RPW Column: Domination; Jimmy Phelps Goes Wire-To-Wire For Small Block Eastern States Win At OCFS

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Jimmy Phelps was the fast qualifier in Friday’s 358 Small Block Modified time trials, just shading Billy Decker by 1/ 1000th of a second.

That speed carried over into Saturday as Phelps led all 75 laps in scoring the victory in the HB Hauser Bros. Eastern States Small Block Championship race over Tim Sears Jr and Rocky Warner.

For Phelps, who had one Big Block win at OCFS in 2010, this was his first ever Small Block Modified win at the 5/8th’s oval.

“We haven’t had a whole lot of racing this year, so to come in here and get this win is great,” Phelps said. “Having the good track position was certainly an advantage. Got the good start and I was able to run just hard enough to get the win.”

Phelps got the jump at the start over Decker and paced the field for the first 9 laps until caution flag waved for Bobby Flood stopped on the track. A long green flag segment followed. With lapped traffic coming into play, Decker was right on Phelps’ bumper. But with the low groove being the fast way around the speedway in this race, Billy was unable to make a bid for the lead. At halfway, it was Phelps, Decker, Tim Sears Jr, David Schilling and Andy Bachetti.

Just past halfway on lap 39, caution flew for Shane Jablonka, both with a left front flat. The restart saw Phelps again pull out to the lead over Decker as the caution quickly flew again for Bachetti with heavy damage. This moved Rocky Warner into the top 5. Sears Jr took 2nd from Decker on the restart. As the race hit the two thirds mark, the running order remained unchanged with Phelps leading Sears Jr and Decker with Warner moving into 4th.

Caution again on lap 56, giving Sears Jr another chance on the restart, but Phelps again had the advantage. This stretch of racing saw Warner moving past Decker into 3rd.

The laps clicked off as there were no further cautions. At the finish, it was Phelps the winner by a second and a half over Sears Jr, Warner, Decker and Larry Wight.

Tyler Boniface was the top finishing OCFS regular in 6th with Anthony Perrego, Schilling, Marc Johnson and Ben Bushaw completing the top 10 running order.

In addition to the $10,000 winners check, Phelps also pocketed all the lap money. Included in this was the 66th lap worth $666 donated by the Petruska family in memory of Jared Petruska who tragically passed away from a work related accident on February 27th.