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Fuller Rips
Off 2nd Straight 358 Super DIRT Series Win In RWR Marathon Elbridge, NY – September 17, 2005 – With just 12 laps remaining in the 100-lap 358-Modified Super DIRT Series at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, Tim Fuller saw the last thing he expected come to light. Alan Johnson’s NativePoker.com-WPC Associates No. 14J was suddenly backing toward him at a rapid rate. Johnson, who over the past four years has been seemingly invincible at the 5/8-mile track and this season has been unstoppable on the 358-Mod tour, wrestled the lead from pole-sitter Pierre Dagenais on lap six, but ran out of fuel on a lap 87. Fuller then drove around the slowing car, and made the final left hand turns to park the John Lazore-owned, King Enterprises-NativePoker.com-Quality Concrete TEO Pro car in victory lane. Last Sunday, Fuller rolled to a win at Can-Am Motorsports Park (LaFargeville, NY) after starting 11th. “This car has been great,” Fuller said. “I don’t know what it is. We’ve been rolling. I can tell you we will be making another start with this car. We’ll be going for three. I owe this to them. They gave me a good car. And anytime you come to Rolling Wheels, you are racing against the best.” Fuller was against the best – and the odds in day one of the Dynomax World Series Weekend. The Edwards, N.Y, pilot again started 11th and had to run down Jimmy Phelps, Pat Ward, Billy Decker, and Alan Johnson. Dagenais led in the early stages but Johnson wheeled the Jeff Rudalavage-owned No. 14J to the point a half-dozen laps into the century grind. From there, 'A.J. Slideways' pulled a huge lead on eventual runner-up Billy Decker. The field was slowed through the first half of the race by seven yellows; caution laps counted after lap 25. Only three came before the 25th circuit. On the restarts, Decker was able to hang with Johnson, but within three laps, Johnson began putting distance between himself and Decker, who was then in the clutches of Jimmy Phelps. Fuller knocked off Richie Pratt for fourth on lap 24. The top-five changed little through the midpoint of the race as Fuller and Decker raced in lapped traffic and Johnson held at least two-thirds of a straightaway on them. On lap 54, Scott George slowed on the speedway. On the restart, Fuller pressured Decker, but the red flag was displayed after Pat Ward hooked the berm and flipped five times exiting turn three. Ward was struck mid-roll by Richie Pratt Jr., both drivers were okay. At that point, the complexion changed. Matt Sheppard – who started 28th – had clawed to fifth. When the green was redisplayed, Sheppard was one of the fastest cars on the track. He quickly disposed of Pete Bicknell, and set to work on Jimmy Phelps. The order remained Johnson-Decker-Fuller-Phelps-Sheppard through lap 67 when Fuller began working on Decker; he took the runner-up spot with a high-side move on lap 69. Now, Fuller had to catch the best of the best in 30 laps in lapped traffic. Setting to work, he used the inside line to reel in Johnson, but it was marginal at best. The yellow flew on lap 81 when Jimmy Phelps slowed with a broken rear end in turn three. He sacrificed a top-five with the DNF. On the restart, Johnson disappeared but Fuller was with him. All of a sudden, Johnson’s horse came up lame in turn three. “I don’t know what happened,” Fuller said. “I never expected him to drop out.” But Fuller had concerns of his own. Oddly, he never ran the top of the track through the night, which offered the tackiest line available. On lap 30, something cracked in the rear end of the no. 19, and he spent most of the racing hanging on a prayer. “I felt some grinding and when Alan dropped out, I didn’t know how I was going to finish,” Fuller said. “It was good, but I didn’t know how many laps we had left in the car.” Apparently, it was enough to make it to the finish; he even endured a lap 91 restart. Decker settled for second and Sheppard took third ahead of Pete Bicknell and Chuck Bower. Fuller dodged an earlier bullet after making contact with original pole-sitter Brian McDonald. Fuller was working low on McDonald who was driving the LaSalle No. M96 Kriska Transportation ride. Fuller skated and McDonald spun. “It’s so narrow off of turn four,” Fuller said. “There isn’t much room. He wanted to stay down and I was under him. It’s a racing thing. I felt bad when I saw him up in the fence.” Survival was key in Matt Sheppard’s run. Sheppard suffered a flat tire in qualifying, then a second flat in the heat, started 30th in the feature and still ended up third. “The night ended better than the start,” Sheppard said after an exhausting night. “The car was good. We had a little bit of a push at the end. We might have been able to get Decker. I knew if we could survive, we’d be okay, but with the going rate, I wasn’t sure.” The day started with questionable skies and intermittent, misty rain. The event was delayed by over an hour, and a second delay ran the event another 45-minutes behind the curve with small-block time trials hitting the track more than two hours late. “I might need to make a donation to the grater’s fuel bill,” Fuller joked in victory lane. Track crews managed the rain fall and increased surface water content well, rolling with the punches to produce a remarkably tacky speedway. But, the Dynomax Mini Miracle at Rolling Wheels could not have been pulled off without the help of the cars in the pits. Twice, the pits emptied as nearly every car came out to help run in the surface. The time trials were delayed 2 hrs, 15 minutes as cars helped the packing effort. After the shower at intermission, they again banded together to save the track. “I have to thank them,” said event manager Tonya Moschell. “One guy even came up and said he didn’t want to use the primary car, but would pull out the back-up to help pack the track. We have to applaud that. They helped us. Without them, we would have never got the show in. “And we could have just called it off, but we wanted to do the best we could. People can’t say we didn’t try. The drivers never cease to amaze me in what they can do and what they can pull off when they want to," Moschell added. Strangely, in the last four years, there has been a 358-Mod/Big Block double winner three times; Fuller’s win sets him up to turn the trick Sunday when the Advance Auto Parts Modified Super DIRT Series circles the raceway 200 times in the Dynomax World Series Weekend headline event. DIRT MotorSports 358-Modified Super DIRT Series – Rolling Wheels Raceway Park (Elbridge, NY) Event Summary [Official Box Score posted on www.DirtMotorSports.com and can be viewed by first selecting 'DIRT NorthEast' on the Corporate Homepage, then clicking '358-Modified Series' link on the top left.] FEATURE
(*)started in last row driving the 54j car of Dave Just;
DID NOT QUALIFY(6) QUALIFYING
Heat Races
(8 laps, 5
transfer to feature; top 3 redraw)
Consolation Round
(8 laps, 5
transfer to feature)
Overall
Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRT 358-Mod Point Standings
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