Sears Wins Feature, Keysor Locks Down Mid-Season Championship Crown

Zach Sears Wins 100 Lap Feature but Brad Keysor Takes Mid-Season Championship Crown for Fourth Time

January 23, 2024 – Oswego, NY…After a fantastic night of supermodified sim racing, the checkered flag has fallen on the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series, (SUPRS), historic 20^th Anniversary Gold Crest Wing Supermodified Championship Season, and as predicted, Brad Keysor has once again taken the Gold Crest Wing Supermodified Mid-Season Championship. Keysor charged to a second place finish in the 100 lap feature on Tuesday January 23 at Oswego Speedway, racking up plenty of passing points in the special format.

It is Keysor’s third straight Mid-Season Championship crown in a row, and the fourth time in his career that he’s secured the bonus points that go with the accomplishment. Defending SUPRS Gold Crest Wing Supermodified Champion Dave Ohh ran in second place for most of the race but had to back his pace down towards the end and finished third.

Try as he might, feature winner, and current SUPRS Gold Crest Wing Supermodified Championship XX points leader, Zach Sears, was unable to claim the Mid-Season Championship, but led all 100 laps of the feature to secure his eleventh win of the season. Even with the big points night Keysor had, Sears still maintains a comfortable championship lead with 104 points over Keysor.

Left Looking for More

Keysor welcomed the accomplishment of winning the overall Mid-Season Championship, but was left looking for more. “It’s always good to win the Mid-Season Championship, that’s a good honor to have,” said the Liverpool, NY racer and coach. “But Zach still won the race, he’s been running real well. He’s been fast and doing what he needs to do, being patient in lapped traffic and taking care of the car.

“The passing points were helpful but I need to get into the win column. I need Zach to have some missteps to catch him. I think i only made up three points on him tonight. I’m not really chewing the points deficit down. Getting the points for the Mid-Season Championship helped me gap Anthony, (Corsoniti), and Ryan, (Cloonan), in the points a little, but it didn’t help me close up as much as I’d have liked to Zach.”

Good Race, Tight Competition

As usual, even though it wasn’t a perfect night for Keysor, he still saw a lot of good racing and close competition and found plenty of positives heading into the second half of the season. “It was a good race,” he stated. “Dave’s been running real well, Zach’s been running real well, lapped traffic was really good out there tonight, and the times are really close and you never really know how it’s going to end up.” It was good to see everyone out there tonight,” he added. “It was good to see Carl and Nelson, (Rodrigues), I’m not sure what happened to them, but it was good to have them racing with us again.”

“Thanks to 1^st to Finish Race Servers, Icings on Top. It was good to see Noel, (Parker), in here tonight, I think he had 16 passing points and finished, but I’d like to see a few more of the rookies running to have a good battle for that Icings on Top Rookie of the Year Award. Of course BreezeGraphics.com, and Hairbag Studios for broadcasting the race tonight, and BMK Logistics and Chasing cameras for letting me do this.”

Bad Look Was Innocent

After some conniving by several drivers in the 2023 edition of this race, competitors were warned that any attempt 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, would be deemed cheating, and those choosing to do so would face stiff penalties.

Keysor came out looking like the one driver that had done what everyone was warned not to do, cheat, after he had one of his worst qualifying efforts ever at Oswego.

“I know it looks bad,” Keysor admitted. “But I honestly wasn’t trying to cheat, I was busy setting up the points spreadsheet and line-ups, (Keysor is SUPRS Chief Handicapper and Scorer), and we updated the server, and I just plain forgot to put my qualifying set-up and ran my feature set-up with hard tires and 100 laps of fuel.”

With a best Time Trial lap of 16.398, the Liverpool, NY racer slotted in at seventh, just out one spot out of the SUPRS 6 and missed the BMK Logistics Fast Car Dash by one spot. He then lined up in third for the lone heat race which he one, giving him the seventh starting spot for the 100 lap feature race, which put him in a great spot to gain a lot of passing points.

