October 5, 1997

BILLY PAUCH DOMINATES FIELD FOR SIXTH CAREER VICTORIA 200 VICTORY;
USES PROVISIONAL SPOT TO POCKET OVER $20,000 WITH VICTORY
BY KEVIN RICE, reprinted with permission from Gater Racing News

FULTON, NY...Billy Pauch came from the 38th starting spot, taking the lead on lap 64, and lapping all but two cars as he dominated a stellar field of small block modifieds in the Budweiser Victoria 200 presented by Nice-N-Easy Grocery Shoppes at Fulton Speedway. The win was worth more than $20,000 for the New Jersey native after he used a provisional spot to make the field.

"We drove that one like it was a sprint car. We just couldn't get anything going on the bottom. I just kept the momentum up there on top," he stated.

At the start it was Todd Burley taking the initial lead with Brett Hearn, Dale Planck, Tom Kinsella and Pete Bicknell in pursuit. Pat Ward spun in turn four on lap 10, losing one lap. On the restart, Hearn took over the top spot. Bicknell lost a left rear tire on lap 16, spinning out of fifth spot. Hearn stayed in control as racing resumed, with Planck and Burley running even for second over the next several laps. Behind them it was Danny Johnson, Mike Romano and Kinsella. Pauch was up to 23rd spot on lap 30.

Polesitter Fran Hilton spun on lap 39, and Mike Ricci headed to the pits. On the lap 45 restart, Pauch went to the top of the racetrack and began passing several cars per lap. The lap 50 order had Hearn leading Burley, Johnson, Richie Tobias from 24th spot, Planck, Romano, Jeff Strunk, Kinsella and Pauch.

Tobias looked impressive taking the lead on lap 58 from Hearn, but all eyes were on Pauch, as he made the cushion work near the outer wall. He was in fourth spot on lap 58. Following a quick caution, he drove around the top three in two laps to gain a lead on lap 64 that he would never relinquish.

The race behind him turned into devastation just moments later. On lap 68, Danny Johnson made contact with Dale Planck off turn two, setting off a nineteen car pileup, with only Alan Johnson able to pull away. Many of the cars were heavily damaged in turn three as the track became blocked and cars slid into the mess.

Planck's car was destroyed. Also with heavily damaged cars were Kinsella, Barker, Jeff Sykes, Dominic Roselli and Joe Slawiak. Others involved included Ken Brightbill, Jimmy Phelps, Pat Ward, AJ Romano, Mike Colsten, Kirk Horton, Larry Welling, Ron Holmes, Billy Wilcox, Butch Tittle, Rick Wilson and George Kostelansky and Jeff Walton. Johnson was penalized one lap for both pitting and working on the car during the red flag.

When racing resumed after a lengthy cleanup, Pauch continued his assault on the field. Strunk took second spot by lap 73. In the laps to follow, Hearn and Roger Phelps each lost one lap. Hearn had a flat tire and Phelps a broken shock. Mitch Gibbs, Tobias and Romano tangled in turn one on lap 85, with Gibbs the only one to get a hook, but Tobias lost two laps.

Romano lost one lap moments late when Jim Mahaney got turned up the track in turn four into Romano. JJ Michaels got helped into the wall on lap 95. Passing was continuous behind Pauch, and at the lap 100 break he was trailed by Jack Johnson, Strunk, Danny Johnson, Bob Varin, Don Wetmore, Billy Decker, Todd Burley, Ron Holmes, Jim Phelps, Gus Schmidt, Rich Ricci, Lee Gill, Paul Jensen and Kostelansky. All others appeared to be lapped at this time.

Pauch led the second half of the race all of the way. Jack Johnson pulled from the field in second spot, while the rest of the field was changing spots in every turn. The race stayed green from laps 108 to 179 when Paul Jensen spun in turn two. During that time Pauch opened a half track lead, putting most cars laps down. By lap 140 the only lead lap cars besides Pauch were Jack and Danny Johnson, Jeff Strunk, Billy Decker, Gus Schmidt and Todd Burley.

Jack Johnson made a stop under green on lap 168 with a flat tire. By that time Pauch was about to put fourth place Jeff Strunk down one lap, which he did on lap 169. Following the Jensen spin, the order appeared to be Pauch, Johnson, Decker, and Strunk. Pauch quickly opened up a lead on the restart and pulled into victory lane ahead of Danny Johnson, Billy Decker, Alan Johnson, and Jeff Strunk.

