Former WoO LMS Champ Tim McCreadie Finishes Second In Rite Aid 200 Big-Block Modified Headliner
SYRACUSE, NY – Oct. 12, 2009 – Sure, Tim Fuller's return to his DIRTcar big-block Modified roots for Super DIRT Week XXXVIII at the Syracuse Mile was fairly profitable.
But while the red-hot World of Outlaws Late Model Series star capped his week of open-wheel action in upstate New York with a solid third-place finish in Sunday's Rite Aid 200 big-block Modified spectacular, he couldn't help thinking about the hefty chunk of change that slipped through his fingers.
Fuller, 41, of Watertown, N.Y., lost second place in the 200 to 2006 WoO LMS champion Tim McCreadie on a late-race restart and had a certain runner-up finish in Saturday's 358-Modified Syracuse 150 snatched from his grasp when his car's fuel tank ran dry on the final lap. The 11th-hour heartbreakers cost him nearly $15,000 in purse earnings.
“Don't remind me about that money,” quipped Fuller, a former winner of both marquee Super DIRT Week events. “We were so close to a couple second-place finishes, so from that standpoint it's disappointing. But I can't complain too much because we were able to get out of here with a top-three (finish in the 200), which is never easy.”
Driving for the J&S Racing No. 74 Modified team that fielded cars for him in selected DIRTcar Modified shows throughout the 2009 season, Fuller did pocket over $20,000 for his efforts racing close to home on an off-weekend from WoO LMS competition. His take included $15,000 for third-place in the Rite Aid 200, $3,000 for winning the event's pole position (for the second straight year) and nearly $2,000 in lap money.
Fuller, who led laps 1-72 of the 200 before making his first of two scheduled pit stops, appeared to be in perfect position to bid for victory when a caution flag flew on lap 192. With longtime race leader Jimmy Phelps of Baldwinsville, N.Y., who had relinquished the top spot to Matt Sheppard of Waterloo, N.Y., just two laps earlier, forced pitside with a blown right-rear tire, Fuller found himself sitting in second place right on Sheppard's rear bumper.
Unfortunately, while Fuller had nearly a half-lap deficit to Sheppard erased by the caution flag, he would have rather seen Phelps get his stricken car to pit row without slowing the race.
“I didn't want to see any restarts,” said Fuller, who drove the same Teo-Pro car that he's run in the last four Rite Aid 200s (it's his own mount but carried the J&S team's numbers and colors this year). “I knew I was dead meat on the restarts. I was horrible on cold tires. It took seven or eight laps to get my tires warmed up and then I'd pick up a whole second (on the stopwatch).
“They (his crew) came on the radio (during the final caution period) and said, ‘Hey, you got a shot at Sheppard,'” he continued. “I said, ‘Look it, I need to hang on to second – and I don't think I can,' because (the car) was just so much of a handful in the corners (after restarts). I couldn't keep it down (in the groove). It was just pushing and loose.”
Indeed, Fuller couldn't hold off McCreadie when the green flag flew for the final time with four laps remaining. McCreadie blasted by Fuller entering turn one and tried to run down Sheppard as Fuller struggled to avoid falling even further.
Sheppard, a 26-year-old who made his dirt Late Model debut on Sept. 2 in the WoO LMS event at Brewerton (N.Y.) Speedway, held on to capture the $50,000 Rite Aid 200 check for the first time in his career. McCreadie settled for second, 2.682 seconds behind Sheppard.
“It was just unfortunate to lose second,” said Fuller, who won the 200 in 2004 and was the runner-up in 2006. “That was probably a $10,000 spot (difference between second and third place) that I lost there with a few laps to go, but it is what it is.”
At least Fuller didn't tumble completely out of the money in the 200. He did just that on Saturday, when an empty fuel tank on the last circuit of the 358-Modified Syracuse 150 left him with a 15th-place finish as his good buddy Billy Decker of Unadilla, N.Y., who enters selected WoO LMS events as Fuller's Gypsum Express Racing teammate, celebrated a $20,000-plus triumph in the event for the second consecutive season.
