by Carol Houssock
One year ago this weekend Elmira's TJ Potrzebowski accomplished something no other racer had ever been able to do. In the world of asphalt Modified racing, he earned a double-whammy by winning both the 100-lap SST Modified race and the famed 200-lap Sunoco Race of Champions at Oswego Speedway. One year later that memory is at fresh as if it were last weekend, and it will forever hold special meaning to the talented driver.
Those who follow modified racing have to recognize that it was the highlight of Potrzebowski’s career, but no one sums it up better than he does. “I’ve won track championships and I’ve had 120 feature wins over the years, but I would trade half of all that to do it again,” he stated. And he thinks he has a legitimate shot at doing so this weekend.
“We feel like our odds are the same, if not better, this year,” Potrzebowski explained. “We have fresh engines, we’ve been preparing for this, and we’d all love to do it again.” Repeating the nearly impossible means a whole lot of elements have to fall in place, but team preparedness is a given for Potrzebowski/McGuire Motorsports. The team doubled their weekly SST Modified efforts this year, running Friday nights at Spencer Speedway and Saturday nights at Chemung Speedrome. Potrzebowski won the SST Modified championship at Spencer and finished a strong 2nd in points at Chemung.
Fans traveling to Oswego for Friday’s SST Modified race will recognize TJ’s car as the one he raced with at Spencer. “It’s a better ‘longer track’ car,” he explained, perfect for Oswego’s 5/8-mile oval layout. Practice gets underway this Friday (21st) at 3 PM, with 4 features on tap starting at 6 PM.
The 200-lap Race of Champions on Saturday (22nd) is the biggest Modified race in the country. For that one TJ will bring out a proven winner, his ‘Original Saturday Night Special’ and go for back-to-back wins. “We won a race there in 2005 with that car and won the Race of Champions with it last year, so we’re going there very confident.” Gates open at 10 AM on Saturday, with qualifying starting at 1 PM. Feature races begin at 2 PM on Saturday, highlighted by the historic Race of Champions at 6 PM. A complete weekend schedule is available at www.raceofchampions.net.
Regardless of TJ’s odds for ‘doing the double’, the odds are excellent that the racing will be as good as this weekend’s super weather forecast.