By Bill Foley
John Wight dropped the Big Blocks a few years ago and there were plenty of naysayers.
He brought in the 358 Modifieds as the headline class and for a while the fields were on the short side. Wight had hoped to convince the Sportsman drivers to take a leap to the 358’s.
At first a few did, but now his plan seems to have reached fruition.
If you hadn’t gone to Fulton Speedway in recent years you might have thought the 358 Modified feature on Saturday night was actually a Sportsman feature.
As the field rolled around the track on the pace lap the former Sportsman drivers (and I might be wrong on a couple or miss one) were Ronnie Davis III, Tim Sears Jr., Dave Marcuccilli, Larry Wight, Robert Gage, Jack Meeks, Amy Holland, Billy Dunn, Chris Mackey, Alan Fink, Tommy Collins, Tyler Meeks, Corey Barker, Brent Joy, Robert Bublak, C.J. Castelletti, Teddy Star and A.J. Kingsley along with former late model competitors Chris Cunningham and Jason Parkhurst.
The plan worked.
Davis Finally Celebrates
The 32R team has had little to celebrate.
Starting out at Volusia where it took days to get to Florida and days to get back due to toter troubles and had mechanical woes in the Sunshine State.
Litttle success in the early season.
However, after taking the lead around the 15th lap and surviving a late race where it looked like Tim Sears Jr. and Larry Wight would get him, Davis celebrated with his dad in victory lane. It’s been a while since the father-son have smiled at a race track.
Hopefully, the start of good things.
Feel Good Story
Andrew Ferguson has had some tough luck.
Nearly everytime he gets a sniff of success he gets snake bitten.
However, he had a solid run and came home in fifth place.
Robert Gage Surprises
It was the first time I’d see Robert Gage run a 358 at Fulton and he made quite an impression.
He took the lead on the sixth lap and maintained it until the 14th when eventual winner Ronnie Davis III got past him.
He went to second and stayed there until there were probably around 12 laps to go.
He settled for sixth, but he had a solid run.
Marcuccilli Had a Run
Early season racing and the handicap system was in place as Larry Wight, Tim Sears, along with Dave Marcuccilli and other solid runners started in back.
The M1 came off the line in 14th and at one time early one fell to 16th. He got to eighth on the 22nd and was content running the high side.
Fifth on 27, fourth on 31 and with a drag race off the fourth turn on the final lap got Larry Wight for the final podium spot. Hell, of a run.
Weird Time Consuming Wreck
Modifieds seem to get locked together from time to time and every one is totally different.
Such was the case at Fulton in a Sportsman heat.
Coming down the front stretch, just past the starters stand Remington Ham’s left front wheel somehow got inside of the right rear wheel of Joe Kline. The entire left wheel and suspension were tucked in behind the Kline wheel well and up under the body panel.
Tow Trucks simply couldn’t get the job done and out comes a huge payloader. He locked on to the car and tries to separate them.
It wasn’t going to be easy and probably took well over 20 minutes before they were separated.
Certainly was interesting.
Tyler Corcoran Gets Win
In his heat Tyler Corcoran lined up on the front row, but he was penalized when officials said he jumped the start. He finished behind Mike Root.
However, his luck certainly changed in the main as he took the lead early and held on holding off defending track champ Andrew Buff for a narrow win and his first win of the year. Richard Murtaugh, Clayton Brewer and teenager Jason Parkhurst finished the top five.
John Pietrowicz Strange Night
John Pietrowicz in his Hobby car didn’t even get out for hot lap as he had distributor issues.
In his heat as he was lining up suddenly the car spun out between three and four on the warm up lap.
It certainly didn’t appear anything was going his way, but come feature time he took the former 711 Russ Marsden ride to the front and ran away in the 20 lapper.
Good seeing John back in victory lane after taking a hiatus of several years from the sport.
Also neat that his son Jake was there proudly watching his dad.
Pit Notes-36 Sportsman, 27 Modifieds, 10 Hobby and 8 Novice Sportsman…Mod lites were canceled as they have had plenty of carnage in the class recently and are down cars…Gotta love watching the likes of Davis, Wight and Tim Sears Jr. come from the back of the pack…Eric Fink had the track in great shape. Minimal dust….Ferris Mowers had the Stewart Friesen truck on display and there were lawn more races and among the racers were Amy Holland, Tim Sears Jr. and Ronnie Davis…Owen Bird won the Novice race…Amy Holland finished eighth after starting back in the field. She was fifth the first night out in her rookie debut the week before….DNS for the main were A.J. Kingsley and Tim Harris. Harris suffered significant damage in his qualifying heat…Only one Sportsman feature as a 12 lap B main was held. Fulton has run two Sportsman features a night for a few years…Demo derby on tap for this coming Saturday.
