Three Watertown modified drivers hope for the best this week as they prepare to compete in the 37th annual Rite Aid 200 next Sunday at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse during Super DIRT Week.

Tim Fuller is one of only two north country big-block modified drivers — Bob McCreadie is the other — ever to win the prestigious race, and he will be participating again this week.

For Frankie Caprara and Billy Dunn, while the odds of winning the race are not in their favor, with a good showing and a little bit of luck, who knows? Stranger things have happened in the race over the years.

Fuller won the race in 2004 and finished second to Vic Coffey in last year's 200-lap race. Fuller moved from 19th to second after leaving the pits to add fuel and a tire on lap 110 in last year's race.

"We had a pretty good shot of winning it," Fuller said "I lost my shot when I thought (Coffey) was coming out to the wall and I had him on the outside, but it never happened."

Neither Fuller nor Coffey have spent a considerable amount of time racing modifieds this season. They have been centering most of their efforts on the DIRT Motorsports World of Outlaws tour for late models. Fuller was the 2007 Rookie of the Year in the late models, while Coffey appears to be the top rookie in that division this season.

Fuller and Coffey are also expected to compete in 358-modified races at the Brewerton Speedway (Thursday) and Rolling Wheels Raceway (Friday). They will miss the 358-modified feature on Wednesday at Can-Am Motorsports Park due to a late model series race that night at the Lowe's dirt track speedway in Concord, N.C.

"Back and forth between late model and modified races is real tough," Fuller said. "Like on Tuesday we fly out to North Carolina and race Wednesday, and then early Thursday morning I fly into Syracuse in time for time trials."

Besides the small-block races at Rolling Wheels and Brewerton, Fuller said late last week he will compete in the Gould's Pumps/ ITT 358-modified championship race Saturday at Syracuse.

"I think we will concentrate more on the late models next year," Fuller said before departing for Fulton for a weekend of racing. "This year I had commitments to do a certain amount of modified racing. I guess that won't be happening next year. My big sponsor, John Lazore of Hogansburg, is basically done with racing, so I won't have to honor any commitments when it comes to modified racing next year."

Fuller said the future for him in racing is in the late models. He said financially, for anyone wanting to make a living in racing, late model racing is the route to go. He said he plans to run more tour late model races as well as other non-World of Outlaws sanctioned late model races where the pay is even better than in the World of Outlaws division.

Caprara is returning to Super DIRT Week after an absence of a few years. The son of Charlie Caprara, part-owner along with his brother, Billy, of Can-Am Motorsports Park in LaFargeville, said he is going to compete in both the Gould's Pumps/ITT 358-modified (small-block) championship on Saturday and Sunday's Rite Aid 200 modified (big-block) tour race.

"We are hoping to have some good runs down there this time," Caprara said. "We are going down there to win."

Over the years, many drivers have started well in feature races during Super DIRT Week only to have some bad luck along the way, but that's racing. Caprara is no exception. He had a 10th- place finish in the big-block race in Syracuse back in 2004.

"We had some typical Syracuse bad luck in races there in the past," Caprara said. "This time we hope to get some good Syracuse luck. That's what you need there to win."

Caprara has won three features this season, but none on the series tour. He is the points champion in the modified division this season at Can-Am.

Dunn hopes his new experimental Bicknell engine will run smooth at Syracuse this week.

"We've run it in our last two tour races," Dunn said. "They were not great finishes, but the car has potential, and I think we've hit on something."

Dunn said he'd like to finish in the top 12 in the Rite Aid race. Last year, he finished 18th.

"The hardest part about Syracuse is just finishing the race," Dunn said. "Last year we had fuel problems, so we just rode around, but we finished the race. A lot of guys have trouble with just finishing the race. In 2006 I didn't finish the race as we had car problems."

Dunn said the race can be won in the pits with race teams trying to figure out the fuel mileage. He said the pit stops are important.

"Getting in and out of the pits first is so important," Dunn said.

STEFANSKI TOPS FIELD

Pete Stefanski of Wheatfield won the rain-shortened pro stock feature Friday night at the Fulton Speedway as the Schneider Brothers 200 Weekend kicked off for the 23rd straight season.

Dion Oakes of Akwesasne, Quebec, finished second with Don Carlson of Ridgefield, Conn., taking third. Allen Peters of Massena finished fourth, with P.J. Peters of Akwesasne, Quebec, taking sixth place.

Several other Mohawk International Raceway pro stock drivers competed in Friday's race. Alexandria, Ontario, drivers Joe Ladouceur and Roch Aubin finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Travis Black of Akwesasne finished 12th. Ricky Thompson of Hogansburg was 14th. Morgan David of Akwesasne finished 15th.