BY; JR Kennerup

Vernon, NY … Having a race car that is in perfect balance to compete on a normal daytime racing surface is a tough task indeed. On Sunday afternoon at the Utica – Rome Speedway for the Victoria 200 Danny Johnson of Rochester, NY found the correct balance in his JIR Motorsports Troyer in the Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Tour event. Danny used an inside turn two pass of leader Pat Ward on lap 159 to take the lead and led the final 40 laps with ease to win the $10,000 first place prize money.

Ward who led the race from lap 46 settled for second with early race leader Billy Decker coming home in third. Tim Fuller used a strong second 100 lapper to finish fourth with Willy Decker ending up fifth.

“ I think my car was just a little bit better than his balance wise, but not much “ said the veteran driver after post race ceremonies. “ Yea we were along side of him at least ten times before I finally got past him there in traffic with 40 laps to go. “

Danny who started 12th in the field of 32 immediately made everyone take notice of him at the start of the 200 lap feature. At the completion of lap 12 Danny was already up to fifth and moved into fourth three laps later.

“ You never know what you’re going to have until you have it “ said Danny about the performance of the car at the start of the race. “ The car was good but at that early point of the feature you didn’t know how good the car was going to be. Because I got to fourth quickly and then it seemed that I stayed in fourth for a long time ( laps 15 to 45 ). “

Danny moved into third on a lap 46 restart and moved into second on lap 49 when second place runner Billy Decker jumped the cushion in turns one and two. Danny then started to pursue Pat Ward for the lead and actually got past Ward for the lead on lap 96. But the pass was nullified for the yellow which came out just before the pass was made.

“ Then it all came together after I got into third, it’s kind of like rolling the dice and today I rolled the dice and it came up seven’s today “ said Danny.

The remaining four laps were run under yellow and the teams were sent to the pits for 20 minutes to work on their respective cars to get them ready for the next 100 laps. Through the history of the Victoria 200 this is where then race has been won and lost with the correct or incorrect setup changes being made to the car.

Much to my surprise Danny Johnson didn’t make many changes at all. “ We had some tires ready to go on and everyone waits for me to make a decision on what to do “ recalled the driver known as “ The Doctor “. “ I told them not to touch it because the car was so fast and you hate to touch a car that is that fast. But then Billy Colton of Troyer came over and said to me that everyone is going to try and make their car faster and you better not leave the car the same. So we decided to put new tires on it, gas it up and go. “

“ Yes it was unique in that is all we did to the car but it is a credit to the car right now as that is how good it is right now. When that is all you have to do it makes me and the crew pretty confident in the car “ summed up Danny about his half time break decision.

With the race resuming Danny was once again chasing Pat Ward for the lead. But starting after the final yellow of the race on lap 120 Danny started to gain a little bit of ground on Ward each passing lap. On lap 153 Danny got alongside of Ward in turn two to battle for the lead but didn’t have enough to get past him. Danny repeated the same exact turn two moves for the next six consecutive laps until finally finding enough bite coming out of turn two to grab the lead for good to complete lap 160. Ward tried to fight back over the next 15 laps but after that challenge Danny started to pull away with ease.

Danny spoke about pulling away from Ward who he raced with for the 70 consecutive laps previously. “ The car was really good, it got into the corners and out of the corners really good because it was balanced perfectly. Also I was able to get all of the power ( Morrison big block ) down to the ground. The car has been really good for us the last three or four races. I don’t know what we did but we found something in the chassis that really has the car going, we’re just thankful for that. “

Danny spoke about the importance of this win not only for him but also for the JIR Motorsports team that he races for. “ No doubt about it, this is a really big win for us “ stated Danny. “ We’ve been really struggling with the Late Models and not making any money at instead we’re spending a ton of money. It’s nice to bring in some money for the race team and I’m sure it will make it a lot easier and make everyone a lot happier. “

Defending RoC Dart Dirt Modified champion and current point leader Pat Ward who started on the pole knew what cost him the race. “ I think Danny was keeping his car more straighter than I was, Danny’s car was a little better balanced than mine and Billy’s today. We were faster for 140 laps and then he came. “

At the start of the feature Pat got out gunned for the lead by Bobby Varin. Pat dropped back to third when he was passed by team mate Billy Decker for second on lap 13. Pat moved into second when Decker got by Varin for the lead on the next lap but Varin snuck back by for second one lap later. Ward finally got into second for good on a lap 21 restart and took the lead with an outside turn one pass on a lap 45 restart.

As the first 100 lap segment started to wind down Ward you could see was trying to get the car to get out of the corners by his movements in the driver cockpit. Pat spoke about his Walt Mitchell like movements. “ The torque arm rubber fell apart and luckily Barry my crew chief found it just before we went back out for the second 100. I knew something wasn’t quite right, maybe the tires got hot, after that the car was good and we used too much tire up I guess. “ Ward matter of fact received a nasty scrape over his right eyebrow as he was helping change the torque arm rubber.

Pat spoke about the fine line at the top of the track to which he was mastering all day long. “ You almost had to enter the corner really high, if you tried to go into the corner short and slide up to it, you were in trouble. The car was balanced really for quite a while as I could run right on it. “

Qualifying events for the 68 cars in attendance saw the North Norwich Motor & Trailer Sales $100 to win heats go to Ward, Matt Sheppard, Bobby Varin, Fuller, Andy Bachetti, Billy Decker, Dave Camara, and Gary Tomkins. While the consolations were captured by Ryan Phelps, Steve Hulsizer, Jimmy Phelps, and Ronnie Johnson.

