June 15, 2021 – Oswego, NY…They saying being lucky is better than being good. Ryan Cloonan was good at being lucky, and won the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), 16th Annual Jim Shampine Memorial 80 lap rFactor feature event Tuesday night at Oswego Speedway. After a massive save in turn four while running in the top three, he fell to to seventh place, lucky that he didn’t wreck his Simibility sponsored supermodified.
He then methodically, and skillfully, worked his way back to the third place, showing just how good he is behind the wheel of the “Ultimate Short Track Race Car. The Oswego, NY driver was in the right place at the right time with two laps to go when he watched the top two take each other out of contention, inherited the lead, and led the last two laps, holding off three-time Shampine winner Rob Warren, en route to winning his first SUPRS points paying show. Lucky and good.
Warren, in the 1st to Finish Race Servers “Rocket Roadster,” ended up second, and on the podium for the fifth time in as many years. Keith Powell played the long game, keeping his Icings on Top “Mayfield Missile” clean while dodging several big accidents. He also kept his points championship hopes alive with a fine third place finish.
To the Front, and Back to the Front
Cloonan had a memorable night, and several close calls. He charged toward the front of the pack and quickly found himself battling with the top three after starting sixth. By lap 24 he had muscled his way into second place passing Rob Warren, Keith Powell, and Brad Keysor. Suddenly his car started to swap ends between turns three and four along about lap 34, and made contact with Keysor then the inside hub rail. “I don’t know, if that inside wall wasn’t there to help straighten me out, I would have had a much worse outcome than I did,” said Cloonan.
After recovering from the the near spin, the Simibility sponsored driver, used the next 25 laps of a long green flag run that totaled 59 circuits overall, to methodically claw his way back into contention. He had put himself back into third place when the top two touched, which took Keysor out of the race, and sent Ohh to the tail for contact.
Hayduk Happy to Finish
Bobby Hayduk has seen his share of struggles just trying to get to the finish line and for a guy that admittedly “doesn’t know much about computers,” his sim racing success has been slow coming. But after some spirited battles with Anthony Corsoniti and Gary Waldron, Hayduk was happy to finish the race and ended up being the last car running. “I just wanted to finish the race,” said Hayduk.
In so doing the American Diabetes sponsored driver received a custom made decal by BreezeGraphics.com for finishing in eighth place. “Finishing was the goal and to finish in eighth place and get this award from BreezeGraphics.com means a lot. I’m going to frame this decal of Jim Shampine and hang it on my wall.”
Other Notes
Fourteen drivers made the call to the green at “The Home of the Supermodifieds” for the 80 lap feature, the most since 2012. Ryan Cloonan, and rookies Anthony Corsoniti and Greg Breen, made their very first SUPRS Shampine Memorial start. Nelson Rodrigues won the carnage filled 12 lap B-Main over Carl Becker, who was the last man standing after the rest of the field crashed or had received the black flag. Dave Ohh won the SUPRSCharger for advancing the most places from where he started and garnered 10 bonus points
Bunten Impressed
The Englishman stayed up past 3am his time to be a part of the show and was impressed with what he saw and heard as part of the evening’s festivities. “This community is awesome,” he said. “It’s very unique and after chatting with some of the drivers before this race, they’ve been in the league since 2004.” Bunten went on to say, “I can’t say that I’ve been sim racing for 17 years, and I haven’t heard of any community that’s been going longer, I think it’s pretty cool.”
Bunten got the idea for Grid Finder while searching for a sim racing league to join. After looking through multiple sim racing sites thinking one or the other may be what he was looking for, he often discovered that it was in the wrong time zone, or the league used a console, (Xbox, PlayStation), and not a PC. He knew things could be better.
“The best ideas are the simplest,” he stated. “I figured why isn’t there a list of leagues where you can filter your requirements ,and find the leagues that are exactly what you are looking for?” Bunten quickly discovered that he wasn’t the only person looking for a better method to finding a place to race. “I started it with the aim of having 15-20 Formula 1 leagues on my little website. By Christmas we had over 600, and now, (June 2021), we have over 1300 leagues listed on it.”
“It’s growing at a crazy rate. I’m just quite lucky that nobody else thought to do it,” he said. Listen to entire interview on SUPRS YouTube Channel HERE and find your place on the grid at www.Grid-Finder.com.
Bunten stuck around after the interview to then give the command for drivers to take to the grid.
On the Road to Nashville and Music City
Next week on June 22, the drivers of the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, take a week off from Oswego Speedway and go on the road as they head south with their non-wing supermodifieds to Music City Speedway for the first time ever. This fictional track is based on the famous Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway that can date it’s roots all the way back to 1904 as a horse track and is home to the All-American 400.
The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway has seen the likes of greats like Darrell Waltrip, Red Farmer, and Coo Coo Marlin call the track home. Now this year the fantastic drivers of the newly formed Superstar Racing Experience, (SRX), including 4-Time Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Winner Helio Castroneves, 16-Time NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award winner and two-time Daytona 500 winner, Bill Elliot will add to the storied lore of the old track when they make their appearance there on Saturday July 17, 2021.
An extended practice session for the Fairgrounds 45 begins at 8:00pm. Drivers meeting is at 8:45pm and racing is set to start at 9:05pm with the first of two 10 lap heat races. The 45 lap feature on the iconic 0.596 mile with 18 degree banking, is scheduled to take the green flag at approximately 9:20pm.
Full details for the next race are on the SUPRS Schedule. SUPRS members should check the Forums for the latest info on server times and passwords.
