Muskingum County Speedway
Fuller eyes fifth straight at Muskingum County
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Tim Fuller's team celebrates at Hagerstown. (pbase.com/cyberslash)
Can anyone stop Tim Fuller on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series? That question will be answered Thursday at Muskingum County Speedway, where Fuller will bid to set the tour’s modern-era (2004-present) consecutive win record in the rescheduled Pepsi 40.
Fuller, 41, of Watertown, N.Y., is on an absolute roll, carrying a four-race win streak into the $7,000-to-win mid-week event. His runaway victory last Saturday night at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway allowed him to equal the WoO record of four wins in a row established in 2006 by Rick Eckert of York, Pa. The 2007 WoO Rookie of the Year feels confident that he can make Outlaw history.
“I never would’ve thought we would win four in a row, so anything’s possible,” said Fuller, a veteran big-block modified standout who switched his focus to Dirt Late Model racing in 2007. “It would be great if we beat the record, but if we don’t, we don’t. We’ll just move on to the next race.”
Muskingum County would seem to be a great place for Fuller to chase the mark. He proved he can get around Ronnie Moran’s 3/8-mile oval in the first-ever WoO event held there in 2008, charging from the 18th starting spot to finish second. In addition, before rain postponed this year’s Pepsi 40 on its original July 23 date, he qualified 10th-fastest among 45 cars.
With WoO rules dictating that Thursday’s program will start from scratch, Fuller will have a whole new set of time trials to perhaps put him in even better position for a fifth straight checkered flag.
“I feel pretty good about going there,” Fuller said of Muskingum County. “We were pretty good there last year — we gambled on a tire (compound) in the feature and it worked out for us — and I think we were gonna be OK there last month if it wouldn’t have rained.
“But it’s no secret how you win these races. You gotta time trial well. You gotta draw (starting spots for the A-Main) well. You gotta make good choices.
“Right now everything we’re doing is right,” he added. “For some reason all my dials are pointing up. We’re just gonna try to keep riding the wave as long as we can.”
Fuller started his sizzling summer streak with his first WoO win of the season on July 25 at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio. He went on to enjoy a big weekend at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. — winning a World Dirt Racing League event on July 30 and scoring a $20,000 second-place finish in the USA Nationals 100 on Aug. 1 — before sweeping last weekend’s three-race WoO Mid-Atlantic swing, which made him the first driver in the tour’s modern era to win at three different tracks on consecutive nights.
Throw in Fuller’s two lucrative DIRTcar big-block modified outings on off weekends – a $6,000 runner-up finish on July 19 in the All-Star 100 at Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., and a $6,000 victory on Aug. 8 in the Super DIRTcar Series 100 at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Speedway — and his earnings for the past five weeks total more than $76,000.
“My best stretch of racing ever was in 2004 when I won the Victoria 200 (at New York’s Fulton Speedway) and Syracuse (the Rite Aid 200 at the one-mile New York State Fairgrounds) in the same week,” said Fuller, remembering back-to-back big-block modified triumphs worth $25,000 and $50,000-plus. “But as far as racing at this level, against the best Dirt Late Model drivers in the country, nothing tops what we’re doing right now.”
How did Fuller and his Gypsum Express team suddenly get on such a roll? He has no real answer for that question.
“We have been good since Ohsweken (Ontario on June 18) but just hadn’t been able to close the deal,” said Fuller, whose outburst has moved him to fifth in the WoO points standings, just six points behind fourth-place Eckert. “I think we had a good enough car to win at Ohsweken but we broke a shock. We broke leading at Canandaigua (on June 23). We were fast at Lernerville (the Firecracker 100 on June 27) but got tangled up with (Brian) Birkhofer.
“Now we have luck on our side, we’re getting all the breaks. I don’t know what changed. Why do you win on a slot machine? It’s just your time. When it’s on, it’s on.”