THEIR DAY WAS OVER EVEN BEFORE IT STARTED

For any big race the most disappointing part is having your race car break even before the racing officially starts. This happened to three unfortunate drivers on Sunday as blown motors sidelined the efforts of Alan Johnson, Jamie Christian, and Kevin Bates. Bates was driving the Michael Schane small block and after the motor expired hopped into his family owned car, but failed to qualify. Joe Isabell was the last car to arrive at the track and never made it out of the enclosed trailer during the day. Ted Lamb, Jr. who wrecked a race car the week before worked all week long to get the car ready for today saw his race last two laps in the heat as the motor expired in his car.

INNOVATION, EXCITEMENT, AND OTHER NOTES

With sail panels being allowed for the event a majority of the teams opted to bolt them on for the show. Some drivers tried to bend the rules on the height and length of the sail panels a little further than the rules allowed. This meant that many teams were forced to do some trimming to their body work. Alan Barker and Jamie Christian both had a mini sail panel with holes through it on the front part of the roof. Since the sail panel rule followed fellow RoC member track Penn – Can’s rule and Penn – Can doesn’t allow them they were forced to remove them before racing started. Once again a high dollar paying RoC Dart Dirt Modified Tour event brought excitement that is rarely seen in Modified racing today. Steve Paine was driving the Joe Beyea owned, Randy Kisacky wrenched, and Billy Colton built car on this day. Gary Tomkins was in the Mike Payne owned car. Six drivers who pre – entered failed to show up and race on this day. Tim McCreadie drove the Vic Coffey backup car but had problems all day long. The next Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Tour race at Utica – Rome is the Richie Evans Remembered Race on Wednesday July 23rd paying $6,100 to win in the 61 lap feature.

The Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Tour is sponsored by Dart Machinery, American Racer Tires, Sunoco Race Fuels, PBM Performance Products, Total Seal Piston Rings, Dura – Bond, Competition Engineering by Moroso, Dynatech, Xceldyne, Afco, CV Products, and LA Sleeve.

RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT MODIFIED TOUR RACE 2 VICTORIA 200 AT THE UTICA – ROME SPEEDWAY

FINISH; Danny Johnson, Pat Ward, Billy Decker, Tim Fuller, Willy Decker, Bobby Varin, Jimmy Phelps, Brett Hearn, Rick Laubach, Matt Sheppard, Stewart Friesen, Steve Paine, Frankie Caprara, Ryan Phelps, Andy Bachetti, Ronnie Johnson, Jack Johnson, Jimmy Davis, Dave Camara, Jeff Rudalavage, David Van Horn, Larry Wight, Gary Tomkins, Brian Weaver, Jackie Brown, Jr., Steve Hulsizer, Paul Kinney, AJ Romano, Gus Schmidt, Jr., Dale Planck, Mike Colsten, Billy Van Pelt.

DNQ’S; Kyle Lewis, Jeff Kotary, David Orr, Josh Hohenforst, Tony Steiner, Lance Willix, Kevin Bates ( M16 car ) , Kevin Bates ( 42B car ) , Jason Rood, Craig Hanson, Alan Barker, Jeremy Wilder, John Ramsey, Ric Hill, Paul Jensen, Jamie Christian, Ted Lamb, Jr., Jerry Higbie, Jr., Michael Trautschold, Billy Shantel, Jr., Chad Phelps, Tim McCreadie, Matt Janczuk, Shannon Whaley, Rich Ricci, Jr., Mitch Gibbs, Joey Colsten, Marc Johnson, Alan Johnson, Jeff Brownell, Jeff Richardson, Casey Williams, DJ Faulkner, Wade Decker, Sean Beardsley, Joe Isabell.

LAP LEADERS; Varin ( 1 – 13 ), B. Decker ( 14 – 45 ), Ward ( 46 – 159 ), D. Johnson ( 160 – 200 )

LAP MONEY WON; Varin $ 200, B. Decker $ 375, Ward $ 625, D. Johnson $ 150

$1,000 LUCKY BONUS DRAWING FOR DRIVERS WHO FINSIHED RACE FROM 11TH ON BACK; Rudalavage

DART BEST APPEARING CAR AWARD DART STEEL VALVE COVERS; Sheppard

TOP CREW CHIEF AWARD DART SBC INTAKE MAINFOLD; Corey Dunn of the 27J

HARD CHARGER AWARD BARE DART SBC IRON EAGLE CYLINDER PLATINUM HEADS; Hearn ( 22nd to 8th )

HARD LUCK AWARD BARE DART SBC IRON EAGLE CYLINDER PLATINUM HEADS; Tomkins

NATIONAL PARTS PEDDLER AWARD SET OF TOTAL SEAL PISTON RINGS; Laubach

RoC PROVISIONAL; Rudalavage

PENN – CAN PROVISIONAL; M. Colsten

5 MILE POINT PROVISIONAL; Weaver

ACCORD PROVISIONAL; Brown ( Higbie & Ricci both passed )