Ups & Downs During Trip To Ohio For Jimmy Phelps & Max McLaughlin

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR RACING – WEEDSPORT, NY – The Heinke-Baldwin Racing team had their up and down moments throughout a busy week in Ohio.

The HBR team had four straight nights of racing and combined was able to take home four top-ten finishes.

The teams’ week opened on Tuesday night at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.

Jimmy Phelps picked off a few cars and qualified fifth in his heat from his seventh-place starting spot.

“For whatever reason we didn’t have any speed when we got there,” Phelps said. “The car felt really good. So all we did was made some carburetor changes and stuff like that.”

Phelps rolled out on the inside of row seven for the 75-lap main event.

“We got in a little jingle early which kind of tore us up a little bit,” he said.” We tried to pit and make the car a little better. That put us behind track position wise and we were never really able to recover. It was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right.

Phelps battled his way back through to a 17th-place finish.

Max McLaughlin made some moves in his heat race Tuesday night and finished third from his fifth-place starting spot.

McLaughlin lined up on the inside of the sixth row for the 75-lap main event.

“We picked the wrong tire,” McLaughlin noted. “I went hard compared to everyone else. We could maintain an eighth-place until about lap 55 then tire sealed over.”

McLaughlin held on to finish 23rd.

Wednesday evening was the All-Star race, a non-points night for the Super DIRTcar Series regulars.

Phelps qualified third in his heat race, which placed him in tenth for the 20-lap main event.

“I thought we had a decent car all night, I just couldn’t see,” mentioned Phelps about the dusty track conditions. “I didn’t really want to take a chance wrecking anything so I ended up pulling off.”

McLaughlin finished where he started in the heat race – second.

Due to a 14-pill invert, McLaughlin lined up on the outside of the sixth row for the 20-lap All Star race.

“The race went green to checkered for 20-laps,” noted McLaughlin. “If we had a caution we would have had a pretty good chance at winning.”

“There wasn’t anyone else really riding the fence all the way around,” McLaughlin said. “I didn’t hit the quarter panel but I rubbed the bumper right off from scraping the wall every lap.”

McLaughlin charged his way around the top to finish fourth; his third top-five finish of the season with the Series.

The team then went to Sharon Speedway on Thursday for their third night or racing with the Series.

“I thought we were pretty good off the truck,” Phelps said. “We had good speed. The car felt really good.”

Phelps started second in his heat race and finished where he started – second.

Phelps started on the outside of the fourth row for the main event.

“We ran in the top five,” he said. “I’m not real sure what caused it. We had some contact early in the race and ended up sheering a bolt off the right front spindle and the steering locked up. By the time we got that fixed we had to start tail. It was tough to make a whole lot of ground up at that point. I thought we had a decent night going and set us up for a decent finish but it fell apart on us at the end.”

Phelps closed out the night with a 12th-place finish.

McLaughlin finished fourth in his heat race from his third-place starting spot, placing him 16th for the main event.

“The top groove was pretty good,” mentioned McLaughlin. “I got up to fifth the first 20 laps. Then the top groove started to go away so we dropped back a couple spots. We were able to work our way back up to seventh.”

The Ohio native, Dave Blaney, made his first Big Block Modified debut Thursday night at Sharon Speedway in the No.10B.

Blaney qualified sixth in his heat race, which lined him up 26th for the main event.

Blaney closed off the night with a 25th-place finish.

The final race of the week was back at the teams Friday night home track, Brewerton Speedway.

Phelps finished fourth in his heat from sixth, placing him 14th for the main event.

“We got our way up into the top ten and was kind of at the mercy of the guys in front of us,” Phelps said. “I thought our car was good enough to go forward but we really weren’t good enough on the top to be able to move around and take advantage when there were openings. The track didn’t give us a ton to work with so we ended up settling for eighth.”

McLaughlin picked off a few cars in his heat race and finished second from his fourth-place starting spot.

McLaughlin started on the outside of the sixth row for the main event.

“We were able to weave through traffic pretty good,” he said. “We had a right rear tire grow more than expected and just had a little too much stagger at the end of the race so the car was a little loose.”

McLaughlin capped the night off with a solid fifth-place finish.

Phelps currently sits third in the championship point standings at Brewerton while McLaughlin sits in a close fourth.

The HBR team will be heading North to Quebec, Canada with the Super DIRTcar Series for two days. They will be at Autodrome Granby on Tuesday and Autodrome Drummond on Wednesday.