TIM FULLER CAPTURES 13TH ANNUAL VICTORIA 200 AT FULTON SPEEDWAY
FULTON, NY..10/4/98...The 13th edition of the Nice 'N' Easy Victoria 200 for 358 Modifieds at Fulton Speedway set new records for the fewest yellows, the most flips in a single crash, the most lead changes...and placed a new winner in victory lane. Edwards, NY pilot Tim Fuller took the lead at the one-third mark of the second segment of the 200-lap feature and recorded a $20,000-plus payday.
115 cars ran 12 qualifying heats and 6 consolation races to set the 46 car starting field for the Victoria 200. DIRT stars Danny Johnson and Brett Hearn drew the front row starting positions, with Johnson grabbing the lead early on. While Hearn was hanging on to the second position, Tim Fuller moved into the third spot. Coming from 20th and 21st respectively, Mike Ricci and Tim McCreadie showed some early strength.
Within the first 15 laps, the classic battle that makes each Victoria 200 special began to shape up as the leaders began to work through heavy traffic. While Ricci and Fuller were moving into the top five, Hearn was sliding backwards in the top ten, battling with Billy Decker and the battle-scarred car of Alan Johnson. Former Victoria 200 winner Dale Planck was also coming up through the field with 'Hurricane' Steve Paine, and by lap 30, they were just outside the top five.
The serious battle began after a yellow around the one-third mark of the feature event. As the leaders again entered heavy traffic, Mike Ricci stormed up into contention, mixing it up heavily with Johnson and Fuller. Three, four, and even five wide racing!
through traffic was the order of the day, with each of the three drivers taking a turn at the helm. In fact, the same three swapped the lead three times in three consecutive laps of the event.
At half distance of the first segment, Fuller had settled into the third spot and followed Johnson and Ricci and they continued to trade the lead while making daring moves in and out of traffic. Hearn continued to slide back out of the top ten, as did other early favorites. By lap 80 of the feature, they were in danger of losing laps to a torrid pace that Ricci and Johnson were setting. Dale Planck was still running near the top five, as were Paine, Gary Tompkins, and Billy Decker. Todd Burley was also us!
ing some daring moves to close in on the top ten.
As an extended period of green flag laps continued, Hearn went one lap down to the lead pace. Former Victoria 200 winners Paul Jensen and Kenny Brightbill were also going down a lap, as they were running together with Hearn on the racetrack. A yellow flag finally broke the momentum of the leaders, settling the pack down for the run to the halfway point-lap 100-and the halftime break in the action.
Johnson retook the lead from Ricci, and as lap 98 was completed, the yellow flag flew. The first half of the race concluded under the caution, with Johnson grabbing the halfway bonus from Mike Butler Motors. During the break, Johnson's team only made an air pressure adjustment. At the break, only three cautions had slowed the pace of the first segment, with five different leaders and an amazing 15 lead changes.
The second segment started with Ricci and Johnson again battling for the lead. Dale Planck decided to try the extreme high groove on the hard, slick surface, and it began to work for him, as he grabbed three spots early and moved up to battle with Gary Tompkins for 6th and 7th spots. Coming off turn two on lap 105, Tompkins caught the inside berm, pitching all four wheels off the ground. As his car returned to the track, he slid up and bumped Planck, whose car bounced into the backstretch wall. The impact sheared off the right front wheel of the Planck machine. As the yellow flag flew, Billy Decker and many others had to take evasive action to avoid Planck's car, which was parked into the wall at an angle. But Mike Colsten had nowhere to go and slammed at
full speed into the back of Planck's car. Pat Ward, who was right behind Colsten, and Roy Shields made heavy contact with Colsten. The impact sent Ward into a series of seven violent barrell rolls, and Colsten's and Shields' cars also got upside dow
n at the same time.
