Keysor Squeaks Out Second Straight Mid-Season Championship

Brad Keysor Wins Feature, Takes Mid-Season Crown by One Point

January 24, 2023 – Oswego, NY…There were a plethora of points available to win and lose in the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), Gold Crest Wing Supermodified Mid-Season Championship XIX, Tuesday January 24 at Oswego Speedway, and after a frantic night of close racing, and plenty of calculated risk taking, Brad Keysor claimed his second straight Mid-Season Championship crown. It was the third time the Liverpool, NY driver won the Mid-Season Championship, and with it the 15 bonus points that are added to the season championship total.

Thankful to Pull Off Win

“The tires were toast, the fuel was burned off, and the car wanted to go faster, but it couldn’t because there wasn’t anything left,” he said. “I had a horrible entry into turn three on the last lap and Dave got under me. I’ll be honest, I squeezed him down to the finish and we hit and he crashed.”

Keysor is the first driver since Rob Warren in 2018 to pull off a back to back Mid-Season Championship, and the irony of the moment wasn’t lost on him. “In the big picture though, my heart still goes out to Rob and his family on the loss of Rob’s father,” he said. “I’ve known Rob since I was a kid, and we grew up together at Oswego, so to break his track record, and win an event that he was so good at is special to me.”

“Thanks to Rob’s 1^st to Finish Race Servers, they were flawless tonight with a good field of cars, and also Icings on Top. We’ve got a great race going for the Icings on Top Rookie of the Year Award, Eric, (Merkley), had a great finish in just his fourth start, and Daniel is fast. Of course BreezeGraphics.com, and Hairbag Studios for broadcasting the race tonight, and BMK Logistics and Chasing cameras for letting me do this.”

Keysor had several close calls, the closest when Bobby Hayduk slowed drastically in turn three then got blasted by rookie Eric Merkley who couldn’t get slowed down in time. Hayduk shot across the track after the hit from behind and crossed in front of Keysor then bounced off the wall after losing a wheel and nearly collected Ohh as well.

“That was a close one,” the BMK Lgostics driver exclaimed. It seemed like Bobby slowed or hit the hub rail then Eric got him and I don’t know how we missed it.”

Strategy Pays Off

Well aware of some crafty finagling by his closest rival in the points chase, Dave Ohh, as well as Crazy Canuck winner Zach Sears, who both worked some unique angles to gather as many points as they could, Keysor stuck to his strategy of going as fast as he could all night long.

“I really went after it tonight,” he said. “I knew what they were going to do, and let’s be honest, the played that card and took a big risk trying to get through the field for passing points.” Keysor was speaking of the two aforementioned drivers who were clearly driving slower than normal in the preliminary events just to get a starting spot further back in the field while hoping to pass the most cars, and gain the most points with the special scoring system that was in place for this event.

“I stuck to my strategy, I wanted the fast time, I didn’t know if I could get the track record, and I do know that Dave was going after it too, so I think when he didn’t get, it he did what he could to get as many passing points as he could. I don’t know if Dave could have passed me, or me him, you have to be so much faster here at Oswego to make a pass stick

My goal was to start up front and make them work to catch me. An inch here or there and they both would have been out of the race. Zach when Daniel crashed before the first lap was complete, and Dave when Nelson smacked the wall in the backstretch just as Dave was going to the outside to pass me back. It was a huge points night and I’m just trying to nickle and dime Dave and chip away at the championship.”

Keysor Breaks Track Record, Hayduk Drops Stick But Wins

Earlier in the night, Brad Keysor broke Rob Warren’s five year old track record. Keysor narrowly eclipsed Warren’s record of 15.711 with a time of 15.708.

After dropping his flag stick and calling a caution when he saw a pit board flash up on his screen, Assistant Race Director Bobby Hayduk, gathered his wits and then, picked up the first Oswego checkered flag of his career when he won the first qualifying heat race. Hayduk, a retired supermodified flag man took plenty of razzing from his fellow SUPRS competitors, but was smiling through the blush causing incident.

Steven Vincent had no such problems and led from the drop of the green flag of the second heat and won it by a large margin.

Anthony Corsoniti held off Keysor in the BMK Logistics Fast Car Dash which gave him the best seat in the house for the start of the 75 lap feature.

Short Break Then Speedweeks

The SUPRS racers have been at it hot and heavy since the dawn of the new year, but now they’ll get a short break. There will be no racing next week to give everyone a chance to get rested up for the first full week of February.

Five fast nights of supermodified sim racing fun await the competitors when they return from their break to embark on the “Gator Grind” of the 2023 SUPRS Florida Speedweeks. The grueling multi-night swing begins Monday February 6, and runs through Friday, February 10 and there’s nothing else like it in sim racing.

This week-long trek through the Sunshine State visits five tracks in five nights with points adding up all week long while drivers aim for the SUPRS Florida Speedweeks crown.

Hot laps get underway each night at 8pm ET with feature racing slated to take the green flag at 8:30. While there will be no official live video stream of this year’s SUPRS Florida Speedweeks, fans can still tune in each night for live scoring and timing along with stats and track telemetry via SUPRS LIVE! at www.SUPRS.net/site/live.