Fuller blamed his 358-Modified disappointment on a communication problem with his pit crew. His two-way radio malfunctioned early in the race and thus he wasn't aware that he was close on fuel and needed to conserve a bit more as the race wound down.
Fuller left the New York State Fairgrounds on Sunday evening ready to shift his focus back to dirt Late Model racing. He is headed to The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., on Wednesday night (Oct. 14) for the Topless Showdown presented by Hungry Man, a roof-less 50-lap WoO LMS event that could be worth as much as $30,000 to its winner depending on starting position.
“I'm looking forward to the Topless race,” said Fuller, who sits fourth in the WoO LMS points standings. “I haven't been in a Late Model in awhile, so I'm anxious to get back to it and try to pick up where we left off about a month ago.”
Fuller won the last WoO LMS A-Main contested, on Sept. 6 at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa. – his seventh win in the last 11 tour events – and finished 25th in the following week's UMP DIRTcar-sanctioned World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Rain washed out Fuller's planned Outlaw weekend in the Midwest on Sept. 19-20, and since then he's run only DIRTcar Modified events in New York.
“You gotta get your mindset back to (dirt Late Model racing) – especially after you come here and run 140 miles per hour for 200 laps,” Fuller said when asked about the challenge awaiting him at The Dirt Track. “You have to go down there and jump in a different animal. With no roof (for Wednesday's special), it'll be even more different.”
The Topless Showdown features a unique bonus program and starting-position draw. It offers a base purse of $10,000 for first place, but if the driver who wins the A-Main submitted an official entry form prior to deadline they will also receive a ‘passing' bonus in an amount equal to $1,000 multiplied by their starting position.
In addition, the heat-race qualifiers will participate in the ‘Southern Fried Scramble' draw that gives them a chance to play it safe or roll the dice in pursuit of the maximum $20,000 bonus prize. The draw will consist of five buckets holding four starting-spot pills each – positions 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16 and 17-20.
When the drivers are called up to draw in the order of their heat finishes (winners first, etc.), they'll have the option of selecting a pill from any of the buckets. Essentially they can guarantee themselves a starting spot in the first two rows of the A-Main by staying conservative and sticking their hand in the first bucket – or they can go for a position further back in the field that would set them up to claim a huge paycheck if they win the Showdown.
With Fuller standing as one of the country's hottest dirt Late Model drivers, will he go for the highest starting-position bucket if he has the opportunity?
“I will be a pussy and draw from the one through four (bucket),” asserted Fuller with a sheepish grin. “A bird in a hand is better than two in a bush. I'd love to win more money, but I'll go for the better starting spot.”
McCreadie, meanwhile, enjoyed the most successful Super DIRT Week of his career. In his first competitive appearance at the Syracuse Mile since 2005, the 35-year-old DIRTcar Modified-turned-dirt Late Model superstar placed second in the Rite Aid 200 to collect over $25,000.
“It feels great just to finally finish this race,” said McCreadie, who had never been running at the end of the Rite Aid 200 in his nine previous starts. “But I would've liked to have won it. If we would've gotten a couple breaks we might've been able to pull it off.”
Driving a big-block Modified from the stable of the same Sweeteners Plus team that supplies his dirt Late Model equipment, McCreadie had moved up to fifth place from the 28th starting spot when every lead-lap car remaining on the track came down pit road on lap 121 to fulfill their mandatory post-lap 100 pit stop requirement. But he lost valuable track position during his stop when he got boxed in behind the car driven by New Jersey's Ryan Godown and restarted 14th, forcing him to spend the remainder of the distance battling to get back into contention.
But while McCreadie fell one spot short of joining his legendary father, ‘Barefoot' Bob McCreadie, as a Rite Aid 200 winner, a bridesmaid finish was pretty noteworthy considering how his Super DIRT Week began. During Thursday's morning practice he hit a hole that developed in turn one so hard that his car's nose folded under.
McCreadie and Co. had to make an amazing repair job just to get their only car race-ready in time for time trials two-and-a-half hours later. They cut off the car's bent front clip and replaced it with a clip from a used Bicknell frame that was in a nearby racer's shop. After doing some quick welding work and piecing the front end back together, McCreadie was on the track in his assigned qualifying spot.