The long green stretch left a doubt as to who was in the top ten at the finish, but there was no doubt that Pauch shocked everyone in the place by dominating such a stellar field with a groove that no other driver could make work.

A massive pileup on lap 68 left 18 cars unable to move in turn three. Several drivers told me that Danny Johnson slid up into Dale Planck off turn two to trigger the mishap, but none wanted to describe it in a quote. Johnson told me when asked what happened, "I don't know anything about it. It was all behind me." He later had an on-track feud with Richie Tobias. They made contact several times under green and yellow conditions.

Billy Pauch said, "On the last lap I had a pretty good lead, so I just backed out at the end. I figured we had a pretty good lead. I didn't want to take any chance ofpoppingatireor something." He also noted, "It goes back a long way this race. I'm proud to be a six time winner. It's nice to be a five time winner. I'll tell you, I love coming up here to race with these guys. They give you room. It's a nice wide race track. I wish every track was as racey as this. It's a real show."

Donnie Wetmore after coming from deep in the field to sixth in the first 100 states, "For the second 100 there it just wouldn't go, right from the start. I don't know what happened." On the pileup, "It looked like Dale got together with somebody and got up into the wall. After that I don't know what happened."

Jeff Strunk after a top five run stated, "We're satisfied, but we would have like to have done a little better, at least to have been on the lead lap anyway. With the clientele we were around we can't complain. They're the best in the business, but we want to be one of the guys that beats them one day. We took a hard one last Sunday. That was tough to swallow at Susquehanna. But we finished here. This was our best run here by far. We struggled here for a couple years. I don't know where we ended up. They're arguing I guess fifth or sixth, but it was a good run for us."

Getting an official finish, even of the top five was difficult to figure out because so many cars got lapped, many twice or more. The only thing certain, I believe is the top three of Pauch, Johnson and Decker. Everybody else got lapped at least once.

Mike Romano finished two laps down. He got lapped once and lost another when he got stuck in a turn four incident. A flat tire cost Jack Johnson a sure second place. Fran Hilton had a good heat run and drew the pole, going a lap down when he spun on lap 39. Todd Burley was fast all weekend long. A broken shock cost Roger Phelps. The Jimmy Phelps crew did quite a job getting his car back out after heavy right side damage from the pileup. Alan Johnson's car had right rear damage after the pileup. That incident heavily damaged several cars, but Planck's car looks beyond repair. Larry welling ended up on top of Dominic Roselli's car. No injuries in that other than Planck being shaken up a bit. JJ Michaels went down a lap early, and then got spun into the frontstretch wall. Gus Schmidt came from dead last to run fifth before a right rear flat sent him to the pits with just a couple of laps to go.
An impressive run for Bobby Varin in Eric Kingsley's car. Mitch Gibbs had a weekend just like his season, getting caught up in tangles in both qualifying and feature events. Tobias lost a possible top five with his tangle with Gibbs. Mike Ricci was headed to the front early before he made a pitstop.

Qualifying finishes: Heat 1: Jim Mahaney,Tom Kinsella, Butch Tittle, Larry Welling, Richie Tobias. Heat 2: Jeff Strunk, Pete Bicknell, Dick Longstreet, Rich Krum, Roger Phelps. Heat 3: Jack Johnson, Dale Planck, Jim Phelps, Rich Ricci, Ken Brightbill. Heat 4: Todd Burley, Fran Hilton, Shawn Donath, Jerry Northrup, Tom Sears. Heat 5: Billy Wilcox, Rick Wilson, Mike Ricci, Bobby Puckett, Barry Poitras. Heat 6: Brett Hearn, Lee Gill, Kirk Horton, Mike Costen, Tim Olenski. Heat 7: Mike Ricci, Roger Phelps, Mike Schane, Jeff Rudalavage, Billy Decker. Heat 8: AJ Romano, Joe Slawiak, Dave Camara, Billy Whittaker, Bobby Varin. Heat 9: Mike Romano, Pat Ward, Alan Johnson, Bill Abold, Jeff Walton. Heat 10: Danny Johnson, Lance Lauffenburger, Jeff Bronson, Mitch Gibbs, Dominic Roselli. Semi-Feature (5 qualify into positions 20-24): Mike Ricci, Jimmy Phelps, Rich Ricci, Kenny Brightbill, Richie Tobias, Dave Camara, Bobby Varin, Butch Tittle, Dick Longstreet, Kirk Horton. Consi 1: Mitch Gibbs, Billy Decker. Consi 2: Don Wetmore, John Bellinger. Consi 3: Bob Varin, Paul Jensen. Consi 4: Butch Tittle, Larry Welling. Consi 5: Mike Colsten, Kirk Horton. Consi 6: Jeff Walton, Jeff Sykes. Nonqualifiers race: Gus Schmidt, Dave Camara, Ron House, Jeff Rudalavage. Provisionals: JJ Michaels, Billy Pauch, George Kostelansky, Ron Holmes, Craig Wyman, John Barker, Don Lawson, Dominic Roselli, Alan Johnson.

