‘Mad Max’ Gets First Career Brewerton Win; HBR Racing Recap

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR – WEEDSPORT, NY – ‘Mad’ Max McLaughlin highlighted the weekend by picking up his second career Big Block victory Friday night at Brewerton Speedway.

“Brewerton was the track I had my first Big Block race at and now to finally win there means a lot,” said McLaughlin.

The team opened up the two-day race weekend Friday at Brewerton Speedway for NAPA Auto Parts Night.

Phelps started fifth and finished where he started, fifth.

McLaughlin finished fourth in his heat race.

“We tried something and had so much forward drive that we were doing wheelies,” McLaughlin said.

Friday evening had double features due to a previous postponement so the first race to hit the track was a makeup feature.

Phelps rolled off ninth for the first feature.

“We drove up into the top three,” added Phelps. “The track wore out. We didn’t read the track good enough and got too free to make a charge at the end.”

Phelps held on for a solid third-place finish.

McLaughlin started eighth for the makeup feature.

“We ran third most of the race,” McLaughlin said. “With ten to go I made a move from fourth to first in a lap. After that we checked out.”

McLaughlin crossed the line and grabbed his second career Big Block victory. A few weeks prier he broke through and notched his first career victory at Fulton Speedway.

“I wanted to win pretty bad there,” McLaughlin added. “It’s cool to finally get it at one of the toughest tracks in the northeast. It’s nice to know that we’re fast enough to battle with the best and we’re winning races at two of the toughest tracks in the northeast. We made some changes that’s been working for us. We’re excited for the end of year.”

For the evening’s regular show, Phelps started on the inside of the ninth row for the main event.

“The track got one lane around the bottom,” Phelps said. “We had to work for every spot we got. We were good enough to roll around the middle. At one point we had a late restart and I got my nose into fourth but I couldn’t clear the guy so we fell back.”

Phelps capped off the evening with a sixth-place finish.

McLaughlin and the team made some changes and started on the outside of the sixth row for the second feature.

“We had another dominant car we just couldn’t get to the front in time,” added McLaughlin. “Decker was just as fast as we were. We just ran out of time.”

McLaughlin closed off the night with a third-place finish in the No.6h machine.

Saturday evening saw the team back at Fulton Speedway.

“The car was fast,” added Phelps. “It was fast all night.”

Phelps drove through his heat and finished fourth from his seventh-place starting spot.

McLaughlin started sixth in his heat and charged forward to qualify second.

Phelps started on the inside of the ninth row for the main event.

“We were coming towards the end,” he said. “We had a late race yellow. It felt like my right rear sealed up a bit. We didn’t fire enough to take a run at the lead. We rode it out for second.”

McLaughlin started on the inside of the eighth row for the main event.

“There was a pileup in front of me,” McLaughlin said. “I stopped to avoid it but the caution never came out so I ended up falling back to 18th.”

McLaughlin was able to regroup and pick a few cars off until the last caution of the night flew with ten laps remaining. On the restart McLaughlin charged through the pack and closed out the evening with a fifth-place finish.

Next up for the HBR team will be three days straight of racing. The busy week will kick off at Oshweken Speedway on Thursday with the Super DIRTcar Series and then back to Brewerton Speedway on Friday and Fulton Speedway on Saturday.