Solid Super DIRT Week For HBR

Solid Super DIRT Week For HBR

Story By: Mandee Pauch/MPR

Photos By: RacersGuide.com Photo Staff

Mandee Pauch Relations – October 11, 2017 – The 46th annual NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week at Oswego Speedway is officially in the history books.

Battling a field of 55 cars attempting qualify for Sunday’s Billy Whittaker Cars 200 isn’t the easiest task to conquer but the HBR team was able to do it once again.

Wednesday afternoon was the first full day of Super DIRT Week at Oswego Speedway for the Big Block Modifieds. Jimmy Phelps was looking strong with an eleventh-place time overall in Wednesday’s practice session. Phelps’ teammate, Max McLaughlin, however, was on the opposite side of the spectrum battling fuel issues, prohibiting him from making any laps in Wednesday’s practice session.

“I thought we were really better than that,” added Phelps. “As the track got slicker we started to get better. We went into Thursday morning feeling good.”

The track surface for Thursday’s time trials took an interesting turn by taking rubber midway through, throwing several teams off guard.

“The guys who timed early ‘missed the bus’ so to speak,” Phelps said. “When the track took rubber the times changed which kind of buried us. We fell back to 27th in time. It didn’t reflect our racecar at all. It was disappointing nonetheless.”

McLaughlin made several heads turn in Thursday mornings practice session, timing second to Peter Britten, leading up to time trials.

“We laid down a really good lap and thought we were going to be set until the track rubbered up in time trials,” added McLaughlin.

McLaughlin timed eighth overall.

Thursday’s time trial sessions lined the drivers up for Fridays nights ‘Camping World Friday Night Lights Billy Whittaker Cars 200 Triple 30s.’

McLaughlin rolled off in the second triple 30 heat race in third.

“We tried to be patient until lap traffic then I finally made my move with four to go for the lead,” noted McLaughlin. “The car was really good. Really, we had a good car all week. It’s cool to get another win at Oswego (McLaughlin won the Futures race last year). My dad has won there several times before so being able to win at a track with family history is really special.”

McLaughlin pulled away to win the second triple 30 over Rich Laubach and Mike Mahaney.

Phelps started on the outside of the third row in the third triple 30 heat race.

“We really didn’t feel like we had the car that we had in the beginning of the week,” noted Phelps. “We were able to drive up to sixth but we weren’t real confident with the car so we went back to square one to where the car was on Wednesday.”

Phelps closed out the evening with a sixth-place finish in the third triple 30.

Friday evening’s triple 30 results then lined the drivers up for their starting positions for Sunday’s Billy Whittaker Cars 200 main event.

Phelps started on the outside of the tenth row for the main event.

“We rode around early while it was one lane just like everyone else did,” he said. “Then we came in for harder tires and found out that wasn’t the way to go. We came in again and put softer tires on and was starting to go forward until we got into a jingle which put us back to the rear. I thought we had more than our results showed but we ran out of laps.”

After a few pit stops and a minor mishap, Phelps and the team were able to bounce back and rally a solid top five finish.

“Fortunately we were able to overcome some diversity and were able to come back through to finish fifth,” Phelps said. “The team did a great job all week, I can’t thank them enough.”

McLaughlin’s Friday evening win set him up on the inside of the fourth row for the 200-lap main event.

“There were some unexpected things happen to the track,” added McLaughlin. “It really messed up our strategy which put us behind the whole race.”

Due to the drastic change in the track surface, McLaughlin pitted several times to try and accommodate to the changes.

“We were never really able to get back up to the front,” he said. “At one point we were up to fifth, we pitted and went out on a harder tire. We made it back up to eighth, came back in to put a softer tire on. That softer tire made us really tight so we came in and made some adjustments again and could never get back on track after that.”

Despite battling the track surface all afternoon, McLaughlin and his team were able to come back through and cap off the evening with an 11th-place out of 41 cars.

After Super DIRT Week’s results, Phelps currently sits fifth in the Super DIRTcar Series championship point standings while McLaughlin sits in seventh.

The team will be back in action at Brockville Ontario Speedway on Friday, Oct. 15 before closing out the season as all dirt roads lead to Charlotte for the World of Outlaws World Finals at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday, Nov. 2-4, 2017.

HBR QUICK RESULTS

Jimmy Phelps
Super DIRT Week – Oswego Speedway; Time Trial: 27; Heat: 6 (9); Feature: 5 20)

Max McLaughlin
Super DIRT Week – Oswego Speedway; Time Trial: 8; Heat: 1 (3); Feature: 11 (7)

HBR SEASON STATS –

Jimmy Phelps
56 races – 3 wins, 27 top fives, 42 top 10’s

Max McLaughlin
56 races – 2 wins, 19 top fives, 35 top 10’s

UP NEXT –

Friday, October 13 – Brockville Speedway

MEDIA LINKS –

HBR
Facebook: www.facebook.com/hbrmotorsports
Twitter: www.twitter.com/HBR_Racing
Jimmy Phelps
Website: www.jimmyphelps.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JimmyPhelps
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimmy_phelps
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jimmyphelps

Max McLaughlin
Website: www.maxmclaughlinracing.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MaxMcLaughlinRacing
Twitter: www.twitter.com/MaxMcLaughlin_
Instagram: www.instagram.com/maxmclaughlin_

Dave Blaney
Twitter: www.twitter.com/BuckeyeBullet10

APPAREL –

The HBR team has apparel available for sale at their racecar trailer during events they compete in this season.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHTS –

JIMMY PHELPS’ SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Teo Pro Car

For information on Teo Pro Car, visit www.teopro.com.

“I have to thank everyone at Teo for their continued support for the last year and a half,” Phelps said. “They’ve worked with us to try and better our program every step of the way.”

Phelps would also like to thank J&B Installations, Mohawk Northeast, JRI Shocks, Teo Pro Car, Strange Oval, Winters Performance, Bob Bruneau, Simpson Race Products, VP Fuels, Fragola Performance Systems, Jones Racing Products, Wilwood , FK Rod Ends, Cobra Motorhomes, Bert Transmissions, Eibach, Industrial, Tire of CNY, Driven Racing Oil and Arts Radiator for their continued support.

MAX MCLAUGHLIN’S SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – ASI Racewear

For more information on ASI Racewear, visit www.asiwear.com.

“I can’t thank them enough for their continued support and their great apparel,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin would also like to thank Textron Off Road, Mohawk Northeast Inc., Simpson Race Products, Wienerschnitzel, Just Let Me Do It Commercial Services, Eibach Springs, Max Papis Inc., HBR, Bob Bruneau, Nitro Manufacturing, Maxima Racing Oils, Winters Performance Products, Hoosier, Cobra, TEO Pro Car, Pro Bar, Strange Oval, JRI Shocks, Absolute Audio, Fragola Performance Systems, Wilwood, Lincoln Electric, VP Racing Fuel, Jones Racing Products, FK Rod Ends, Bert Transmission, ASI Racewear, Swindell Speed Lab, Walker Performance Filtration Systems, HD Designs, Torie Costa Foundation and Butler Built Seats for their continued support.

MANDEE PAUCH RELATIONS – Mandee Pauch Relations specializes in affordable public relations and media management for drivers, race teams, racetracks, businesses, sponsors, events and more. MPR provides a wide array of services that individuals in the racing industry require in order to advance in the sport.

To meet the media relations needs of your program, contact Mandee Pauch at mandee@mandeepauchrelations.com. For more information on MPR, visit www.mandeepauchrelations.com.