Sears Knew He Had to Defend

Meanwhile, Sears, who qualified third quick and won the BMK Logistics Fast Car Dash, giving him the Pole Position for the feature. It also left him open to attack by those starting deeper in the field and gobbling up passing points.

Sears knew what was coming when the green flag dropped and was determined to counter the attack by Keysor and his mentor Dave Ohh who started in third. Taking off like a rocket from the start, the Elyria, OH youngster was able to maintain between a tenth to half second lead over Dave Ohh who had quickly disposed of Bob Gangwer and moved had moved to second in the first few laps.

“I was trying to conserve it through the corners,” the winner said. “But obviously with Dave on my rear, I couldn’t do much. You just have to be able to keep corner speed up without letting anything go down on the front stretch.”

And it wasn’t just Ohh that Sears was concerned with. “I was concerned about the engine since about half-way through the race I was down to about 60% engine life,” he stated. “The tires were a definitely a big part too since we’ve never run this new tire here at Oswego. I was just trying to figure out what was going to happen.”

When asked what the most challenging part of the night was, Sears responded, “Definitely the lapped traffic was the most difficult. Knowing where they are going to go because Oswego is a difficult place to pass and you just have to be able to guess where they’re going to go, and hope they aren’t going to be there when you get there.”

Doing What He Can to Hang Onto Points Lead

Sears was happy to claim his first win in the SUPRS Gold Crest Wing Mid-Season Championship, and eleventh of the season and knows that it helps keep his season championship hopes alive. “Winning the overall Mid-Season Championship would have definitely helped,” said the 2022 Gold Crest Non-Wing Champion. “You have to keep these swings, (the Mid-Season Championship race was also a part of the season-long Empire State Super Series Regional Tour), consistent and not have bad points nights.

“I”m just trying to maintain a gap to the guys behind me and hope they don’t catch up to me. Hopefully Brad doesn’t catch up to me. i know he’s missing a few races so i hope I can stay ahead of him.”

“It was a good night so thanks to 1st to Finish Face Servers, Breeze Graphics, Hairbag Studios, and of course HeatFinder.net and The Mod Squad,” he concluded.

Cloonan Jumps to ESS Lead

With his third place finish, Oswego, NY resident Ryan Cloonan took the lead in the year-long Empire State Super Series Regional Tour points chase. He now leads second place runner Anthony Corsoniti by just eight points.

The next ESS race won’t be until the Mr. Online Supermodified show sometime in August when both wing and non-wing supermodifieds will compete.

Becker Back

Carl “Bonzai” Becker, who is running a limited schedule this year, was back in action at Oswego for the SUPRS Gold Crest Wing Supermodified Mid-Season Championship and was happy with how his night went even it wasn’t perfect. After qualifying tenth out of 14 drivers, the 80 year old from Lansing, MI slotted into twelfth spot in the feature.

Becker, driving the Dowker Titanium Roadster sponsored by Wholesale Diamond Exchange and The Michigan Hill Gang completed 54 laps before calling it a night with an ill-handling car and some worn out arms. “I had a lot of fun,” he said. “It was nice to come back and see everyone and just have some fun racing when I want to and picking and choosing what I want to race.”

“The car was a little beat up and so was I, and I wasn’t that fast, so I pulled off before I ruined anyone’s race. But I got over half the laps in so I guess that’s not too bad for an old guy.”

Texas Rookie Finishes in Top Ten

SUPRS Icings on Top Rookie of the Year contender, Noel Parker of Saint Jo, TX made his fifth SUPRS feature. While he failed to finish the race dropping out with a blown engine just shy of ten laps before the finish, Parker was credited with a tenth place finish and received the accolades of his fellow racers for the courtesies he gave while being lapped.

Week Off Before Gator Grind

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 2024 SUPRS Florida Speedweeks. The grueling multi-night swing begins Monday February 5, and runs through Friday, February 9 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.