Three-Day Weekend Very Successful For HBR Racing Team

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR – WEEDSPORT, NY – The Heinke-Baldwin team earned five top ten finishes, including a pair of top-fives, during their three-day race weekend with the Super DIRTcar Series.

Jimmy Phelps opened the evening at Brewerton Speedway Friday night with a second-place heat race finish, placing him into the top-12 redraw.

Pre race festivities saw Phelps draw the outside pole for the Duel at the Demon 100.

“We backed up a little at the beginning,” Phelps said. “We were way too tight early. After halfway it came back on and we got back up to third. We were able to challenge for second but we ran out of time there at the end.”

Phelps crossed the line in third.

Max McLaughlin rolled out a brand new Teo Pro car Friday evening at Brewerton.

“We kind of missed the set up in the heat at Brewerton,” McLaughlin said. “The track was really heavy and rough and we didn’t really know what the car was going to do.”

McLaughlin fell back to sixth from his fourth-place starting spot.

“We had to qualify through the b-main,” added McLaughlin.

McLaughlin started on the outside of the 12th row for the 100-lap main event.

“Once it got slick towards the end of the night it came to me.”

McLaughlin battled his way through the field from his 24th-place starting spot to close out the night with an 8th-place finish.

The momentum for the team continued Saturday at Mohawk International.

Phelps was fast from the start, winning his heat race then went on to draw the pole for the main event.

“It was the similar deal as Friday night,” Phelps added. “They re-groomed the track and we didn’t make any changes. It seemed a little different for the feature. It’s hard to put my finger on what we needed to do to do better. We fell back to fifth relatively quick.”

Phelps mentioned the track taking rubber relatively early and becoming one groove.

“It’s really disappointing because we felt really good going into the main,” he said. “It just seemed like it caught us off guard a little bit.”

Phelps collected his sixth fifth-place finish of the season with the series.

“The track was black slick right from the start,” McLaughlin said. “We were pretty fast early and won the heat.”

McLaughlin drew ninth out of 12 spots for the main event.

“I was going really good and was up to seventh,” added McLaughlin. “It rubbered up on lap 20 or 30. It was nose to bumper for the rest of the race. We had a really good car thought.”

McLaughlin finished sixth, grabbing his 12th top-10 finish with the series.

The HBR team closed out the weekend on Sunday at Cornwall Speedway.

“Sunday was polar opposite of the prior two nights,” Phelps said. “We really struggled in time trials.”

Phelps started sixth in his heat and qualified fifth, lining him up on the inside of the ninth row for the 100-lapper.

“The track was really heavy, fast and choppy,” he added. “We were too tight early. We took a big swing with a setup change, luckily the car responded. We got up to the top five then ran out of steam. The right rear burnt off a bit towards the end, we were able to settle for sixth.”

McLaughlin qualified second in his heat race and redrew ninth for the main event.

“We made some adjustments for the feature,” mentioned McLaughlin. “After a restart on lap 30 I reached for a tear off and pulled them all off. I couldn’t see a thing for the rest of the race. It was definitely my fault for our results but it happens”

McLaughlin held on for a 13th-place finish.

Looking ahead to this weekend’s race at Fonda Speedway, Phelps is feeling confident with their progress.

“We’re gaining and getting more comfortable with our cars and our setups,” Phelps said. “It’s a good time to build a little momentum. We won Fonda last year so we’re going back there hoping we can build from that and keep rolling.”