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Fuller wins Battle at the Border




LAFARGEVILLE, NY: Timmy Fuller from Edwards, NY became the first winner of the Battle at the Border at Can Am Motorsports Park on Saturday night. Also claiming wins were Willy Decker in the Dig Safely New York Sportsman tour race, teenager Billy Dunn in the IMCA mods and John Eiss in Pure Stocks.

Fifty 358 modified race teams showed up for the inaugural event, and a huge 37-car field took the green flag from Starter Steve Kellogg. There was a huge pileup in turn on from the initial green involving Danny Johnson, Danny O’Brien, Alex Hoag, Vince Quenneville, Jr., Pierre Dagenais, John Ramsey, Roger Phelps and Frankie Caprara bringing out the red flag. The afternoon of racing had taken its toll on the track, and by feature time dust became a problem that precipitated the accident. The hard luck season of Roger Phelps continued as his Gypsum Express car was taken to the pits done for the night, as were the cars of John Ramsey and Danny O’Brien. Racin Jason Barney had taken the early lead from the first through fifth laps, but then it was Bill Gill in his Teo passing the Teo of Barney for the lead. The first ten laps were caution filled, with some cars hitting the pits for a change of tire compounds. From the tenth lap on, racing settled down with Gill in the lead with Fuller, Barney, Pat Ward, Alan Johnson, Steve Paine and Vic Coffey setting the pace up front. Billy Wilcox and Jack Johnson had pitted and had to restart from the rear, but they were two of the cars that were charging to the front from the rear. At the 25-lap mark, the field was composed of Gill, Fuller, Barney, Ward and Alan Johnson as the top five. The green stayed out and at lap forty, the top five was Fuller, Ward, Johnson, Gill and Barney. Jumpin Jack had made his way all the way to 12th spot by the 42nd lap and had one of the fastest cars on the track. The Dealmaker Auto Group sponsored the halfway lap of 50 with a $1,000 bonus, and Fuller took home that money with Ward, Johnson, Gill, Barney, Steve Paine, Coffey, Danny Johnson, Matt Sheppard and Jack Johnson as the lead pack.

Pat Ward decided he had enough of following Fuller, and took the lead on the 55th lap. He then lap by lap built up almost a half a track lead over Fuller and A.J. Slideways as Ward’s car was performing flawlessly. He continued to hold the lead, and at the three-quarter mark of the race the leaders were Ward, Fuller, Alan, Gill, Coffey, Barney, Jack Johnson, Matt Sheppard and Billy Wilcox. With victory a mere 16 laps away, Ward suffered bitter disappointment as a couple bolts broke on the axle bringing to an end Ward’s great run of leading 30 laps. Fuller resumed the lead with Alan Johnson next with Steve Paine third. Four laps later, Jack Johnson’s strong charge to the front came to a disappointing end as it looked like Jack tried to avoid hitting the car in front of him and nailed the brakes sending him looping to the inside of turn three. All that work went for naught. Then there was Bill Gill. He just suffers bad luck and disappointment after disappointment in these big races. Just a few weeks ago Gill was leading on the last lap of the 358 Super Dirt Series race when Alan Johnson just nipped him at the line in a photo finish. Here in this race he races in the top five all night long until the 92nd lap when he brought his car to the infield off turn four with another race with bad luck haunting the Plessis, NY driver and 2000 track champ at Can Am. The last eight laps was a shootout between Fuller and Alan Johnson, but Alan and his new Bicknell just couldn’t over take Fuller and Timmy went on to claim the $10,000 win with Alan second, Paine third, Jason Barney with a strong race finishing fourth with 2001 track champ Billy Wilcox coming home a solid fifth after having to restart from the rear. Six through ten were composed of Vic Coffey, Matt Sheppard, Frankie Caprara, Jeff Kotary and Jack Johnson coming back for tenth. Jack did in fact have the fastest lap during the race on lap 40. All in all a pretty good night for Fuller with the halfway money, lap money for leading laps 28 through 54 and then 85 to 100. Lap leaders were Barney (1-5), Gill (6-27), Fuller (28-54 & 85-100), and Pat Ward (55-84.)

The Sportsman also had a Dig Safely New York tour race, and a field of 38 cars were entered in the race, 34 of which started the feature. Willy Decker of Vernon, NY led the cars to the green and there was a great battle up front between Decker, Chad Brachman, Justin Haers and David Van Horn. It was those four who were battling for the lead back and forth lap after lap with Brachman leading at the halfway point of the 30 lap race with Decker, Van Horn, Haers and Can Am track champ Bill Plooy in fifth place. Plooy lead the hometown contingent in the race and was trying to pick off the front running group of invaders, but it was not to be as the front pack was staging an excellent race with Decker going on to claim the win with Haers in second, Brachman third, Van Horn fourth and Plooy fifth. With 34 cars starting, the Sportsman as usual put on an excellent race.

