Leaty Closes Spencer Season 3rd in Points
This past Friday night was the final night of racing at Spencer Speedway for the year. For the second consecutive year we went into the night in third place in the standings with a very slight chance for winning the championship. We needed both of the guys ahead of us to have very bad finishes and it was not likely.

The night started off good with a second place finish in the heat race. This allowed our Rochester Steel Treating/Wayne Regional Orthopaedics car to start the feature in the 6th position.

At the drop of the green flag we made a lot of ground on the outside and moved up to third by the second lap. At this point in the race I was behind Buck Catalano and his son Patsy Catalano. I knew that Buck was going to pull over and let his son go by so I was there to fill the hole on the outside when he did. Buck did not make life as easy for me as he did his son and it took a few hard laps to get by him.

When the next caution came out it put me on the outside of the front row right next to Patsy. We battled hard side by side for FIVE laps for the lead of the race. It was good hard racing between two very even race cars but in the end Patsy got the advantage on the bottom of the track. The five lap battle did not do my tires any favors either and I had to settle in for a second place finish. Both of the guys I was racing for the championship finished in the top five so we still finished in the third position in the final points standings.

This weekend is the Sunoco Race of Champions at Oswego Speedway. It is a 200 lap event and I will be racing along with my father Jan Leaty in my own number 25 car. We finished 4th at Oswego last time we were there so a good strong top 5 finish would be a great way to wind down a season. If all goes well at Oswego we also plan on attending the US Open at Lancaster the following weekend. Thanks for checking in. -Mike Leaty