McCreadie also ran the Super DIRT Week 358-Modified events for the Four Star Transmissions team, an operation owned by New Yorker Vinnie Salerno that is still rebuilding after losing two cars, two engines and countless spare parts and tools to thieves who stole the Four Star hauler from a Drummondville, Que., hotel parking lot last month. T-Mac brought the team a much-needed jolt of joy when he won last Thursday night's Mr. DIRTcar 358-Modified Series 100 at Brewerton Speedway, but he finished 30th in Saturday's Syracuse 150 after sustaining front-end damage in a mid-race scrape.
McCreadie's Sweeteners Plus teammate, 2008 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., also participated in Super DIRT Week activities. The two-time Rite Aid 200 had a week to forget, however, failing to qualify for the 358-Modified Syracuse 150 after his car's engine blew during a Saturday practice session and finishing 41st in the Rite Aid after retiring early due to power-steering problems.
Another personality well-known in dirt Late Model pit areas, Integra Shocks technical representative Brian Daugherty, was in attendance at Super DIRT Week for the first time to help his boss Scott Keyser service the company's DIRTcar Modified customers. Daugherty was seen smiling with Keyser in Victory Lane on Sunday because the top-four finishers in the Rite Aid 200 – Sheppard, McCreadie, Fuller and Frank Cozze of Wind Gap, Pa. – used Integra Shocks.
The 2009 Rite Aid 200 is scheduled for broadcast on the SPEED cable network on Sat., Oct. 31, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Champ Pans, Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tires, Integra Shocks, Jake's Custom Golf Carts, Ohlins Shocks, Racing Electronics, Quarter Master and Wrisco Aluminum; Crane Cams Engine Builder's Challenge participants Cornett Racing Engines, Custom Race Engines and Pro Power Racing Engines; and Chassis Builder Challenge participants Rocket Chassis and Team Zero by Bloomquist.
SYRACUSE, NY – Oct. 12, 2009 – Sure, Tim Fuller's return to his DIRTcar big-block Modified roots for Super DIRT Week XXXVIII at the Syracuse Mile was fairly profitable.
But while the red-hot World of Outlaws Late Model Series star capped his week of open-wheel action in upstate New York with a solid third-place finish in Sunday's Rite Aid 200 big-block Modified spectacular, he couldn't help thinking about the hefty chunk of change that slipped through his fingers.
Fuller, 41, of Watertown, N.Y., lost second place in the 200 to 2006 WoO LMS champion Tim McCreadie on a late-race restart and had a certain runner-up finish in Saturday's 358-Modified Syracuse 150 snatched from his grasp when his car's fuel tank ran dry on the final lap. The 11th-hour heartbreakers cost him nearly $15,000 in purse earnings.
“Don't remind me about that money,” quipped Fuller, a former winner of both marquee Super DIRT Week events. “We were so close to a couple second-place finishes, so from that standpoint it's disappointing. But I can't complain too much because we were able to get out of here with a top-three (finish in the 200), which is never easy.”
Driving for the J&S Racing No. 74 Modified team that fielded cars for him in selected DIRTcar Modified shows throughout the 2009 season, Fuller did pocket over $20,000 for his efforts racing close to home on an off-weekend from WoO LMS competition. His take included $15,000 for third-place in the Rite Aid 200, $3,000 for winning the event's pole position (for the second straight year) and nearly $2,000 in lap money.
Fuller, who led laps 1-72 of the 200 before making his first of two scheduled pit stops, appeared to be in perfect position to bid for victory when a caution flag flew on lap 192. With longtime race leader Jimmy Phelps of Baldwinsville, N.Y., who had relinquished the top spot to Matt Sheppard of Waterloo, N.Y., just two laps earlier, forced pitside with a blown right-rear tire, Fuller found himself sitting in second place right on Sheppard's rear bumper.
Unfortunately, while Fuller had nearly a half-lap deficit to Sheppard erased by the caution flag, he would have rather seen Phelps get his stricken car to pit row without slowing the race.
