Zych, S. Bigelow Conquer King of Wings Night at Oswego Speedway
The Northeastern Midget Association made its highly anticipated return to Oswego Speedway this past Saturday evening, for the King of Wings VII race along with the ISMA Super Modifieds. A packed house was in order by the time the features rolled off, and the action was as hot as the midsummer day’s weather. When the checkered flags flew, it was John Zych Jr. taking down the NEMA portion of the show and Scott Bigelow taking down the Lites portion of the show.
In the NEMA event, Randy Cabral set quick time in the time trial portion of the event with a lap of 16.8 seconds. By virtue of an invert draw, Cabral would start sixth in the feature, and Todd Bertrand, an impressive heat winner would start on the front row along with young gun Avery Stoehr. At the drop of the green, Bertrand rocketed out into the lead. He would open up a large lead in the early stages of the event, but before the caution flew on lap twelve, Stoehr had cut Bertrand’s lead to eight car lengths.
When the green flag flew on the next restart, Stoehr rocketed into the lead, with Bertrand beginning to fade, with what was later discovered to be a flat right rear tire. Joey Payne Jr. in the Bertrand Motorsports #74 quickly moved into the runner up spot. On the next restart, John Zych Jr. who was slicing his way through the field, had moved into the fourth spot, behind Cabral, Payne and Stoehr. Within two laps, Zych made a power move into the lead on the outside, and Stoehr’s machine would come to a stop exiting turn four with a broken throttle arm.
On the restart, Zych and Payne drag raced down the front stretch with Zych beating Payne down into the first turn. Two additional cautions would fly for spins by Bethany Stoehr, setting up a three lap single file shootout between Zych, Payne and Cabral. Zych again rocketed into the lead, turning the fastest lap of the day – a 16.5 second lap, and would take down the win over Payne, Cabral, Danny Cugini – who had an impressive run from the rear of the field, and Seth Carlson. Jim Chambers, Bertrand, Michael Barnes, Paul Scally and Alan Chambers rounded out the top ten.
“I was playing with the weight jacker in the early stages of the race, searching for something that would work,” said Zych. “Also, running in a pack, I could not run the line I knew would be the fastest line. Once I got open track in front of me, I was really able to keep the momentum up,” he said.
“This is a race track I’ve always wanted to win at. In my opinion, it’s the best in short track racing – very professional track crew, great facility, and awesome social media presence. My Dad has been coming here since the 1960’s, and we’ve been coming here since I can remember for the Classic. This, to me, is like winning at Indianapolis, in terms of short track racing,” said an elated Zych.
In the Lites portion of the show, last year’s winner, Scott Bigelow, started in the third position. Bigelow rocketed into the lead in the early stages of the race. Bigelow, who is becoming known as a master of the “big tracks” (1/2 mile or bigger), showed that again on Saturday night.
Points leader, Danny Cugini, put forth a very solid run to finish second, but was not able to catch Bigelow. They were followed by Anthony Payne, who continues to impress week in and week out, ISMA standout Jeff Locke in the Locke Family #38 and Randy Cabral in his family owned #35. Cabral also had the quick time in time trials for the Lites class.
“Our car wasn’t great in practice,” said Bigelow. “We made some big adjustments for the feature, and the car just kept getting better and better on the long runs,” he said. “I’ve got to thank my wife Melissa, and give hats off to my brother, Paul, it was great running side by side,” he said.
NEMA returns to action this weekend for the Marvin Rifchin Memorial at LEE USA Speedway and on Saturday night for the Jim O’Brien Memorial race at White Mountain Motorsports Park.
Sources: Tim Bertrand/NEMA PR