OSWEGO, NY — Mike Lichty is certainly making it a habit to win at the Oswego Speedway.

For the second time in three years, the Innerkip, Ontario native unloaded a lightning-fast PATCO Transportation-sponsored supermodified and proceeded to school the entire ISMA field in the quick way around the five-eighths mile New York oval. After setting the new all-time track record at 15.019 seconds (formerly 15.125 by Jason Cox in a Must See Racing sprint car), Lichty quickly worked his way up from the fifth starting position and took the lead on Lap 12 of 50, never to relinquish it the rest of the way.

“This was a helluva run,” Mike said following the race. “I love coming to this place. We won this race two years ago. The car was just on rails tonight. We’ve been quick all year here, but we just haven’t had the finishes at this place. We really put it to them two weeks ago at Stafford. The car was phenomenal and to come back here and run 15.0’s is great. I really wanted to make it into the 14.9s. I really have to thank everybody on this team. They work so hard. They give me a great car. Thanks to everybody at Reed’s Salvage, my father with Patco Transportation. This is Deanna’s first time at the track when we’ve won. Usually she’s bad luck but we won. I think she’s turning it around. I have to thank my beautiful girlfriend Raven, Dickie, Ryan, Zach at the shop, just everybody who puts in the effort on these cars. They work awesome and it shows. Level Performance makes good horsepower. And, I just can’t thank the fans enough.”

When asked about the dominance of the car, Lichty added, “The one two years ago was good, but this car was so consistently fast it was better by far.”

Hear the winner’s interview with Speed 77 Radio/RaceChaser Online correspondent Jacob Seelman  Lichty VL

Dave Shullick, Jr. finished second after starting twelfth, but had nothing for Lichty in the final laps.

Hear DJ’s interview here Shullick 2nd

“This is the third race we’ve had on this car. We won last week at Sandusky. We qualified second today and we were just going to take what it gave us. To start 12th and come away with a second is something. I know there was some attrition there, but hats off to Mikey. He had a good run and a good car. I’d like to thank Kevin and Kim Enders for their support, Elios Financial Group and Jim Bodnar for building a hell of a piece. I’m just the guy who gets to turn the steering wheel. Thanks to my dad, Coco and everybody who works on the car and makes it happen for us. This car has some different characteristics. A lot of cars were slowing down at the end but this car actually seemed to pickup a little bit. I don’t think on the last restart that we had anything for Mikey. It was a good run for us and we are happy. It was a good run for us and we are anxious to head to Sandusky’s Hy-Miler in two weeks.”

When asked about Lichty, the second-generation racer chuckled and said simply, “He had us all covered.”

Ben Seitz, Tim Ice and and Jeff Locke completed the top five.

Jacob Seelman caught up to Ben Seitz and the interview is here Seitz 3rd

The race featured a packed house of 33 supermodifieds trying to make the 28-car field, but the quickest among them in practice, Jon McKennedy’s #79, was unable to turn a lap in time trials because of a motor issue. Gary Morton’s #70 with Dave McKnight behind the wheel was late to the track, having to start dead last in his heat race and the later consolation event.

Three heat races and the consi later, 28 cars rolled onto the track for the main event, which was slowed early by two yellows in the first 6 laps, one of which was for Lou Cicconi. A later-diagnosed ignition problem was the cause of the 71′s early exit.

On that second restart, polesitter Tim Ice again jumped to the lead but was overhauled on Lap 12 by Lichty, who never relinquished the lead the remainder of the race, though several cautions bunched the field back up.

Those three cautions; one at Lap 30 for the 61 of Ray Graham; a shocking Lap 40 caution that saw the exit of 8-time ISMA Oswego winner Chris Perley; and the final caution at Lap 49 for Kody Graham’s hard crash in Turn 2; gave the field several chances to steal the throne. However, even on a green-white checkered finish that pushed the feature one lap past its 50-lap scheduled distance, Mike Lichty would not be denied the king’s crown once again at Oswego.

And there was no one else Saturday night who could even come close to staking a claim to the glory.