“I didn't want to see any restarts,” said Fuller, who drove the same Teo-Pro car that he's run in the last four Rite Aid 200s (it's his own mount but carried the J&S team's numbers and colors this year). “I knew I was dead meat on the restarts. I was horrible on cold tires. It took seven or eight laps to get my tires warmed up and then I'd pick up a whole second (on the stopwatch).
“They (his crew) came on the radio (during the final caution period) and said, ‘Hey, you got a shot at Sheppard,'” he continued. “I said, ‘Look it, I need to hang on to second – and I don't think I can,' because (the car) was just so much of a handful in the corners (after restarts). I couldn't keep it down (in the groove). It was just pushing and loose.”
Indeed, Fuller couldn't hold off McCreadie when the green flag flew for the final time with four laps remaining. McCreadie blasted by Fuller entering turn one and tried to run down Sheppard as Fuller struggled to avoid falling even further.
Sheppard, a 26-year-old who made his dirt Late Model debut on Sept. 2 in the WoO LMS event at Brewerton (N.Y.) Speedway, held on to capture the $50,000 Rite Aid 200 check for the first time in his career. McCreadie settled for second, 2.682 seconds behind Sheppard.
“It was just unfortunate to lose second,” said Fuller, who won the 200 in 2004 and was the runner-up in 2006. “That was probably a $10,000 spot (difference between second and third place) that I lost there with a few laps to go, but it is what it is.”
At least Fuller didn't tumble completely out of the money in the 200. He did just that on Saturday, when an empty fuel tank on the last circuit of the 358-Modified Syracuse 150 left him with a 15th-place finish as his good buddy Billy Decker of Unadilla, N.Y., who enters selected WoO LMS events as Fuller's Gypsum Express Racing teammate, celebrated a $20,000-plus triumph in the event for the second consecutive season.
Fuller blamed his 358-Modified disappointment on a communication problem with his pit crew. His two-way radio malfunctioned early in the race and thus he wasn't aware that he was close on fuel and needed to conserve a bit more as the race wound down.
Fuller left the New York State Fairgrounds on Sunday evening ready to shift his focus back to dirt Late Model racing. He is headed to The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., on Wednesday night (Oct. 14) for the Topless Showdown presented by Hungry Man, a roof-less 50-lap WoO LMS event that could be worth as much as $30,000 to its winner depending on starting position.
“I'm looking forward to the Topless race,” said Fuller, who sits fourth in the WoO LMS points standings. “I haven't been in a Late Model in awhile, so I'm anxious to get back to it and try to pick up where we left off about a month ago.”
Fuller won the last WoO LMS A-Main contested, on Sept. 6 at Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pa. – his seventh win in the last 11 tour events – and finished 25th in the following week's UMP DIRTcar-sanctioned World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Rain washed out Fuller's planned Outlaw weekend in the Midwest on Sept. 19-20, and since then he's run only DIRTcar Modified events in New York.
“You gotta get your mindset back to (dirt Late Model racing) – especially after you come here and run 140 miles per hour for 200 laps,” Fuller said when asked about the challenge awaiting him at The Dirt Track. “You have to go down there and jump in a different animal. With no roof (for Wednesday's special), it'll be even more different.”
The Topless Showdown features a unique bonus program and starting-position draw. It offers a base purse of $10,000 for first place, but if the driver who wins the A-Main submitted an official entry form prior to deadline they will also receive a ‘passing' bonus in an amount equal to $1,000 multiplied by their starting position.
In addition, the heat-race qualifiers will participate in the ‘Southern Fried Scramble' draw that gives them a chance to play it safe or roll the dice in pursuit of the maximum $20,000 bonus prize. The draw will consist of five buckets holding four starting-spot pills each – positions 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16 and 17-20.
When the drivers are called up to draw in the order of their heat finishes (winners first, etc.), they'll have the option of selecting a pill from any of the buckets. Essentially they can guarantee themselves a starting spot in the first two rows of the A-Main by staying conservative and sticking their hand in the first bucket – or they can go for a position further back in the field that would set them up to claim a huge paycheck if they win the Showdown.
