Jimmy Phelps Runs Top Ten In “The Jack” At Fonda While Max McLaughlin Brings HBR Home 13th

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR – WEEDSPORT, NY – The Heinke-Baldwin race team has quite the busy two weeks ahead of them with two 200-lap events lined up in the great state of New York.

The HBR team wrapped up the final Super DIRTcar Series race this past weekend at Fonda Speedway before the series took a short week off to allow teams to prepare for Super DIRT Week at Oswego Speedway.

“For whatever reason we were really slow from the start,” Phelps said. “We freed the car up due to the rough track conditions. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone was running the same lane to miss the holes.”

Phelps started sixth and climbed into fourth in his heat race.

As the night went on the track smoothed out so Phelps and the team went to work and made quite a bit of changes on the no.98h machine heading into the 100-lap event.

“Fonda is hit or miss for me,” he said.

Phelps rolled off on the outside of the eighth row for the main event.

“We clawed our way towards the front,” he said. “We got up to eighth and were too tight to go any further. As the race went on we got tighter and tighter, so it was hard to carry a lot of speed towards the end of the race.”

Phelps capped off the evening with an eighth-place finish.

“We kind of struggled bad early,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin finished seventh from eighth in his heat race, which placed him into the b-main.

“We got a lot better,” he said. “We finished second in the b-main which put us into the show.”

McLaughlin was scheduled to roll off 24thfor the 100-lap main event.

“We changed a tire before we went out for the feature,” noted McLaughlin. “They said we changed it in staging, so we had to start 30th. We were a ton better, but we went a lap down early. We were struggling to pass cars quick, so we couldn’t get our lap back. We ended up finishing 13th.”

With two 200-lap events coming within the next two weeks, the HBR teams are vigorously hard at work in the stable.

“We’re prepping two cars this week,” McLaughlin said. “We’re prepping to make sure our stuff is well maintenance and ready to go for this Saturday and then for another 200 laps at Oswego.”

“We’re in really good shape with our big block program for Super DIRT Week,” Phelps said. “We had a car built which we tested at Mohawk. We have a motor coming back from Bob Bruneau that’s going in before Oswego. Other than that, we’re pretty ready, just some maintenance to do on the backup car and get the small block built. It sounds like a lot, but it should go together fairly easy. By the weekend we should be ready for the two cars for Oswego.”

With the Super DIRTcar Series being off this week, allowing time for teams to prepare for Super DIRT Week, the HBR team will be heading to Fulton Speedway this Saturday night for the 33rdAnnual Outlaw 200.

“I’m excited to get back there,” Phelps said. “It’s my favorite race of the year. It’s one of my favorite tracks plus there’s a lot of money on the line. We’re going in with our standard big block program combination we’ve run there that past few years so hopefully the place is like riding a bike and pick up where we left off.”

McLaughlin and the no.6h team are also looking forward to making their first trip of the year back to their old stomping grounds.

“Fulton is one of my favorite race tracks,” McLaughlin added. “It’s where I got my first big block modified win. It’ll be our first time racing there this year so I’m looking forward to racing such a big event. Hopefully we’ll come home with a big check.”