Martin and Farnham Make History in Futures
Sportsman Futures make first appearance at Oswego
by Brendan Capria
OSWEGO, N.Y. – Oct. 7, 2016 – Greg Martin and Matt Farnham shared the spotlight Friday, winning their respective DIRTcar Sportsman Futures features at Oswego Speedway. After two consecutive off-site shows as a part of the 45th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week, the tour laid rubber onto Oswego dirt for the first time this week.
Martin started off the day strong, recording the fastest lap time in practice with a 24.047. He said getting the on-track experience was most valuable in a day of many successes. The “Clay Palace” tested the drivers’ skills, and Martin said it was definitely a “neat” track. He embraced the challenges of the inaugural host of Super DIRT Week.
“She’s a slick one,” Martin said. “The car was really good in turn one, and it felt really good out of [turn] four too. Now if I can figure out the other two I’ll be good for tomorrow. It’s just an honor to win the first futures race at Oswego.”
Martin dominated in the 15-lap feature. By the sixth go-around, Martin extended his lead to 3.225 seconds. A caution with one lap remaining was the only potential setback. Though the field regrouped and Martin lost his comfortable lead of 3.699 seconds, the restart was similar to the start of the race.
In a green-white-checkered situation, Martin barreled ahead and finished the job. He led every lap of the feature; Connor Cleveland and Chris Burek rounded-out the podium.
Like Martin, Farnham was the pole-sitter of the second and final Sportsman Futures feature of the day. However, he did not lead every lap. The 22-car field maintained narrow margins under the speedway lights. But the spotlight was initially on Tyler Trump, who overtook Farnham as the group roared to the green flag.
Trump maintained the half-second split between he and Farnham. But Farnham was seeking revenge. With four laps remaining, Farnham made his move. He dipped the front of his car under Trump’s No.9x machine. The maneuver meant to act as a wedge, but Trump held his ground and eventually slammed the door on Farnham.
“Towards the end I tried to go low,” Farnham said. “I clipped the inside wall. I thought I messed up for a second, but I was fine. So, we kept on going. Lapped traffic definitely helped us in the end. Tyler was running great.”
It only took two more laps for Farnham to try again. This time, Farnham built enough momentum to overtake Trump in the straightaway. Farnham won by a 0.529-second margin over Trump. More notably, Trump widened his gap from third place to more than five seconds. Tom Collins finished third.
“[Tyler] wasn’t making any mistakes,” Farnham said. “But I stayed high in three and four, and it really paid off for us.”
Sportsman Futures Race 1 – (15 Laps) – 1. 4-Greg Martin [1]; 2. 09-Connor Cleveland [3]; 3. 94-Chris Burek [4]; 4. 88c-Connor Dawdy [5]; 5. 2L-Jack Lehner [6]; 6. 19-Jamie Begor [7]; 7. 6-Matt Stangle [8]; 8. 21-James Henry [10]; 9. 14c-Chad Edwards [11]; 10. 98-Andrew Buff [14]; 11. 44c-Gregg Carner [20], 12. 91f-Bobby Flood [19]; 13. 16L-Jean-Pierre Labelle Jr. [18]; 14. 81-Luke Klob [16]; 15. 37-Darryl Mitchell [24]; 16. 75-AJ Custodi [21]; 17. 10%-Timothy Hartman Jr. [2]; 18. 60-Jackson Gill [18]; 19. 21g-Adam Gage [9]; 20. 17t-Tristan Draper [13]; 21. 34L-Patrick LaPage; 22. 86-Matt Steffenhagen [DNS]; 23. 15p-Adam Pierson [DNS]; 24. 68-David Dipietro II [DNS]
Sportsman Futures Race 2 – (15 Laps) – 1. 7f-Matt Farnham [2]; 2. 9x-Tyler Trump [1]; 3. 713-Tom Collins Jr. [6]; 4. 74-David Flannigan [4]; 5. 88h-Mike Jackson [7]; 6. 9r-Tom Richau Jr. [3]; 7. 92ny- Brandon Carvey [11]; 8. 99-Bill Clark [5]; 9. 33j-Jason Occino [8]; 10. 22j-Stacy Jackson [9]; 11. 85-Steve Abt [13]; 12. 6d- Dillon Steuer [12]; 13. 98T- Tyler Thompson [16]; 14. 73-Kevin Chaffer [23]; 15.16-Mike Schultz [15]; 16. 48d-Aaron Backus [10]; 17. 11s-Steve Lewis Jr. [21]; 18. F16-Earl Rudy [24]; 19. 352-Fred Proctor [17]; 20. 29k-Chris Cunningham [20]; 21. 22-Jeff Watson [14]; 22. 56-Garrison Krentz [18]
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