Join Us in Nashville
You’re invited to join SUPRS on June 22, 2021 for the “Fairgrounds 45” in Nashville at Music City Speedway on SUPRS LIVE! It’s a great way for everyone to keep up with their favorite SUPRS driver while enjoying live streaming video, track telemetry and scoring and timing.
For fans that have a Twitch.tv account, the SUPRS Chat is a great place to make new friends, talk sim racing, or real supermodified racing and enjoy the broadcast all on one page!
Those that miss the live show can see the full length, on-demand replay which is available on the SUPRS Twitch channel for up to 14 days. The highlighted, and edited, version of all previosly aired live broadcasts are uploaded to the SUPRS YouTube Channel within 72 hours of each event.
Increase Your Social Status
Join SUPRS active and vibrant Social Media channels by “Liking” SUPRS on Facebook, Following @SUPRSOnline on Twitter, enjoying our Instagram account, and viewing SUPRS videos on YouTube. See us live and join our chat on Twitch. Learn more about the supermodified division and the original supermodified sim racing sanction, the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, by visiting www.SUPRS.net.
SUPRS RACE RESULTS:
- SUPRS 16th Annual Jim Shampine Memorial
- June 16, 2020
- Oswego Speedway
- Oswego, NY
- Race 3 of 13
- SUPRS rFactor NW v1.3 mod
Supermodified Time Trials – 2 Laps (showing time trial result, car number, driver name, hometown, sponsors, fastest lap highlighted)
- 13-Ryan Cloonan; Oswego, NY; Simability: 16.162, 15.900
- 3-Brad Keysor; Liverpool, NY; Southern Hills Storm Football, Justice League: 16.435, 15.907
- 35-Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY; 1st to Finish Race Servers, Syracuse Time & Alarm: 15.936, 16.147
- 41-Keith Powell; Crestline, OH; Icings on Top, CPR Motorsports: 16.194, 16.087
- 25-Bob Gangwer; B&G Racing Photos, RW Woodworking: 16.527, 16.195
- 26-Greg Breen(R); Liverpool, NY; No Sponsors: 16:539, 16.289
- 12-Anthony Corsoniti(R); N. Syracuse, NY; T’s Forecast: 16.839, 16.307
- 14-Bobby Hayduk; Brook Park, OH; American Heart Assoc., American Diabetes Assoc.: 16.698, 16.391
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues; Stoneham, MA; Star Speedway, 714 Racing: 16.473, 16.455
- 10-Gary Waldron; Wyoming, MI; Kenowa Auto Supply, Michigan Hill Gang: 16.475, 16.519
- 56-Dick Schuler; Chisago City, MN; Gubby Beer, Schu Racing: 16.544, 16.813
- 08-Danny Ray; Goshen, IN; Smokie Bone’s Downhome Kitchen, White Lightening Transportation: 16.823, 16.770
- 42-Carl Becker; Lansing, MI; Wholesale Diamond Exchange, Michigan Hill Gang: 17.900, 17.231
- 11-Dave Ohh; Union, CT; TMS Wolfpack: 17.688, 21.388
- 28-Steven Vincent; Cicero, NY; Creative Assistant: NT
B-Main 12 Laps (showing finishing position, car number, driver name, result)
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues
- 42-Carl Becker (+1.976)
- 08-Danny Ray (Accident)
- 11-Dave Ohh (DNF)
- 56-Dick Schuler (Accident)
- 10-Gary Waldron (Accident)
- 28-Steven Vincent (DNS)
Time of Race: 06:37.530
Feature 80 Laps (showing car number, driver name, starting place, bonus, fastest lap, distance behind winner/result)
- 13-Ryan Cloonan; P6 | * |
- 35-Rob Warren; P2 | * | 16.411 | +1.826
- 41-Keith Powell; P4 | 17.216 | DNF Accident
- 11-Dave Ohh; P12 | ⇑ | * | ** | 16.459 | +3 Laps
- 25-Bob Gangwer; P6 | 16.301 | +4 Laps
- 12-Anthony Corsoniti(R); P7 | 16.301 | +4 Laps
- 3-Brad Keysor; P3 | ! | * | 15.770 | +1 Lap
- 14-Bobby Hayduk; P1 | 17.871 | +2 Laps
- 10-Gary Waldron; P14 | 16.972 | DNF (Black Flag-improper pit procedure)
- 42-Carl Becker; P10 | 16.877 | DNF (Accident)
- 08-Danny Ray; P11 | 16.933 | DNF (Accident)
- 56-Dick Schuler; P13 | 18.197 | DNF (Accident)
- 7-Nelson Rodrigues; P10 | 18.197 | (Suspension failure)
- 26-Greg Breen(R); P8 | 18.197 | DNF (Accident)
- 28-Steven Vincent; DNS
Time of Race: 34:01.867
- * Denotes Lap Led
- ** Denotes Most Laps Led
- ! Denotes Fastest Lap of Race
- ⇑ Denotes SUPRSCharger
- (R) Denotes Rookie
- DNF=Did Not Finish
- DNS=Did Not Start
RACE NOTES:
- Three drivers made their very first Jim Shampine Memorial Start
- There were four caution periods for a total of 18 laps
- There were seven lead changes amongst four dirvers
- Lap Leader Totals: Dave Ohh-35, Rob Warren-25, Brad Keysor-18, Ryan Cloonan-2
- The longest green flag stretch was 58 laps
- Keith Powell and Dave Ohh had the lowest incident ratings-0
- Danny Ray had the highest incident rating-13
- Gary Waldron had the best lap time consistency at 62.98%
- Brad Keysor had the fastest lap of the race at 15.770 seconds
- Keith Powell recorded the fastest speed during the race of 165.2 mph
