Jimmy Phelps Dodges Rain Drops and Wins Second Cayuga County Fair Main of Season
Weedsport, NY – August 10, 2008 – By Dan Kapuscinski, Cayuga County Fair PR Coordinator
Baldwinsville’s Jimmy Phelps waited out two separate rain delays through the evening, and stormed around Rob Bellinger on lap-28 to score his second Big-Block Modified win of 2008 on Sunday at Cayuga County Fair Speedway. Phelps’ 10th career triumph at the Weedsport oval came on Town Mechanical Night at the Races, earning his J&B Installations no. 99J team another $1,500.
“Bellinger looked pretty good on the top of the race track,” said Phelps in victory lane. “I was ok on the bottom, but he moved down and that gave me the high lane and I was able to make it work. I have to thank all of my guys, it really means a lot to win here on Town Mechanical night.”
Bellinger hung on for his best run of the season in second while Alan Johnson, Steve Paine, and Billy Dun completed the front five.
Town Mechanical night was not only fruitful for Phelps, but also for the driver of the TMI no. 16 Sportsman Modified. Earl Rudy started on the front row, ran a very consistent race, and propelled himself to his first career Sportsman feature victory Sunday night. Rudy was extremely happy in victory lane, with all of his supporters from Town Mechanical behind him.
Mike Welch and Matt Tripp were also victorious Sunday in the DIRTcar Street Stock and BattleKarz divisions.
Derrick Podsiadlo and Bellinger started the 35-lap DIRTcar Big-Block Modified main event from the first row. “Kid Troyer” took the top spot from the get-go in the no. 8 machine, darting in front of Podsiadlo into turn one.
By the 5th circuit Bellinger had laid his claim out front pulling to a large lead over Podsiadlo, Jeff Brownell Jr., Shannon Whaley, and Larry Wight in the top five. Further back in the field Ryan Phelps and Ryan Bartlett were engaged in a tight battle for the 7th position.
Seven laps later Brownell, who had won a heat race earlier in the night, found the fast lane by Podsialdo to move into second in the no. 29 machine. As Brownell turned some of the quickest laps of the race in the runner-up spot, Alan Johnson began to find his patented “low lane” in the no. 14J. Johnson slipped on past Mike Mahaney, Mike Bowman, and Ryan Phelps and quickly found himself well inside the top ten before the half-way point.
A caution on lap-15 slowed the field for the very first time and took Championship contender Matt Sheppard to pit lane. The Advanced Lubrication Specialties no. 9s ran into trouble in turn one, went to pit-lane, and then re-joined the field. On the restart Bellinger led Brownell, Podsiadlo, Whaley, and Wight in the top five.
Another caution on lap-16 for Lance Willx and Jason Potter set up a second restart, which saw Brownell take the lead from Bellinger out of turn four. Unfortunately for Brownell, it was called as a bad start. The ensuing restart saw Bellinger re-take his position at the point, while Bartlett worked by Brownell forcing the no. 29 back to third.
The night’s most serious incident came on lap-21, as Jimmy Phelps and Johnson had each moved into the top five. The no. 25 machine of Paul Habeck lost control of his machine and flipped wildly over the third turn fence. The car landed on the outer driveway in the third turn, and safety crews immediately rushed to the scene.
Habeck was uninjured, but his ride suffered considerable damage.
When the cars went back to green Bellinger continued to lead the way over Bartlett, Jimmy Phelps, Brownell, and Johnson. Even though the racing surface had seen its fair share of rain, the track still began to get slick as the night progressed, and as that happened the experienced veterans began to rise to the top.
As Jimmy Phelps and Johnson worked through the field, Steve Paine stayed in hot pursuit. After the lap-21 restart, Paine worked himself into the top five trying to keep pace with “AJ Slideways” in the no. 14J. However, neither could keep pace with Phelps as on lap-22 the no. 99J worked under Bartlett for the runner-up spot and began to give chase to race leader Bellinger.
Bellinger, who had led the entire event on the top side of the Speedway, could see Phelps inching up ever so carefully on the bottom of the racetrack. On lap-27 Phelps had nearly made it to Bellinger’s door, and as a result Bellinger tried to slip low and protect the racing lane.
As some would say, Phelps “set-up” Bellinger perfectly. When Bellinger dove low into turn one, Phelps stayed on the throttle and drove right around the no. 8 into the race lead. It was the only lap that Phelps ran the top into one and two in pursuit of Bellinger, but it worked out just as he had hoped.