This incident brought out the red flag at lap 106. All four cars were knocked out of the race, but despite the scary nature of the crash, all drivers walked away. As the race resumed, Ricci seemed to lose some of the edge he had in place earlier in the race, falling back to fourth as Tim McCreadie and Tim Fuller moved past him. Steve Paine continued to hold the fifth spot on the track, while Ron Holmes was engaged in a battle with Burley, Tompkins, Alan Johnson, and Decker.
On lap 126, the leaders were once again in heavy traffic, battling furiously in and out of lapped cars. Fuller used the lapped traffic to get into second, then in a wild four-way fight for position, emerged with the lead while Johnson was shuffled back to fourth spot. Johnson regained the third position and moved in on McCreadie while Fuller took another turn at the head of the class.
As the race wore on to the lap 150 mark, the leaders continued to move in and out of traffic. Fuller held an advantage of a few car lengths while McCreadie and Johnson battled back and forth for second. Further back in the field, Todd Burley and Billy Decker began to mount their charges toward the front of the pack. A quick yellow restacked the field and allowed Johnson the opportunity to set up a pass of McCreadie to put him back to second. Decker's charge cooled under the next green as the race approached the 25 to go mark.
Fuller held the biggest advantage any leader had gotten during the race, which was no more than ten car lengths or a couple of lapped cars between himself and Johnson. With less than fifteen laps to go, the see saw battle between Johnson and McCreadie was settled when Tim drove around Danny after several side by side laps. In the last 10 legs of the event, McCreadie tried to chase down Fuller, but could get no closer than a few car lengths.
At the checkers, Fuller had recorded the biggest win of his career and became a first time winner of the Nice 'N' Easy Victoria 200. McCreadie was a close second, and offered congratulations to his friend Fuller in victory lane. Danny Johnson took third, while Ricci, who had faded, wound up with the fourth position. Steve Paine was fifth, while the rest of the top ten was filled by Burley, Tompkins, Alan Johnson, Decker, and Ron Holmes. All the top ten finishers were on the lead lap.
The winners of the twelve qualifying heats were Danny Johnson, Brett Hearn, Ty Hunt, Tim Fuller, Tom Kinsella, Doug Fuller, Jeff Walton, Billy Decker, Dale Planck, Doug Hoffman, Roy Shields, and Roger Phelps. Six consolation races filled the rest of the field, and those races were won by Rich Ricci,
TobyTobias Jr., Burley, Bill Wilcox, Steve Hulsizer, and Kenny Brightbill.
OFFICIAL ORDER OF FINISH-NICE 'N' EASY VICTORIA 200-FULTON SPEEDWAY
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3RD, 1998
1. Tim Fuller 200 laps
2. Tim McCreadie 200
3. Danny Johnson 200
4. Mike Ricci 200
5. Steve Paine 200
6. Todd Burley 200
7. Gary Tompkins 200
8. Alan Johnson 200
9. Bill Decker 200
10. Ron Holmes 200
11. Don Scarborough 199
12. Brett Hearn 199
13. Dave Camara 199
14. Dave House 199
15. Tom Kinsella 199
16. Rich Ricci 198
17. Paul Jensen 197
18. Jeff Walton 197
19. Bill Abold 197
20. Brian Weaver 196
21. Kirk Horton 196
22. Ty Hunt 196
23. Doug Fuller 195
24. Randy Decker 195
25. Roger Phelps 194
26. Jeff Sykes 188
27. John Barker 183
28. Mike Clapperton 181
29. J.J. Michaels 175
30. Mitch Gibbs 159
31. Bobby Varin 158
32. Mike Hulsizer 157
33. Kenny Birghtbill 131
34. Dale Planck 105
35. Pat Ward 104
36. Mike Colsten 104
37. Roy Shields 101
38. Frank Cozze 89
39. Doug Hoffman 89
40. Lee Gill 77
41. Billy Wilcox 69
42. Bob Holland 65
43. Richie Tobias 64
44. George Kostelansky 63
45. Steve Hulsizer 57
46. Lyle Sherwood 7