Jacob Seelman, Speed77 Radio

PHOTO CREDIT: Jim Feeney

ISMA King of Wings 50 at Oswego Speedway Results:

TIME TRIALS

1. 84 – Mike Lichty: 15.019 NTR, 2. 94 – Dave Shullick Jr.: 15.154, 3. 71 – Lou Cicconi: 15.213, 4. 11 – Chris Perley: 15.322, 5. 17 – Ben Seitz: 15.336, 6. 65 – Tim Ice: 15.433, 7. 61 – Ray Graham: 15.447, 8. 37 – Jeff Locke: 15.567, 9. 27 – Kody Graham: 15.589, 10. 8 – Moe Lilje: 15.603, 11. 16 – Dave Gruel: 15.776, 12. 78 – Mark Sammut: 15.782, 13. 21 – Ed Witkum Jr.: 15.785, 14. 39 – Alison Cumens: 15.818, 15. 48 – Johnny Benson: 15.829, 16. 97 – Dan Lane: 15.880, 17. 32 – Tim Jedrzejek: 15.896, 18. 74 – Rob Summers: 15.924, 19. 64 – Jim Paller: 16.011, 20. 40 – Bobby Magner, 21. 01 – Dan Connors Jr.: 16.029, 22. 22 – Mike McVetta: 16.083, 23. 25 – Dan Bowes: 16.135, 24. 28D – Bobby Dawson: 16.186, 25. 72 – Danny Shirey: 16.232, 26. 55 – Mike Keeler: 16.295, 27. 02 – Brandon Bellinger: 16.472, 28. 51 – Dave Duggan: 16.504, 29. 24 – Jerry Curran: 16.608, 30. 83 – Lou LeVea Jr.: 17.008, 31. 96 – Lou LeVea Sr.: 17.319

HEATS

1st Heat (10-laps/6-Qualify): 1. 71 – Lou Cicconi, 2. 27 – Kody Graham, 3. 78 – Mark Sammut, 4.65 – Tim Ice, 5. 21 – Ed Witkum Jr., 6. 97 – Dan Lane, 7. 64 – Jim Paller, 8. 22 – Mike McVetta, 9. 72 – Danny Shirey, 10. 51 – Dave Duggan, 11. 96 – Lou LeVea Sr.

2nd Heat (10-laps/6-Qualify): 1. 37 – Jeff Locke, 2. 94 – Dave Shullick Jr., 3. 17 – Ben Seitz, 4. 16 – Dave Gruel, 5. 32 – Tim Jedrzejek, 6. 39 – Alison Cumens, 7. 25 – Dan Bowes, 8. 40 – Bobby Magner, 9. 55 – Mike Keeler, 10. 24 – Jerry Curran

3rd Heat (10-laps/6-Qualify): 1. 8 – Moe Lilje, 2 .61 – Ray Graham, 3. 11 – Chris Perley, 4. 84 – Mike Lichty, 5. 48 – Johnny Benson, 6. 74 – Rob Summers, 7. 01 – Dan Connors Jr., 8. 28D – Bobby Dawson, 9. 02 – Brandon Bellinger, 10. 83 – Lou LeVea Jr., 11. 70 – Dave McKnight

CONSI

(10-laps, 8-Qualify): 1. 64 – Jim Paller, 2. 25 – Dan Bowes, 3. 22 – Mike McVetta, 4. 40 – Bobby Magner, 5. 28D – Bobby Dawson, 6. 55 – Mike Keeler, 7. 02 – Brandon Bellinger, 8. 72 – Danny Shirey, 9. 51 – Dave Duggan, 10. 24 – Jerry Curran, 11. 83 – Lou LeVea Jr., 12. 96 – Lou LeVea Sr., 13. 01 – Dan Connors Jr., 14. 70 – Dave McKnight

FEATURE

(50-laps**): 1. 84-Mike Lichty, 2. 94-Dave Shullick Jr, 3. 17-Ben Seitz, 4. 65-Tim Ice, 5. 37-Jeff Locke, 6. 21-Ed Witkum Jr, 7. 48-Johnny Benson, 8. 74-Rob Summers, 9. 39-Alison Cumens, 10. 78-Mark Sammut, 11. 55-Mike Keeler, 12. 25-Dan Bowes, 13. 27-Kody Graham, 14. 72-Danny Shirey, 15. 97-Dan Lane, 16. 16-Dave Gruel, 17. 11-Chris Perley, 18. 64-Jim Paller, 19. 61-Ray Graham 20. 32-Tim Jedrzejek, 21. 28D-Bobby Dawson, 22. 40-Bob Magner, 23. 24-Jerry Curran, 24. 8-Moe Lilje, 25. 02-Brandon Bellinger, 26. 71-Lou Cicconi, 27. 22-Mike McVetta, 28. 51-Dave Duggan

** – extended to 51 laps due to a green-white-checkered finish