From there it was all Phelps on his way to win number two of 2008 at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway. Bellinger took second ahead of Johnson, Paine, Billy Dunn, Brownell, Bartlett, Ryan Phelps, Justin Haers, and Sheppard in the top ten.
Earl Rudy and John Behron brought the 24-car Sportsman Modified field to the green flag Sunday for their 25-lap feature-go. Rudy took advantage from the start in the no. 16 leading Behron across the stripe.
Rudy and Behron led the field early as Tim Currier worked to third looking for his second win of the season ahead of Ben Wheeler and Mike Entwistle. Just 5-laps in the front five racecars had distanced themselves from the rest of the field.
The first of three cautions in the event came out on lap-7 as Kevin Ridley slowed to a stop in the back straight in the no. 20x. Ridley came into the night in a tie for the Championship lead with Jeremy Pitcher. Ridley’s issues forced him pit side and a 24th finishing position, while Pitcher struggled in 15th position.
When everyone came back to green Rudy and Behron checked away from the rest of the field. By lap-15 Rudy had worked into a quick rhythm, as he distanced himself from Behron who in turn had built an advantage on third place running Currier.
odd Town spun the no. 17t on lap-23 collecting Dave Marcuccilli, which erased the huge lead that Rudy was able to build. This allowed Behron to close back in on Rudy for the restart.
As the cars came back to green a multi-car pileup involving Stewart Garrison, AJ Kingsley, Pitcher, Fran Hilton, and Justin Wright slowed the field one more time. Just prior to the caution 4th running Ben Wheeler spun into the infield trying to avoid the no. 2m of Behron, who made contact with Rudy going into turn one for the race lead.
Behron re-gathered his car to hang onto the second spot, while Wheeler was forced to the tail side of the pack.
The final restart would be a green-white scenario with Rudy still out front ahead of Behron, Currier, Daryl Hilkert, and Chris Hile driving the Ernie Kreis owned no. 2kh.
Behron threw everything he had at the race leader, but in the end it was Rudy coming out on top claiming his first career Sportsman Modified main event win.
“This feels great,” said Rudy, as he stood in victory lane among a sea of Town Mechanical well wishers. “I knew those guys were right there, but this thing ran great tonight. I have to thank all of my sponsors, and the folks from TMI.”
Behron, Currier, Hilkert, and Hile completed the top five runners.
Next Sunday Coke Zero presents Kid’s Night at the Races. ALL kids will enter for FREE next Sunday night as the Big-Blocks, Sportsman, Street Stocks, BattleKarz, and ESDCA Mod Lites take the green at 7pm.
For more information call the DIRTcar NE Headquarters at 315/834-6606, or visit www.cayugacountyfairspeedway.com.
DIRTcar Big-Block Modifieds Feature (35-laps): 1) 99J- JIMMY PHELPS, 2) 8- Rob Bellinger, 3) 14J- Alan Johnson, 4) 7x- Steve Paine, 5) 49- Billy Dunn, 6) 29- Jeff Brownell Jr., 7) 93- Ryan Bartlett, 8) 99- Ryan Phelps, 9) 3- Justin Haers, 10) 9s- Matt Sheppard, 11) 16m- Mike Bowman, 12) 33- Mike Mahaney, 13) 91- Chad Homan, 14) 21- Derrick Podsiadlo, 15) 16w- Lance Willix, 16) 18- Sean Beardsley, 17) 44- Shannon Whaley, 18) 44v- Phil Vigneri, 19) 99L- Larry Wight, 20) 5- Jason Potter, 21) 5R- Rob Hile, 22) 77- Brandon Planck, 23) 25- Paul Habeck, 24) 45m- Mike Ward, 25) 82s- Roy Shields
DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds Feature (25-laps): 1) 16- EARL RUDY, 2) 2m- John Behron, 3) 10- Tim Currier, 4) 4- Daryl Hilkert, 5) 2k- Chris Hile, 6) 1F- Steve Gray, 7) jvs1- Jim Spano, 8) m93- Mike Entwistle, 9) 19w- Justin Wright, 10) 54x- Stewart Garrison, 11) 11- Ben Wheeler, 12) 1- Spike Smith, 13) 51- Josh Hefti, 14) 3- Fran Hilton, 15) 14- Jeremy Pitcher, 16) 3k- AJ Kingsley, 17) 85- John Pietrowicz, 18) 11j- Alan Fink, 19) 17t- Todd Town, 20) m1- Dave Marcuccilli, 21) 410- Jason Spaulding, 22) 11h- Rob Humphries, 23) 17d- Tom Juhl, 24) 20x- Kevin Ridley