BREWERTON, NY September 3, 2010 – Jimmy Phelps and Matt Sheppard battled it out all season long at the Brewerton Speedway in the points and the win column. Friday night it came down to those two once again as Sheppard out ran the rain and Phelps for the 50 lap Big Block Modified win worth $3,000 at the checkers. It was Phelps out of Baldwinsville who popped the champagne as he was crowned with his first ever Big Block Modified Championship at the D-Shaped Dirt Demon.
Other winners on Championship Night were, Dale Caswell NAPA Late Models, Brandon Carvey IMCA Modifieds and Gary Jeffries Beaver River Distribution Mod Lites. The Four Cylinder Super Stock feature fell victim to the rain and will be run next Saturday night September, 11th at the Fulton Speedway.
Chris Hile darted out to the early lead in the opening laps of the 50 lap Big Block Modified feature followed closely by Jason Rood.
With 10 laps showing on the lap counter Hile built up a full straightaway lead on the field running the bottom of the speedway. Michael Storms ran alone in 2nd as he tried to close the gap on Hile, Matt Fink Roy Bresnahan and Matt Sheppard who started 14th ran third through fifth.
On lap 15 Hile and storms still set the pace as Sheppard, Jimmy Phelps and Larry Wight started closing in on the top-two. The first yellow flew on lap 20 for Mike Bowman who suddenly slowed and headed pit side. Pat Ward also darted to the pits to change a left rear tire that was going flat.
On the restart Sheppard flexed his muscle as he went from 3rd to the lead in one move running the bottom to be scored the new leader on lap twenty-one. At the halfway mark Sheppard built up a full straightaway lead with Phelps giving chase. Storms, Billy Decker and Hile were in a tight fight for third through fifth.
With 15 laps to go Phelps started chipping away at Sheppard’s lead, Decker, Danny Johnson who started deep in the pack and Storms showed on the scoring tower.
On lap 40 rains had already started coming down on the speedway but it didn’t seem to hurt track conditions as battles were still going on throughout the field.
Over the remaining laps Sheppard stuck to the bottom as Phelps tried different grooves on the track trying to find a way by Sheppard for the win. Sheppard was the first under the checkers followed by Phelps, Danny Johnson, Decker and Storms to round out the top-five.
“It was almost a carbon copy of the 50 lap series race we had here All-Star weekend. I was able to get to the front first. I just tried to protect the bottom the best we could,” Sheppard said after parking his Xtreme Lubricants No.9s in victory lane as the heavy rains came down. “I knew Jimmy (Phelps) was right there, Jimmy was good, but I think it was a matter of who got there first. We were fortunate enough to get there first and beat the raindrops.”
“We had a good year; we had 5 wins and a lot of good runs. We did some experimenting at the beginning of the season and had a DNF, you can’t do that stuff if you want to run for championships. My hats off to jimmy he was super fast all year, congratulations to him.”
After the spraying of champagne in victory lane Jimmy Phelps spoke about his first ever Brewerton Speedway Big Block Modified track championship in the Andy Phelps Motorsports, J&B Installations, No.99j Troyer. “Man I tell you what I didn’t think we were ever going to get here. It’s been a long time since we started running Big Blocks here; this place has kicked our butts for years and years. Seems like just lately we started getting it figured out, this car was just dead-on every week. I have to thank everybody, the guys who work on this thing, J&B Installations, Industrial Tire, Town Mechanical and P&M Fab. Couldn’t do it without Doug Holmes (engine builder) and everyone at Finger Lakes Machine. Bob Bruneau, Al Heinke, everybody at HBR and Billy Colton and the guys at Troyer.”
In the 20 lap NAPA feature AJ Kingsley grabbed the lead on lap 2 and pulled away from the field building up a full straight away lead. While Kingsley was leading Dale Caswell was closing the gap on the leader every lap. With one lap to go Caswell was able to use a back marker as a pick as he was able to move by Kingsley after some contact and go on to the win. Kingsley, Gordy Button, Tim Sears Jr. and Alan Fink rounded out the top five. With his 8 wins Caswell was crowned the first ever NAPA Late Model Track Champion.
Teenager Brandon Carvery grabbed the lead on the opening lap of the 20 lap IMCA Modified feature. Once out front Carvey survived yellow flags but was never seriously challenged throughout the race picking up his first ever Brewerton Speedway win. Dale Caswell, JJ Courcy, Rich Keller and Gregg Kimball rounded out the top-five. Caswell was crowned the Track Champion.
The closet point’s battle was in the Beaver River Distribution ESDCA Mod Lites to be decided between Tim Devendorf and Joe Garafolo who were only separated by 1 point. Gary Jeffries took the lead from Devendorf at the halfway point and went on to his 3rd straight win. Devendorf, Garafolo, Rick Demo and Nick Graziano rounded out the top-five. Devendorf won the Track Championship by 5 points over Garafolo.
The Four-Cylinder Super Stock feature was rained out. After a meeting with track officials and drivers it was decided that Chuck Powelczyk had a big enough point lead to be the 2010 Track Champion. Their feature will now be run first this coming Saturday night September, 11th at the Fulton Speedway.
Brewerton Speedway will be action one final time on Thursday, October, 7th during Super DIRT Week. On the race card will be the 18th annual 100 lap 358 Modified Super DIRT Series race plus Mod Lites. Race time will be 7:30 p.m. For more information visit www.brewertonspeedway.com or call 315-668-6906 or 315-668-RACE.
9/3/10 Quick Results
(DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds 50 Laps) - MATT SHEPPARD, Jimmy Phelps, Danny Johnson, Billy Decker, Michael Storms, Roy Bresnahan, Chris Hile, Pat Ward, Larry Wight, Alan Johnson, Chuck Bower, Rich Scagliotta, Ryan Phelps, Jim Witko, Matt Fink, Mike Mahaney, Willy Decker, Tony Steiner, Jason Rood, Mike Bowman, Johnny Hill.
(NAPA Late Models 20 Laps) - DALE CASWELL, AJ Kingsley, Tim Sears Jr., Gordy Button, Alan Fink, Dave Talbot, Harry Halliday, Jim Southard, Stan Clark.
(IMCA Modifieds 20 Laps) - BRANDON CARVEY, Dale Caswell, JJ Courcy, Rich Keller, Gregg Kimball, Kevan Cook, Josh VanTassell, Mike Smith, Jeff Cardinale, Jason Amidon, Ken Rogers, Greg Blair, Ron Sansone, Mike Jones, Stephen Coit, John West, John Bell, Jeff Amidon, Phil Loosen.
(Beaver River Distribution ESDCA Mod Lites 20 Laps) - GARY JEFFRIES, Tim Devendorf, Joe Garafalo, Rick Demo, Nick Graziano, Lowell Zehr, Doug Williams, Lisa Thomas, Terry Lapham, Jeff Herbert, Dave Trytek, Sam Usborne, Jim Bogett, Jeff Blackburn, Steve Miller, Frank Sobotka, Ricky Yelle, Bruce Ackley, Scott Ford, Lorrie Herbert, Calvin Painter, Kelly Skinner, Clayton Brewer III, Jamie King.