continued on this
day. Rusty Smith’s awful season continued as the motor soured while he was
challenging for the lead on lap 31. Ken Canestrari made his second show of
the year and it didn’t last long as a blown motor in the heat race ended his
day. Zane Zeiner pitted during the lap 35 yellow and made wholesale changes
to his car. The changes seemed to work as Zane was one of the few cars that
were able to pass on the outside. However disaster struck Zeiner on lap 43
as the right front wheel came off the car while he was in the middle of
turns one and two. The result was heavy contact into the outside retaining
wall doing significant damage to the sharp looking machine. For the second
consecutive Oswego Modified race
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR NORTH REGION RACE #5
FINISH; Billy Putney, Lee Sherwood, Pete Brittain, Jan Leaty, Earl Paules,
Dave Wollaber, Bill Hebing, Sege Fidanza, Kory Rabenold, Chuck Frisbee, John
Markovic, Rick Kluth, Mike Leaty, Phil Slater, Doug Reaume, Ben Reynolds,
Daren Scherer, Bill Chandler, Sr., Bobby Holmes, Mark Van Luven, Zane
Zeiner, Lenny Fischer, Rusty Smith, Kevin Lewis, John Hellmers, Matt
Clemens. DNS; Ken Canestrari.
LAP LEADERS; Putney ( 1 - 75 )
SUNOCO RACE FUELS AWARD; Slater
GATER RACING NEWS DRIVER BONUS DRAW $500; Van Luven
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Rabenold ( 21st to 9th )
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; Smith ( 1st to 22nd )
NEXT RoC RACE; Saturday August 12th Chemung Speedrome Central Region Race #3