OSWEGO, NY — Oct. 4, 2017 — The Super DIRTcar Series got on the 5/8th-mile clay-oval at Oswego Speedway for the first official time during the 46th annual NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week. While the first practice was scheduled for an hour, 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. 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:
[The 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” said Matt Sheppard “It looks like they did a good job putting the clay down, we’ll just see what the week brings.
NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week continues Thursday, Oct. 5 with inspection for all divisions at 8 a.m. followed by practice 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. For more information visit SuperDIRTWeek.com.
