WEEDSPORT, NY – (Bobby Sweeney) – Jimmy Phelps kicked the monkey off his back Saturday night at Weedsport Speedway, snapping a near seven-year winless streak at his home track with a dominating performance in the 358-Modified feature. Phelps started on pole and left any battling to happen second on back.
Phelps had no interest in mixing it up with the rest of the field at the start of the 35-lap event, as Phelps motored away in a hurry from Mike Stanton Jr. and Bobby Henry. At the one-third mark, Phelps was already up by a straightaway, with lapped traffic his only impending challenge.
By the middle portions of the race, some fast cars had kicked it into high gear and began gaining serious ground. Larry Wight, Max McLaughlin, and Billy Dunn were among the big movers, and with ten laps to go, this trio had caught Stanton and Henry. The five cars went to battle, with lapped traffic mixed in as well.
Wight emerged second out of that group, along with McLaughlin ending up in front of Dunn to take third. Meanwhile, Phelps was steadily picking through lapped traffic up front, with nearly half a lap on the battle for second. With the checkered waving, it was Phelps scoring a dominant win over Wight, McLaughlin, Dunn, and Henry.
“This car was unbelievable,” Phelps said. “I got a little nervous in lapped traffic, they were three wide and I really had nowhere to go. That was about the only thing that could hold this car back, it was a rocket. All in all, it was a really good night and I hope we can back it up tomorrow.”
By the time Wight reached second, Phelps was buried in lapped traffic. Wight was able to trim some time off of Phelps’ lead as Phelps fought his way through three-wide battles, but Phelps had already built up an insurmountable advantage.
“Fortunately, our car was good enough to roll the middle and top in three and four to give us an option to get off the bottom and get by cars,” noted Phelps. “One and two was tough, you really just had to hold par through there and get a run on them through three and four. Traffic got thick there at the end, I got nervous and didn’t know who was coming. We got fortunate with good track position all night, sometimes you get that and have to make it count, fortunately we did.”
For the second leg of the Empire State Challenge, the 358-Modifieds are replaced by the Big Block Modifieds. The constant remains the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, who will battle it out around Weedsport Speedway for the second night in a row.
DIRTcar 358 Modified Feature (35 Laps) – JIMMY PHELPS, Larry Wight, Max McLaughlin, Billy Dunn, Bob Henry Jr., Darren Smith, Mike Stanton, Todd Root, Chris Cunningham, Tom Collins Jr., Tim Sears Jr., Dave Marcuccilli, Corey Barker, Sean Beardsley, Zach Payne, Marshall Hurd, Dylan Zacharias, Colton Wilson, Andrew Ferguson, Derek Webb, Max Hill, Ronnie Davis III, AJ Kingsley, Jeff Taylor