The IMCA modifieds started their feature with nineteen cars answering the green from Assistant Starter Matt Burdick. John Mason and Bill Anderson were the cars on the pole with Anderson taking a quick lead with Brandon Burchill, Larry Bezner, Rob Keller and Kevin Battelle in tow. Tony Buffa was making his first 2001 appearance at Can Am in his IMCA mod, and found the track to his liking as he made his way to the front. Veteran driver Neil Edgar put his experience to work as he took over the lead and was leading at the halfway mark in the race with rookie Billy Dunn in second, Buffa third, Bezner fourth and Burchill in fifth. Young Dunn took over the lead from the veteran Edgar on the 15th lap, and this time it was youth winning out over experience as the former go-kart driver at Can Am went on to record the win over Buffa, Edgar, Bezner and Battelle. As this was the final point race of the season, the track champ for 2001 is another veteran, Larry Bezner from Adams.

The fourth feature run this day was the Pure Stocks who were running this week 20 laps in the final point race of the season. Phil Desormeau charged into the early lead as the LaFargeville driver put his Mopar out front with Carl Robbins, Darius Gamel and Kevin Duffany in pursuit. Desormeau continued to lead and at the halfway point of the race had the lead over Mark Webb, Fran Bryant, John Eiss and Ricky Paige. On the 14th lap, contact was made in turn three between the two front-running cars of Desormeau and Webb. Both drivers had to restart from the rear. John Eiss then inherited the lead and was not about to lose it as he went on to record his third win in a row with Paige second, David Pope third, Mike Cousins fourth and Robbins fifth.

So, the 2001 racing season is now complete at the Can Am Motorsports Park. John and Laura Wight would like to thank all the drivers, sponsors and fans for making their first year so successful. Plans are underway for more improvements to the facility for the 2002 season.

358 Modified 100 lap feature: TIM FULLER, Alan Johnson, Steve Paine, Jason Barney, Billy Wilcox, Vic Coffey, Matt Sheppard, Frankie Caprara, Jeff Kotary, Jack Johnson, Ryan Baye, Ben Tucker, Danny Johnson, Gus Schmidt, Brett Hearn, Bill Gill, Pat Ward, Brian McDonald, Pierre Dagenais, Tom Sears, Jr., Alex Hoag, Todd Burley, Lee Gill, Pete Bicknell, Ted Lamb, Vince Quenneville, Jr., Tim McCreadie, Scott Parliament, Bill Mullen, Mario Moreau, Jimmy Phelps, Wayne Reutimann, Jr., Danny O’Brien, John Ramsey, Roger Phelps.

Sportsman: WILLY DECKER, Justin Haers, Chad Brachman, David Van Horn, Clayton Brewer, Sparky Lowe, Bill Plooy, Jimmy Kite, Randy Chrysler, Jim Vock, Lance Willix, Eldon Paine, Chad Phelps, Karl Comfort, Jason Potter, Scott MacCue, Doug Matthews, Adam Moore, Anthony Fiorentino, Ray Zemken, Jessica Zemken, Daryl Hagan, Kyle Dingwall, Mike Amell, Matt Butler, Jeremy Pitcher, George Sanford, Paul Carey, Dave Surace, Ryan Phelps, Dick Park, Steve Gray, Rick Wilson, Scott Webb.

IMCA: BILLY DUNN, Tony Buffa, Neil Edgar, Larry Bezner, Kevin Battelle, Rob Keller, Erv Miller, Bill Eisele, Wayne Side, Rick Dusckas, Paul Calhoun, Brian Copp, Bill Anderson, Sr., J.J. Courcey, Brandon Burchill, John Mason, Jake Rabetoy, Ken Klinkowsky, Chris Taylor.

PURE STOCKS: JOHN EISS, Rick Paige, David Pope, Mike Cousins, Carl Robbins, Kevin Duffany, Mark Barker, Scott Castor, Ed Rogers, Dave Mannise, Darius Gamel, Mark Webb, Phil Desormeau, Fran Bryant, Steve Gilmore, Chris Warner, Don Scales, Shane Ray, Kim Mallette, Les Sanford, Charles Duffany, Kevin Chant, Jeff Shannon, Joe Combs.