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Decker Best of Fast Wednesday Utica-Rome Field |
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08/15/08 -
By JR KENNERUP
Vernon, NY - All it took was a little liquid sunshine during the late afternoon to turn the Utica Rome Speedway into one scary fast race track on Wednesday night. Billy Decker set the quick pace in the heat race with a new track record and continued his domination as he set another new track record during the 61 lap Remembering Richie Evans Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Tour feature event at the Utica Rome Speedway.
Decker who won his heat redrew the outside pole starting position for the $6,161.61 to win event. He jumped out to the lead at the drop of the green and was never seriously challenged as he claimed another big money victory this year.
Fifth place starter Jimmy Phelps came on strong the longer the race lasted to end up second with tenth place starter Alan Johnson bringing the Jake Spraker owned car into third. Willy Decker who started sixth ended up fourth in his small block earning the $500 bonus while Brett Hearn came from 12th to finish fifth.
"We were on rails for a while tonight as this Gypsum Wholesalers car was incredible," said race winner Billy Decker of Sidney, NY. "With as much bite you got coming off the turns it was definitely a big block track tonight."
Possibly Billy’s biggest decision came before the races even started as he had to decide which potent John Wight owned car to run, a small block or the big block.
"When we got here Scott (crew chief Jeffrey) made the call along with Donnie, and the whole crew worked their tails off to get that car ready to go tonight."
Billy explained by no means was it an easy win. "The car at the beginning of the feature was supersonic. Then I drove off the end of the track in turns one and two (lap 52) and I said wow! As about lap 50 I couldn’t turn left anymore while in the turns."
With the track slickening up Billy made a wise lane choice at the half way mark of the race. With early contender Pat Ward sent to the pits with a flat right rear Jimmy Phelps, now in second was closing in on Billy for the lead. The veteran driver moved down one groove to race in the brown clay and that was all he needed as he opened back up his big lead.
Billy spoke about the lane change. "I had to do something as I started to get tight; I saw the brown in the middle of the race track and went there. Must be a lot of guys went there as that burned off in about ten laps after I started running there. That lane change really helped us as I didn’t have to go all the way to the top of the track, especially coming off four as I didn’t want to catch the outside wall down there. Then when I got into the brown the car drove off the corners really well after that for a while."
"Yea we were motoring around here tonight," said Billy with a smile. "The track surface tonight was a product of Mother Nature as it made it a big block track tonight. Obviously they got a ton of rain here today but you have to give them credit as they had the track smooth, wide, and very fast."
Billy finished up by commenting on winning a race run in the memory of Richie Evans. "It doesn’t matter what corner of the country you go to race in, everybody knows about Richie Evans. Everybody has a good story about Richie Evans and everybody reminisces about him and certainly he is an icon of the sport. I’m just very proud to win on Richie Evans Night."
Second place finisher Jimmy Phelps brought his self owned J & B Installations car home in second. "We’re happy with a second as we didn’t really know what to expect," said the Baldwinsville, NY driver. "I don’t have a ton of experience on American Racers so we’ll take a second.
"We got caught up early in the race and got behind as it seemed we couldn’t get going on the restarts. Then around lap 15 the car just took off as he started to roll around the top pretty good. I think Billy and I both got tight at the same time and I couldn’t make up any ground on him. As he started to shove, I started to shove at the same time; it’s just one of those deals."
"Bottom line is we’re just real happy as we don’t do this stuff that much with my car," summarized Jimmy.
"Coming here and getting second with my own car is great for my team as they don’t get a chance to do these specials too much anymore."
Dirt Modified driving legend Alan Johnson of Phelps, NY made his initial outing in the Jake Spraker owned car pay off with a solid third place finish. "With the competition here tonight you got to be happy with a third, it was a tough crowd to race against."
Alan had a little trouble that hampered him at the beginning of the race.
"I had a tear off on the front of the screen right in front of my vision and I couldn’t see a thing. After that the inside of my shield started to get condensation on it, I just had a tough time seeing the whole race as I couldn’t see nothing."
Qualifying for the 41 car field saw heat wins captured by Billy Van Pelt, Decker, Gus Schmidt, Jr., Phelps, and Ward. The B Mains were won by Mike Colsten and Jimmy Davis.
VERNON VISIONS: Plenty of credit needs to go out to Gene Cole and Barb Clark of Utica Rome who waited out the weather to put on this show. Track preparation guru Roger Heroux provided a table top smooth racing surface all night long. At every attempt Heroux was out removing the knee high to a gorilla cushion to widen out the racing groove. The high speed racing kept everyone on the edge of their seats all night long. Pat Ward who has been the hottest driver all year at Utica Rome clinched the RoC Dart Dirt Regular Season point title worth $1,000 with his heat win on this night. Ward might have had something for Decker in the feature until jumping the huge cushion, which flattened his right rear tire on lap 27, Ward raced back to seventh at the checkers. Decker had the new track record in the heat by running an 18.762 lap and that new track record was lowered in the B Main by Jimmy Davis who turned an 18.659 lap. Decker came back in the feature to reset the new standard with a lap of 18.508. Gary Folk, Sr. who was the flagger at the last asphalt Utica Rome New Yorker 200 in 1978, which happened to be won by Richie Evans threw the green flag to start the feature. Richie’s multi time National NASCAR Modified Championship Modified was on display along with the Big Orange 61 Pickup. Many members of Richie’s family were in attendance and were very happy to see the number 61 retired from competition at Utica Rome before the feature started. Chad Phelps lost his B Main win when he was penalized one spot for rough riding while Robert King lost his transfer spot in a second B Main to being light at the scales after the event. Steve Paine was driving the Joe Beyea owned car wrenched by Randy Kisacky. Mike Ricci broke a water pump in hot laps which forced him to miss his heat race. RoC would like to send out their condolences to Utica Rome Pace Car driver Ron DeYulio on the recent passing of his wife, Linda back on August 6th.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT MODIFIED TOUR RICHIE EVANS REMEMBERED 61
FINISH: Billy Decker, Jimmy Phelps, Alan Johnson, Willy Decker, Brett Hearn, Steve Hulsizer, Pat Ward, Steve Paine, Bobby Varin, Brian Weaver, Jeff Rudalavage, Alan Barker, Jimmy Davis, Larry Wight, Paul Kinney, Billy Van Pelt, Gus Schmidt, Jr., Chad Phelps, Mike Colsten, Paul Jensen, Jackie Brown, Jr., Billy Shantel, Jr., Mitch Gibbs, Ryan Phelps, Stewart Friesen, Jamie Christian, Ronnie Johnson, Bob Henry, Jr.
DNQ’S; Tony Steiner, Robert King, Jeremy Vunk, Jeff Kotary, John Lutes, Jr., Timmy Nye, Mike Ward, Brian Murphy, Mike Ricci, Bill Trexler, Ted Lamb, Jr., Darwin R. Greene, John Ramsey.
RoC PROVISIONALS: Rudalavage, Weaver.
ACCORD PROVISIONAL: Brown.
UTICA ROME PROVISIONAL: Kinney.
LAP LEADERS; B. Decker (1-61).
DART MACHINERY SMALL BLOCK BONUS $500: W. Decker.
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