Tough Weekend North Of The Border For HBR; Eastern States At OCFS Coming Up

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / HBR – WEEDSPORT, NY – This past Friday evening the Heinke-Baldwin race team trekked across the border one final time this season with the Super DIRTcar Series to Brockville Ontario Speedway.

“We got there and did what we needed to do, and the rest fell into the hands of the redraw,” Jimmy Phelps said.

Phelps started second in his heat race and battled down to the wire for the win but came up one spot shy and settled for second, locking the no.98h team into the top-12 redraw.

“We were kind of worried about the track,” he said. “We needed a good redraw, so we were disappointed when we drew 11th.”

Unfortunately, the track rubbered up only a few laps after the green flag dropped.

“The track gained speed immediately,” he said. “Then it slowly worked its way to single file. Fortunately, we were good enough to take advantage of a few opportunities and get up into sixth.”

McLaughlin’s early misfortune on Friday didn’t stop him and his team from going hard to work to put the no.6h machine into the show.

“We made a mistake in the heat race,” noted McLaughlin. “We started fourth and finished sixth, which put us in the consi.”

McLaughlin went on to qualify second in the consi.

McLaughlin then rolled off on the outside of the 12throw for the 100-lap main event.

“We felt good until the track took rubber,” he said. “After that we were just sitting there. It was one of those races where you just couldn’t pass.”

Despite early misfortune, McLaughlin was able to maneuver his way through the field to a 13th-place finish.

The next Super DIRTcar Series event will be held the first week in November at the Dirt Track at Charlotte for the World Finals. With two points races left on the line, the HBR team currently sits fourth and fifth in the points chase.

The HBR team will be back in action this weekend at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, NY for Eastern States Weekend. Phelps will be doing double duty in both the no.98h small block and big block modifieds while McLaughlin will be wheeling the no.6h big block modified.

“We look forward to Eastern States every year,” noted Phelps. “It’s one of the oldest running and biggest events of the year. Orange County can be tricky, but we’ve had success in the past and tend to have a lot of fun down there.”