Jerry Marquis is the first Connecticut native to win the FMS title in the 16-year history of the series.

But on Monday, Fiore could answer his shop's telephone "Featherlite Modified Series champion 44," after a truly championship response from his crew and driver Jerry Marquis, 44, of Broad Brook, Conn., who in the course of some 22 stock car racing championships had never won one this tough.

"Absolutely not," Fiore said of the tone of the FMS season. "The intensity of the competition in this series is incredible. We have over 50 cars trying to qualify for every race and we race in front of overflow crowds. It is amazing."

Guaranteeing that intensity, Marquis and Fiore raced 16 times this season and carried an eight-point edge over perennial title contender Reggie Ruggiero into the finale. It was held Sunday as part of the 27th annual XTRA MART World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson, Conn. Ruggiero had finished second six times between 1987 and 1994 in the Featherlite Modified Series standings. Three of those came when "The Reg" drove for Fiore, who had fallen on slimmer times of late.

"This was nerve wracking and I'm not used to it," Fiore said with a laugh the day after Marquis came back from a mid-race accident to finish fifth. "It's been so long since we ran like this for a championship. We knew if anything happened we were done. Most races you finish top-5 and that's great."

But in a season in which a championship was as unlikely as hitting the lottery, Fiore's MPH Racers team came through when it mattered. That struck a chord that was consistent throughout the season from the team's loyal sponsors, to its volunteer crew, to the team's core members.

MPH -- an effective conglomerate that has existed for the last dozen years consisting of Fiore, crew chief Paul Claprood and all-around facilitator and get-it-done man Rich "Haskell" Lavalette -- had finally made the big score.

"I guess I am the managing partner," Fiore said, typically downplaying his role, "but they do the work. They're the heart and soul of the organization."

And like thousands of short track teams across the country, the "backbone" has a bunch of elements that make it whole and, in this case, pretty effective.

"The volunteer guys have got the tire program down and it's not easy in the Modified division," Fiore said of tire men Steve Stanish and Jeff Rioux. "With the competition between the tire manufacturers you have to have your (stuff) together. We work closely with Hoosier Tire, and with these bias ply tires you don't just fling 'em on the car. There's a lot of measuring and balancing and matching to do."

Fiore said his other team members, mechanics Mike Metta, Joe Alaire and Gary Michnovetz; radio technician and travel coordinator Grace Ryan; timer Crystal Kistner; and scorer Kim O'Donnel were all critical to the team's success. That was especially evident Sunday.

After Marquis and Ruggiero, who had run virtually nose to tail after starting sixth and ninth in the 36-car field, were swept up in a multi-car accident just after the halfway point in the 125-lap finale, the crew came into play. After making multiple pit stops to realign the No. 44 Teddy Bear Pools/Longview RV Pontiac, Marquis was able to knife back through the field to fifth behind first time NASCAR 2000 FMS winner Tommy Cravenho.

Ruggiero, whose LesCare Kitchens Pontiac's suspension was too badly damaged to keep up, ended up 36 points in arrears when the final points were tallied. Fiore said it marked what was nothing short of an incredible season for his team, which at one point didn't even know if it would make the second race of the season.

After extensive negotiations with a major national sponsor protracted into March and failed to produce a deal, Fiore was left without a backer or a driver with little time left before the season opening CARQUEST Spring Sizzler at Stafford Springs, Conn. But he hooked up with Marquis, a driver with whom he won at the Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, across the street from his shop, in a one-race deal in 1994.

"Jerry and I were batting 1.000 coming into the season," Fiore said of the relationship. "Jerry is an awesome driver. A long time ago we raced against him in the weekly Modified division at Riverside and Monadnock, and in the lesser equipment that he had he raced us on equal ground -- we always knew Jerry had an awful lot of ability."

The 1994 Featherlite Modified Series race at Riverside cemented that respect.

"We signed a one-race sponsorship deal with M&R; Safety Supply Company," Fiore said. "Jerry qualified third and won the race. He beat (current NASCAR Winston Cup drivers) Steve Park and Jeff Fuller going away. Afterward he said 'thanks for the ride,' and that was that."

The road to Marquis winning the first Featherlite Modified Series title in the 16-year history of the series by a Connecticut driver started as a race-by-race proposition.

"The way everything came together we said we would do one race at a time," Fiore said. "After we finished sixth in the Sizzler, we were happy. We didn't have a good year last year and sixth was like a win for us.

"But when we sat down and looked at things, we couldn't go to Richmond for the second race of the year -- shoot, if the Icebreaker had been held when it was scheduled we couldn't have had a race car there."

But the season opening race at Thompson was postponed and, after the Stafford opener, that was when Fiore leaned on his old friends. Teddy Bear Pools' owner Teddy Hebert, a Chicopee, Mass., businessman who had a reputation for supporting local athletic teams on a variety of levels and a racing aficionado who long supported teams -- and even raced himself -- at Riverside Park came into play.

"We couldn't go to Richmond, and I went to Teddy and said 'We need a major deal to do the next three races,'" Fiore said. "He said, 'Let's do it -- go win the race.' Teddy stepped up to the plate and made it happen. He hadn't budgeted for it, but he did what he had to do."

In the third race of that three-race deal, Marquis won the first of five races he would score in 2000, at Riverhead Raceway on Long Island. The title train was rolling.

"That makes it absolutely sweeter," Fiore said of the circumstances of the season. "The companies that came on board so late to bail us out really took a chance on getting the value out of their investment because the negotiations we were in that didn't work out screwed our whole winter of preparation up."

"We weren't thinking about a possible championship -- I wasn't thinking about it," Marquis said. "We were going race by race and that (championship) wasn't even in the back of my mind. So yeah -- it's so gratifying it's ridiculous. We just look at the whole deal: We weren't supposed to contend -- we weren't supposed to do a lot of things. But we had to keep on trying. It was an up and down road all year long and to end on this high note is just unbelievable."

Along with Teddy Bear Pools; Longview RVs of Northampton, Mass., and Windsor Locks, Conn.; and 30-year Fiore supporter New England Uniform were in the team's camp.

"In the end they were probably happier than anyone," Fiore said of his backers. "There were a lot of teams we competed against that had 10 times more support that didn't get nearly as much exposure out of it."

Now everyone connected with MPH has a lot of celebrating to do.

"Yeah, I'd say to win the championship is the ultimate achievement for this team," Fiore said, glowing even from 1,300 miles away. "The championship represents 17 races -- not one. All of those races represent a lot of work, a lot of preparation and a lot of money. They did a lot of work and it is really nice that their ability and achievement gets recognized with this championship."

Fiore also gave credit to the team's engine supplier, Performance Technology of Wakarusa, Ind., and engine fluid supplier Gulf Oil.

"We didn't have a motor cough all year," Fiore said of the supplier that also works with teams in such diverse applications as NASCAR Winston Cup and ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series.

So Fiore said now relief and relaxation were at the forefront of his mind.

"I was so relieved to get up this morning and not have to worry about what we have to do to get ready," Fiore said of an emotion he felt many times this season. "All the sponsors are happy and that's the important thing."