Top Three Finish For Jimmy Phelps, Max Seventh At Brockville; HBR Racing Recap

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR – WEEDSPORT, NY – The Heinke-Baldwin Racing team closed out their final Super DIRTcar Series race in the northeast Friday evening at Brockville Ontario Speedway before they head south to The Dirt Track at Charlotte to close out the 2017 points season.

The Baldwinsville Bandit, Jimmy Phelps, is currently sitting fourth in the points chase while Mad Max, Max McLaughlin, sits in seventh.

Phelps timed fastest in his group Friday night at Brockville, lining him up on the pole of the heat race.

“We were fast,” added Phelps. “We started on the pole and ended up winning the heat race.”

Max McLaughlin started fourth in his heat race and finished where he started, in fourth. “The track was really fast which made it really hard to pass,” he said.

Phelps heat race win put him in the top-12 redraw. Phelps drew the outside of the second row.

“I felt we were pretty tight until the end of the race,” Phelps said. “We had a good draw which is huge at Brockville. I was able to get to second right away which set the stage for us to stay in the hunt up front.”

Phelps gave a good battle but was cut short with less than twenty laps to go.

“I was a little disappointed at the time,” he said. “We actually passed Billy Decker for the lead. The track kind of changed and I was the last to know. He rolled around me on the restart and that was it with about twenty laps to go.”

Phelps capped off the evening with a second-place finish, his 28th top-five finish of the season.

Teammate McLaughlin rolled out 13th for the 100-lap main event.

“After the heat we made some adjustments for the feature,” added McLaughlin. “Just like the heat, the feature was tough to pass. We were fast but it took too long to get around each car.”

McLaughlin was able to move forward from his 13th-starting spot and grab a seventh-place finish.

Due to prior commitments McLaughlin will not be racing this weekend. He will be back in action at the Dirt Track at Charlotte the following weekend behind the wheel of a late model.

Phelps will be at Orange County Fair Speedway this upcoming weekend for Eastern States Weekend in the No.98H Big Block Modified.