VICTORIA 200 FINISH: Billy Pauch, Danny Johnson, Billy Decker, Alan Johnson, Jeff Strunk, Bobby Varin, Brett Hearn, Lee Gill, Richie Tobias, Todd Burley, Ron Holmes, Rick Ricci Jr., Mike Romano, George Kostelansky, Lance Lauffenberger, Donnie Wetmore, Paul Jensen, Mike Ward, John Bellinger, Jack Johnson, Roger Phelps, Gus Schmidt, Bill Wilcox, Craig Wyman, Don Lawson, Jimmy Phelps, Butch Tittle, Fran Hilton, Mitch Gibbs, Mike Ricci, JJ Michaels, Jim Mahaney, Dale Planck, Tom Kinsella, Kenny Brightbill, Jeff Sykes, Mike Colsten, John Barker, Rick Wilson, AJ Romano, Kirk Horton, Larry Welling, Dominic Roselli, Jeff Walton, Joe Slawiak, Pete Bicknell.

QUALIFYING
With just shy of 100 cars in the field, ten heat races locked in 20 starters. The next three in each heat became eligible for a semi-feature that qualified five more cars on Saturday evening. Six consolation races qualified another 12 cars into the field on Sunday.
Don Scarborough drew last for his heat, so he put Pete Bicknell in the car, and Bicknell promptly drove it to a second place heat finish. Billy Pauch had to run a consolation race in Maryland, so he was expected to use his guaranteed spot at Fulton on Sunday. Brett Hearn and AJ Romano were among those who qualified in heat races on Saturday, and then planned to fly back from the Maryland race in time for Fulton's 200. Ron Holmes coasted to a stop on the last lap of his heat. A flat right rear tire on the last lap of his heat cost Mike Colsten a probable qualifying spot. A pileup in heat seven involved Billy Decker, Don Law-son, Mike Ricci, Ted Lamb and John Guernsey, with Guernsey's car sustaining heavy damage and Lawson getting a hook. Ricci had qualified his other car in a heat race, but he drove his primary car into the field in the semi-feature, giving up his heat race win.

Bucky Hayes flipped down the backchute in heat eight. The 1993 Victoria 200 winner, Paul Jensen slid into the turn two wall on the first lap of his heat race from the pole position. Tim Burnett lost a fifth place heat finish with a flat left rear in heat nine. Saturday attendance doubled last years with much warmer weather. The 20 lap semi-feature started 37 cars, including at least one dozen guaranteed starters, some of which were added to this field behind the top five heat finishers. Alan Johnson finished a very close third in his heat, but was slowed in the semi by a flat tire. Colsten spun in the semi, collecting Billy Decker and Jerry Northrup. Decker got a hook. Paul Jensens car left a trail of smoke with two laps to go. John Barker's car quit at the same time. The race for top five spots in the semi was hotly contested, with Dave Camara missing the cut by two feet. Bobby Varin drove the Wetmore backup car to a seventh after starting 27th.

Billy Pauch started 12th in his consi after missing Saturday qualifying. He finished third and started with a provisional. Lou
Michaels and Billy Whittaker made returns to Fulton, but neither qualified. Dave Camara missed qualifying in the heat, semi-feature and nonqualifies race by one spot in each event. Smokey Warren, Bill Abold and Ted Lamb each had miserable times trying to qualify and went home without spots. Gus Schmidt got in by winning the nonqualifiers race. He then made the no brainer decision to start the race instead of taking $300. It nearly paid big dividends.