By BILL FOLEY
A few weeks ago a frustrated Mike Bowman said to me, “We just weren’t making any progress and going backwards so we decided to go back to the beginning and start over.”
Well, that decision has paid off tremendously as on Saturday night, for the first time in five years, Bowman captured the Modified main at the Route 57 track.
Sometimes you never see a guy creeping through the field to head toward the front, but Bowman made no mistake. He was seen and boy, was he seen. Mike started back in 12th position and by lap nine he moved into second with a pass of two of Matt Hulsizer and seconds later shuffled Ryan Jordan to the runner-up spot.
Bowman loved the outside early and his white car was a blur as he passed cars quickly and efficiently.
He saw his race a little differently than the guys in the tower calling the action. Mike said, “I was taking my time. Four week ago we made major changes.”
Those changes have paid off as it was a deserving victory for the Baldwinsville based team.
First Time Winners
On Friday there were three of four first time winners as Jim Witko won his first Brewerton feature in 12 years, Stephen Denton his first in seven seasons and Dakota Bechler gained his initial victory lane interview.
Well, Saturday Nate Higgins who not that long ago was a Novice Sportsman captured his first Sportsman victory.
A humble Higgins started in front, but said, “It is an honor to win here at Fulton. I’ve been coming here for 15 years and it means so much to get this win.”
Matt Becker, a Novice Sportsman competitor, started the year and couldn’t even keep the car running. However, on July 8 he not only kept it running, but won his first feature event. It was the last race of the night and the grandstands were relatively barren of bodies. However, two time feature winner Tom Juno and Becker ran side by side, swapped the lead numerous times and it was actually a pretty darn good race.
Jake Davis ran away with the other Novice main as the improvement shown by the recent high school grad has been remarkable. He noted they had made some changes in the suspension and it meant the difference.
Ferguson from Second to 20th
Not the night Andrew Ferguson was hoping for after coming off a career best at Brewerton the night before.
He pulled out on lap 21 and noted, “The torsion bar went in the heat. The car was fast in hot laps, but way off the pace the rest of the night.”
The team recently put in a new motor in the Mod.
Ferguson said, “We had a new set, but I had to work on Saturday and there wasn’t time to change them. We had ten races on them and we usually change them after eight religiously. My fault. We changed them and will be ready for Weedsport on Tuesday.”
Continuing he said, “I also really struggle when the track gets black like that. I, for the life of me, can’t figure that kind of surface out.”
Pit Stops
Amy Holland brought a new Teo to the pits and the beautiful five is one sharp machine. She was fairing well, but went around between three and four in the Sportsman main. She said she would be back at Fulton this week…
Ryan Jordan had a crack in his big-block and is looking for another block. He put in the small block and led the Mod main early before settling for his career best second place. He finished less than a half second out of first…
Chris Hile has a new motor and it is potent. It is one that Billy Decker set fast time at Syracuse win. His third place was decent in the Mod main…
Matt Hulsizer continues to show consistency and he rolled home fifth. He was third at the halfway point and ran there most of the race. It was seven laps from the end when Hile and Larry Wight got by…
Todd Root was back in Victory Lane in the Sportsman. He destroyed the car a week ago Wednesday in a violent multi car-crash at Can Am. The cowling on the car is what remained from Larry Wights Utica-Rome crash. The yellow car looks different with the red 99L hardware, but Root says, “It stays on I’m superstitious. We won and the car stays the same.”…
Good main with Chris Mackey finishing just .7 of a second behind the winner…
Max McLaughlin has a frustrating night. His primary car kept cutting out and losing power in hot laps and the heat. They went to the back up and he started 21st, but came back and salvaged a 13th. Max came out after the races as I think they had fixed the primary machine in prep for the Cornwall SDS show scheduled for Sunday (it was rained out)…
Nick Webb a late arrival as Can Am got rained out…
Roy Bresnahan discovered a torsion bar problem in the left rear of the car during the autograph session. Roy ran 11 laps and finished last…
Big-block rookie Kody Graham talked about how difficult it has been for him to adjust from asphalt to dirt. He said, “I have to forget everything I did on asphalt and change it.”
He noted the biggest change is that in a super you don’t want the rear end to come around, but that isn’t the case in a dirt Mod…
Late Model contender Dale Caswell pitted in his heat when “the air in the new tire decided to leave…
Bret Belden led for a long time in the Late Model feature, but Jason Parkhurst eventually got him. Bret has been doing quite a good thing fighting bullying and supporting kids who have been targets. Great cause and great dedication by the veteran driver…
Chris Fleming broke a rear end on Friday at Outlaw, but rallied for a third at Fulton in the LM main on Saturday…
Mike Kazmierczak has one of the top graphic looks on his 118. Take a look at it and I’m sure you’ll like it. A major difference from what he was running…
In the first Sportsman main late arrivals from the Can Am rainout Joel Hargrave and Andrew Wren finished ninth and 14th…
On the night in the Sportsman point leader Ron Davis III finished seventh, runner up Jeremy Pitcher sixth, third Todd Root won, Glen Forward (fourth in points) fourth and fifth point man Corey Barker third…
In the Mods point leader Larry Wight was fourth, Tim Sears Jr. eighth, Jimmy Phelps sixth, Pat Ward 10th and Billy Whittaker ninth. Not a great night for the top five, but that is what happens in green to checker features…
Ryan Jordan’s night almost ended early. In his heat he was up front and spun in turn four. Jimmy Witko made a hard right and left turn as he had Jordan lined up perfectly. Roy Bresnahan, Pat Ward, Chris Hile and Pat Ward also could have hammered the R21, but all evaded contact. Great driving…
Dakota Bechler won his second Four Cylinder main of the weekend, but Quinn Wallis did everything in his power to win. It was a solid feature event…
43 Sportsman, 21 Mods, 19 Novice Sportsman, 13 Late Models, 14 Four Cylinders…
Torrey Stoughtenger and his team donated a bike to the junior fan club and a young boy, at his first race, stood on the track getting his photo taken with his new bike. Thanks to the 7s team…
Jessica Power brought along t-shirts and hoodies to sell and her representative was sitting in a chair with a sign and the container of clothes. No table. She said,”We checked the trailer and their was no table.” Jessica later said, “Guess it was my fault I didn’t load the table”. They’ll have a table in the future. Tough night as the front end collapsed on the 52 in the main…
Mike Phelps was my favorite driver during autograph session as he had banana Laffy Taffy. One of my favorites. Also thanks to the fans who supplied me with some and the fella who gave me the atomic fireball…
Photographer John Meloling lost a battle with a tow truck and was treated by track safety teams. He banged himself up, but was back in action the next night at Utica Rome. He was a bit sore and his knees were pretty banged up. Racing photogs have a relatively thankless job and give a lot to the fans and drivers, but aren’t always recognized…
That’s it for this time. Busy week and will be Makin’ Tracks to Weedsport for the SDS show on Tuesday and the season opener at Rolling Wheels on Thursday night. Any news, comments or whatever send along to foley395@hotmail.com
