There was one “pancake car” that Pauch really liked and that was Mario Flores’ No. 44 Race of Champions asphalt modified. Here he describes the famous race at Flemington:
“They called me to run the Race of Champions race at Flemington in Mario Flore’s car. I knew it was a good car and I wasn’t doing anything so I took him up on it. I went up there and got the car in the show and started forty-third. It was a tough day coming through the field. The car got tight. At around 50 to go, I was in the top 10 and I told the team I couldn’t get the car to turn so they said pit next caution. We pitted and they made an adjustment and changed the right front tire. In 50 laps I came back through and won the race.”
Pauch returned to Flemington again in a NASCAR Truck Series race and finished a career-best sixth.
Today race fans can find the hand-painted, yellow No. 1 big-block modified racing around New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but also at select Super DIRTcar Series races like this year at Volusia Speedway Park for the DIRTcar Nationals.
2005 Super DIRTcar Series champion Fuller is a hero of what New York calls The North Country in upstate New York. Fuller hails from Watertown, NY, a famous haven for big-block modified drivers including Bob and Tim McCreadie.
Fuller has 31 Super DIRTcar Series wins, which is good enough for eighth on the all-time wins list, tying him with Jack Johnson. After winning the Series championship in 2005, Fuller was ready for a new challenge.
Fuller hooked up with Gypsum Express and John Wight to make an assault on the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series in 2007. Fuller was incredibly fast out of the box and picked up the 2007 Rookie of the Year honors.
After leaving the Gypsum team, Fuller attempted to follow the Series full-time on his own budget. Unfortunately, Fuller had a cold spell that sapped the new operation’s funds.
Fuller left the tour in 2012 and began racing his big-block modified more again in the Northeast, although he continued to catch select World of Outlaws races until 2015.
The Watertown, N.Y.-driver did not leave without making a mark though. Fuller is tied for thirteenth on the all-time fast time award list. He’s tied with Clint Smith in heat race wins. The pilot of the No. 19 also had the third-most fast time awards in one season with 12 in 2009.
Fuller’s last World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model win came at River Cities Speedway in 2014 after an incredible battle with fellow Watertown native and big-block modified hot-shoe Tim McCreadie.
Another notable driver who returned to the seat of a big-block modified after dabbling in other forms of motorsports is perennial NAPA Super DIRT Week contender Jimmy Horton. He was a double-threat when he rolled into tracks with both a modified and a sprint car in the tri-state area and on the Super DIRTcar Series trail.
But then the high banks of Daytona Int’l Speedway called to The Sensational One and he heeded that call.
Between 1988 and 1995, Horton scored eight ARCA Menards Series victories including five out of eight races he entered in 1990. Although Horton struggled in the upper echelons of stock car racing, he made a definitive mark on ARCA. Due to his ARCA success, he was picked to sub for an injured Darrell Waltrip in the Junior Johnson-owned car but never landed a full-time ride.
Others have gone to the big track looking for success, such as eight-time series champion Brett Hearn and 1986 Series champion Charlie Rudolph. Hearn finished tenth in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series start in 1985 at Dover Int’l Speedway, but was unable to replicate that success in later starts.
More Super DIRTcar Series drivers who have found success outside of the big blocks include Tim McCreadie, who has had a superb dirt late model career; Mike McLaughlin, who found success at NASCAR’s pinnacle; and the NASCAR Truck Series’ newest star, Stewart Friesen.
All of these drivers can agree on one thing: big-block modifieds are irreplaceable.