With Fuller standing as one of the country's hottest dirt Late Model drivers, will he go for the highest starting-position bucket if he has the opportunity?
“I will be a pussy and draw from the one through four (bucket),” asserted Fuller with a sheepish grin. “A bird in a hand is better than two in a bush. I'd love to win more money, but I'll go for the better starting spot.”
McCreadie, meanwhile, enjoyed the most successful Super DIRT Week of his career. In his first competitive appearance at the Syracuse Mile since 2005, the 35-year-old DIRTcar Modified-turned-dirt Late Model superstar placed second in the Rite Aid 200 to collect over $25,000.
“It feels great just to finally finish this race,” said McCreadie, who had never been running at the end of the Rite Aid 200 in his nine previous starts. “But I would've liked to have won it. If we would've gotten a couple breaks we might've been able to pull it off.”
Driving a big-block Modified from the stable of the same Sweeteners Plus team that supplies his dirt Late Model equipment, McCreadie had moved up to fifth place from the 28th starting spot when every lead-lap car remaining on the track came down pit road on lap 121 to fulfill their mandatory post-lap 100 pit stop requirement. But he lost valuable track position during his stop when he got boxed in behind the car driven by New Jersey's Ryan Godown and restarted 14th, forcing him to spend the remainder of the distance battling to get back into contention.
But while McCreadie fell one spot short of joining his legendary father, ‘Barefoot' Bob McCreadie, as a Rite Aid 200 winner, a bridesmaid finish was pretty noteworthy considering how his Super DIRT Week began. During Thursday's morning practice he hit a hole that developed in turn one so hard that his car's nose folded under.
McCreadie and Co. had to make an amazing repair job just to get their only car race-ready in time for time trials two-and-a-half hours later. They cut off the car's bent front clip and replaced it with a clip from a used Bicknell frame that was in a nearby racer's shop. After doing some quick welding work and piecing the front end back together, McCreadie was on the track in his assigned qualifying spot.
McCreadie also ran the Super DIRT Week 358-Modified events for the Four Star Transmissions team, an operation owned by New Yorker Vinnie Salerno that is still rebuilding after losing two cars, two engines and countless spare parts and tools to thieves who stole the Four Star hauler from a Drummondville, Que., hotel parking lot last month. T-Mac brought the team a much-needed jolt of joy when he won last Thursday night's Mr. DIRTcar 358-Modified Series 100 at Brewerton Speedway, but he finished 30th in Saturday's Syracuse 150 after sustaining front-end damage in a mid-race scrape.
McCreadie's Sweeteners Plus teammate, 2008 WoO LMS Rookie of the Year Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., also participated in Super DIRT Week activities. The two-time Rite Aid 200 had a week to forget, however, failing to qualify for the 358-Modified Syracuse 150 after his car's engine blew during a Saturday practice session and finishing 41st in the Rite Aid after retiring early due to power-steering problems.
Another personality well-known in dirt Late Model pit areas, Integra Shocks technical representative Brian Daugherty, was in attendance at Super DIRT Week for the first time to help his boss Scott Keyser service the company's DIRTcar Modified customers. Daugherty was seen smiling with Keyser in Victory Lane on Sunday because the top-four finishers in the Rite Aid 200 – Sheppard, McCreadie, Fuller and Frank Cozze of Wind Gap, Pa. – used Integra Shocks.
The 2009 Rite Aid 200 is scheduled for broadcast on the SPEED cable network on Sat., Oct. 31, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Armor All (Official Car Care Products), Crane Cams (Official Valvetrain), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Fusion Energy Boost (Official Energy Boost), SuperClean (Official Cleaner-Degreaser) and VP Racing (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors Champ Pans, Eibach Springs, Hoosier Tires, Integra Shocks, Jake's Custom Golf Carts, Ohlins Shocks, Racing Electronics, Quarter Master and Wrisco Aluminum; Crane Cams Engine Builder's Challenge participants Cornett Racing Engines, Custom Race Engines and Pro Power Racing Engines; and Chassis Builder Challenge participants Rocket Chassis and Team Zero by Bloomquist.
