MATT HIRSCHMAN DOMINATES DART RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR OPENER AT OSWEGO
BY JR KENNERUP ( RoC MEDIA )
Oswego, NY ... Second generation driver Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pennsylvania finally got his first career Oswego Speedway feature win on Sunday afternoon. Hirschman who drew the pole in the pre – feature lottery drawing led all 75 laps in the Coca – Cola / Parts Plus sponsored event.
Hirschman was never seriously challenged throughout the entire feature as he was on a Sunday afternoon drive to the $2,800 win. Billy Putney chased Hirschman for all 75 laps from his third place starting position but didn’t have enough and settled for second. Defending race winner Lee Sherwood who started second drove another consistent Oswego race to finish third. Fifth place starter Zane Zeiner ended up fourth while defending Race of Champions overall champion from last year Earl Paules ended up fifth after starting fourth.
“ It’s a good feeling to be here on the victory podium as a race winner at Oswego “ said the happy winner. “ I came here a lot in the late 1980’s and saw my dad win a bunch of big races here. So there are a bunch of good memories for our family here and I’m glad that I could get my first here today. This place I consider my favorite track as its fun to race on. You really want to do well here and if you don’t you’re disappointed. “
Matt spoke about the most important part of the day. “ The luck of the draw is what it is. A lot of times luck is overused in racing but when it comes to just drawing numbers I don’t know what else you could call it. Luck helped today with the way the track was and the short distance of the race. Next time it will be a whole different situation here as we’ll be racing at night and there will be more rubber on the track than there was today. “
Matt each time when a start occurred brought the field down at a slow pace despite being asked by RoC officials to pick the pace up. “ Probably why I bring them down slow is because on the Whelen Modified Tour where I race the restarts are so different than what they want here. I’m use to that kind of start and restart now and I’m not trying to do anything not to please the officials. I think I’m just use to that and here they want you to roll into the start and on the last one I think I did a better job of that. You want to accelerate as hard as you can when the green comes out and get a couple of car lengths which really helps you out with a single file start. “
Matt spoke about the performance of his car on this afternoon. “ This car and I have a pretty good understanding of what I need and it’s working well. Last year I had two seconds with it here and a win today in the first time out this year. If we had to start further back today I don’t think we could have won it. It looked liked we were probably more than what we actually were. Because nobody could just get any free space and a clean race track and like I said it will be a different place in two weeks. “
“ It was unfortunate that it wasn’t very exciting for the fans to watch and that’s the luck of a draw. If you have a good car and draw upfront you have to take advantage of it, as next time here you could draw 12th. It’s such a short race that pit stops didn’t come into play today. When we come here in two weeks with a 100 lapper hopefully it will be a much better show for the fans. “
“ Laps and starting position is what dictates your strategy “ answered Matt when asked about the race distance. “ You never really know what type of race it is going to be until you find out where you’re going to start. Usually pit stops are an advantage here as last year the top two cars both pitted late for tires. But today I don’t think anyone ( one driver did ) pit during the race for tires. Today the track was totally different from last year, I know it’s early in the season and next time the racing will be better here. “
“ We’re happy with a clean second place finish “ said the East Aurora, NY driver. “ Matt Hirschman had us all covered today as he had a great car and he was a little overdue for his first win here at Oswego. “
Billy started to reel in Hirschman just past the three quarters mark of the race to which Billy remarked. “ With 20 to go we started to close in on him and when he saw me he just turned up the wick and opened the lead back up to where it was before. I think he was sitting pretty with a great handling racecar and he had us covered tonight. “
Putney had one final shot at Hirschman with a restart taking place with seven laps to go. “ It seemed like I could hang with Matt for a couple of laps on the previous restart. I thought if I could stay close and Matt made a rare mistake I might have a chance to get by him. But on that start his tires stuck and mine lit up and I was all over the place, we’re happy we didn’t wad up a while bunch of cars when that happened. “
“ I was hoping to be a couple of spots farther forward than where we finished “ said Lee Sherwood of Hillcrest, NY. “ Matt got a pretty good start on the original start and Billy got under me before we got into turn one and I just dropped in line because it was pretty hard passing out there today as the outside was pretty slick. “
Sherwood continued his success of top three finishes at Oswego. “ The race track was pretty tough today as there was no outside because it was the first race of the year here. “
Lee spoke about the most important part of the race. “ If you didn’t get a good start or didn’t draw a good number you were pretty much in trouble today. “
Qualifying for the 22 Modifieds in attendance saw heat races won by Daren Scherer, Putney, and Rusty Smith.
STEEL PALACE NOTES; Despite the sunshine a cold wind from the north kept it chilly all afternoon. Andy Szapacs clipped the outside turn three wall in hot laps and he and his crew got the car repaired in time for the heats. Rusty Smith missed the first session of hot laps due to having a shim taken out of the clutch. Rick Zacharias drove the former Ryerse Racing car that saw Chuck Hossfeld drive it last year at Spencer, the car was recently purchased by Zacharias Racing. Matt Clemens drove the second John Markovic owned car on this day. Former dirt Modified, Sportsman and asphalt Super Modified and Limited Super driver Vern LaFave made his Modified debut on this day. Tom Kinsella practiced the day before at the track but failed to show on this day. Tour regular Rick Kluth had engine problems at home while loading the car and didn’t make the trip. Erick Rudolph and Brian DeFebo were both disqualified from their respective heat races for not running an approved RoC Hoosier tire on the left front.
RACE REPORT
DART RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR CENTRAL REGION RACE # 1
FINISH; Matt Hirschman, Billy Putney, Lee Sherwood, Zane Zeiner, Earl Paules, Eric Beers, Rick Zacharias, Bill Hebing, Phil Slater, John Markovic, Pete Brittain, Erick Rudolph, Rusty Smith, Daren Scherer, Bobby Holmes, Vern LaFave, Doug Reaume, Andy Szapacs, Chris Zacharias, Brian DeFebo, Ken Canestrari, Matt Clemens.
LAP LEADERS; Hirschman ( 1 – 75 )
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Rudolph ( 21st to 12th )
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; LaFave ( 7th to 16th )
GATER RACING NEWS DRIVER BONUS DRAW $ 500; Beers
DART MACHINERY SET OF HEADS $ 1,100 VALUE; Reaume
NEXT DART RoC ASPHALT RACE; Saturday May 26th Richie Evans Memorial 100 @ Oswego Combined Race #1