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Rolling Wheels Raceway Kicks Off 38th Season On Sunday Afternoon Elbridge, NY – May 7, 2006 – By Tom Skibinski & Gary Spaid DIRT NE PR Defending Syracuse Eckerd 200 winner Billy Decker and reigning overall Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRT champion Tim Fuller shared victory lane laurels as they each captured a leg of the 26th Annual DIRT Challenge Cup Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series event Sunday afternoon at Rolling Wheels Raceway. The twin 50-lap feature races awarded the winners $3,000 each and valuable points in the 27-race Advance Auto Parts SDS. Decker won the fourth of five qualifying heats to beak down the 47-car field, then drew the pole-position to start the initial DIRT big-block AAP Modified main. In a race that was slowed for just two brief caution periods, Decker opened up a comfortable lead on each restart in the LJL Motorsports no. 91 Gypsum Wholesalers-Stadium International-Quality Hardwoods/Bicknell entry before scoring an eight car-length victory over runner-up Gary Tomkins. Alan Johnson, Tim Fuller and World of Outlaws Late Model Series points leader Tim McCreadie completed the top-five. Decker rolled a pair of dice ---three and six turned up--- to invert the top-nine finishers for the start of the 50-lap finale. Vic Coffey was awarded the pole and pulled out to an early advantage with 29 more ground-pounding open-wheelers in tow. Fuller began sixth yet after just five laps he already had his JL Motorsports no. 19 Native Poker-Chiefs Tobacco & Gas-G&R Auto Parts/TEO mount running in the top-three. He slid past Pat Ward on the seventh circuit and chased down Coffey before bolting past high on the back straightaway on lap 11. Bob McCreadie looped his no. 9 Kinney Drugs-Syracuse Frame Service Special to bring out the lone yellow flag on lap 15. Fuller and Coffey still paced the field with Ward, Tim McCreadie and ninth-place starter Decker in hot pursuit. With the remaining 35 laps run straight through under green, Decker methodically picked off the opposition one by one; McCreadie on lap 17, teammate Ward on lap 20 and Coffey just two laps later. Fuller maintained nearly a full straightaway lead at the halfway mark, although heavy traffic as the laps dwindled offered Decker a longshot at reaching the leader. Despite getting a glimpse of the leader late in the race, it was all for naught as Fuller outlasted Decker by four car-lengths at the wire. Tomkins, McCreadie and Coffey filled out the front-five slots. In Sportsman action 23 cars took the green flag to start their 20-lap
portion of the race. Outside pole sitter Chris Higgins took the early
lead in the race. On lap three Russ Hefti, winner of the first heat
race, blasted by Higgins and began to stretch out a quarter straight
away advantage over Higgins. The Street Stockers ran a 15-lap main event in which only one yellow flag flew. That came on lap three when Tom Shoemaker III came to an abrupt stop on the front straight in front of the starter’s stand. Up front outside pole-sitter Blane Smith maintained command of the race from the drop of the green. Smith held a three second lead over Adam DePuy. On lap 12, Frank Burnell used lapped traffic to pass DePuy for second. With the checkers waving, Smith took the win followed by Burnell, DePuy, Dave Marcuccilli and Dave Mannise. The Street Stock division is scheduled to return to the track on Labor Day evening. The next event on the Rolling Wheels schedule is the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Spectacular, along with a full program of American Sprint Series Patriot Sprints Division, on Tuesday, May 30 starting at 7 p.m. sharp. Last year some 72 sprinters were on hand for this special. ROLLING WHEELS SUPPORT DIVISION SUMMARY STREET STOCKS HEAT 1: M. Welch, F. Burnell, P. Hobbs, D. Mannise, M. Schultz, T.
Shoemaker III FEATURE (15-laps): BLANE SMITH, Frank Burnell, Adam DePuy, Dave
Marcuccilli, Dave Mannise, Mike Welch, Nat Peckham, Charlie Gilbert,
Nick Rizzo, Dave Pope, Steve Faulkner, Patrick Hobbs, Mike Schultz, Mike
Dandino, Van Grant, Nick Dandino, Tom Shoemaker III. HEAT 1: R. Hefti, J. Williams, M. Bowman, K. Ridley, M. Chiddy, D.J.
Forbes. FEATURE (20-laps): RUSS HEFTI, Joe Williams Jr., Chris Higgins, Rob Pratt, Jessica Zemken, Eric Giguere, Shawn Donath, Kevin Ridley, Sammy Reakes IV, Mike Bowman, Scott Schrader, Mark Chiddy, Dan Wiesner, Rob Bellinger, Loren Lincoln, Roy Bresnahan, Phil LaVare, Jack Meeks, Dave Just, Scott Just, Tim Currier, John Juhl Jr., D.J. Forbes.
LAP LEADER: Decker (1-50).
LAP LEADERS: Coffey (1-10), Fuller (11-50). DID NOT QUALIFY (17)
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