Battles Myles Maxon Entire 200 Lap Distance, Seals Bid for 2013 Championship with Win
Oswego, NY – August 21, 2013…It what is sure to go down as one of the all-time epic battles in the nine year history of the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, Ray Sand, Jr. held off a hard charging Myles Maxon and Rob Warren to claim an unprecedented third straight victory in the Topless! 200.
Starting from the pole position after setting a new track record of 16.056, Sand, Jr. took his SandmanRacing.com number 18 to the front of the pack, relinquishing the lead only once to Maxon. “First of all, as Myles has said all week, this is fun, but we need to remember the important things in life and I’d like to dedicate this win to Justin Lamb who lost his life this week. Everyone in the Oswego Speedway racing community is at a loss for words and I just want us all to stop and think about how quickly we can lose those we care about,” Sand said.
“As far as the race itself, like I said last night after time trials, I knew who would be there the whole time chasing me and there wasn’t one point in the whole race that Myles wasn’t on my tail,” explained Sand. “He’s one helluva competitor and he was inside, outside, just everywhere trying to get by and never touched me, and where did Rob come from? What a finish, it’s just a very cool deal to be here after a race like that.”
Sand, acting like a blocker to Maxon’s jam, would find himself appologizing in victory lane for his uncharacteristic driving style saying, “I don’t like racing that way, I wanted this one bad and I made my car pretty wide at times, especially there at the end so I have to appologize to Myles, but when it comes down to the wire like this you have to do what you have to do to win against these guys.”
After being told that he had sealed his third straight non-wing championship, Sand was even more animated exclaiming, “Wow, this is just awesome, I knew it would be close and to be able to do this against this field, it’s just been a great season, great racing, good friends and I really enjoyed racing with everyone.”
Maxon, who had a scant three point lead in the 2013 non-wing championship battle heading into the 200, used every bit of race track that Sand wasn’t only to end up in second again as he had done some many times this season. “I’d like to know if anyone has seen a kitchen sink, because I sure threw it out there at Ray,” joked the driver of the Tamrack Golf Club sponsored car.
Highlights of the 2013 Topless! 200
“Hats off to Ray, he did what he had to and I wasn’t going to dump him just to get a win or a championship,” Maxon stated. Towards the end of the race, the battle being waged at the front allowed Rob Warren, racing in third place, to catch the lead duo and Maxon claims that changed his approach to the final 10 laps of the race. “Rob catching Ray and me really closed up my options as to how I could work Ray for the lead because I had to be careful not to give Rob too much there at the end.”
After taking his guaranteed starting position which put him on the grid inside of row three, Warren felt lucky to end up where he did at the finish in his First to Finish Docks & Hoists Service ride. He said, “The car was a turd tonight and I was just watching for the first 140 laps hoping, out of dumb luck, they’d come back to me.”
And come back they did. While Sand and Maxon waged war for the win, Warren was able to close the gap and put himself into contention for the win with 10 laps left. “I had one shot at Myles as he worked Ray on the high side and I dove to the bottom then Ray was in the middle but I just didn’t have enough car left to make the pass stick and I wasn’t going to drive through them to win it,” said Warren.
After going a lap down to the leaders the racers jockeying for fourth through sixth finishing positions had the lead trio in site while they engaged each in their own heated contest. At the line Bob Gangwer came home fourth and Steve Callahan was awarded the SUPRSCharger for advancing the most positions and ended up fifth, while Domenic Gioia hung on for sixth. Kevin Timmons was the last car running on the track and after very little practice finished seventh.
The Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series will now take a break from online sim racing as the league prepares to start it’s tenth season in October.
9th Annual Topless! 200 at Oswego Speedway – August 21, 2013
Time Trials (showing lap one and two-^denotes best lap-bold type denotes locked in)
- 18 Ray Sand, Jr.; Rochester, NY: 16.056^ 16.097
- 79 Myles Maxon; Oswego, NY: 16.072^ 16.126
- 23 Chris Meyers; Amherst, OH: 16.170^ 16.215
- 9 Domenic Gioia; Oswego, NY: 16.276 16.176^
- 35 Rob Warren; Pulaski, NY: 16.306 16.205^
- 25 Bob Gangwer; Goshen, IN: 16.300 16.296^
- 02 Kyle Perry; Fulton, NY: 16.331 !6.330^
- 29 Dave Soja; Amherst, OH: 16.474^ 16.510
- 55 Steve Callahan; Cayuhoga Falls, OH NT
- 14 Joe Achzet; Utica, NY NT
- 77 Kevin Timmons; Baldwinsville, NY NT
B-Main-20 Laps
- 9 Domenic Gioia
- 14 Joe Achzet
- 02 Kyle Perry
- 29 Dave Soja
- 55 Steve Callahan
- 77 Kevin Timmons
Feature-200 Laps
- 18 Ray Sand, Jr.* **
- 79-Myles Maxon*
- 35-Rob Warren
- 25-Bob Gangwer -1
- 55-Steve Callahan -1^^
- 9-Domenic Gioia -1
- 77 Kevin Timmons -1
- 02-Kyle Perry DNF
- 14 Joe Achzet DNF
- 29 Dave Soja DNS
- 23-Chris Meyers DNS
* Denotes Lap Led
** Denotes Most Laps Led
^^Denotes SUPRSCharger
