8/18/2006 – Wes “Ogre” Stevens wins the 1st ever Oswego Speedway (Kartway) 40-Lap Feature at in History in the mixed-motor Gas Stock Kart Division!
Oswego Speedway Mixed-Class Super Yard Kart Dirt Track:
Friday, August 18th, 2006 (One 20-lap Heat and 40-lap Feature)
The mixed-class exhibition at Oswego Speedway last Friday was an unusual one, as the clay surface was seriously rutted up in portions and nearly all of the expensive methanol “racing” go-kart classes wussed out. They simply do not have the ground clearance to tolerate even a few bumps! Not really worth all that, is it? Especially when our gas stockers go less than 1 second slower on the same track for less than half their cost! Well, whatever. This left the mixed class (which consists of our Galletta’s Kart Club’s stock 5hp class and a mixed OHV Outlawed class as one of the only classes willing to navigate the bumpy track. The fact that we all run modified yard karts (with more ground clearance than your average T1 methanol chassis), this kind of a surface wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. Getting the benefit, we ran a longer heat and a 40-lap feature! The 40-lap race was a fun event to behold, and a grueling one to participate in, as the field shuffled a great deal from start to finish thanks to the ruts and jumps that made the fastest groove harder to find.
As the picture shows, Wesley James “TrOgre” Stevens (in the Galletta’s#4) got the win, shown above with a batch of defeated foes behind him. Ogre inherited the lead when Mike Billion (OHV #57) flipped on top of pole-sitter Matt Stevens (Galletta’s #3) while going for the lead. The two battled back and forth throughout and worked their way back up. In fact, Mike flipped his kart two times during the event, which probably cost him a win. Ogre went unchallenged for most of the event, as a distant second was Brian Bortel (#15). Eric Raponi and his twice-as-large-as-everybody-else-OHV-powered-#83 kart spent most of the race in 3rd, but on the last lap, he got loose and it enabled Matt Stevens (#3) to get him for 3rd, and Chris Stevens (in the Galletta’s #7 because his Galletta’s #8 had a gummed up carb) to tie him for 4th. Chris now has three ties in three weeks of go-kart racing, which is an anomaly in terms of statistical probability. Mark Miller (OHV #00) and Mike Billion were right there behind them in a competitive bumper-to-bumper race.
NOTE: We didn’t video-record this event and only have pictures like above. However, we know at least one person who raced in it had a family member who did. We offer cash and/or free kart rentals to anyone with video to races that our club participated in that we don’t have on this website so that we can include it on our site. Thank you! Contact Chris if you have any!
(LEFT) Chris Stevens won the August 4th feature there, and (RIGHT) Matt Stevens won the August 11th feature to make it son, son, father wins in the last three weeks at Oswego Speedway. However, Oswego races don’t count towards our regular points standings. Now for this Sunday’s race, next…
