Osella moving toward victory
By:Matt Buckler, Journal Inquirer

Many people might have been surprised to see Chris Osella of Manchester lead for 23 laps of Friday's SK Modified feature at Stafford Motor Speedway before settling for fifth place. After all, it was the longest Osella has ever led an SK race.

His fellow competitors, however, were not shocked.
"If you look at the lap times, that car is one of the fastest every week," race winner Lloyd Agor said. "Those guys have really improved."
Two years ago, Osella would have been satisfied just to qualify for a feature. This year, his car is good enough to lead one. And his fifth-place finish last week was his best ever. He is 12th in Stafford's SK point standings, but only six points out of the Top 10.
"A lot of people have told us we're going to win a race this year, and that's given us a lot of confidence," Osella said. "I take it as a compliment.
"But we've been doing this for four years. We should have something figured out by now."
One thing Osella has come up with is his own driving style.
"I call it ambitional driving," Osella said. "It means you're driving under control, with a reason for everything you do. And there's no harmful intent. There's emotional driving and then there's ambitional - and that's the way we like to race."
Osella also knows it's not a good idea to dazzle people in practice. He's usually about 15th on the speed charts.
"You don't get paid for practice, so we don't show everything," Osella said. "The track changes a lot from the time we practice until the time we race. So we concentrate on our race setup. The fastest guy in practice doesn't always win the feature."
Osella says he's had a lot more help this season. Former Pro Stock and Late Model competitor Wayne Bellifleur is the team manager and Glen Carchidi is the new spotter.
They join a team of car owner Bill Gaston, Matt House, Jim Newmark, Bill Green, Barry Andrews, Rick Picoli, and Chuck Mattesen.
Gene Langan Volkswagen returns as sponsor, along with a new major sponsor, Innova of Bloomfield. Osella's other sponsors include Terry Transmissions of Ashford, Convenience Graphics, Bravo's Restaurant of Stafford, Dale's Auto Body of Meriden, Nixon's Big A Auto Parts of Vernon, and Performance Centers of America in East Hartford.
"I still consider ourselves underdogs, because we're not a big-budget team," Osella said. "But near the end of last season, we finally adjusted the car to my driving style, and we started to finish well. This year, we just carried it over and improved on it.
"Our engine builder, Billy Mathis, has come up with a better combination that gives us more power. And we're excited. Last week we had a lot of fun. Now our goal is to repeat that."
Osella's support team is in place.
"With us, there is an 'I' in team," Osella said. "That's because we're a family."
A family with an ambitional driver.