*Rick Young Photo Attachment // Cornwall, ONT – August 23, 2009 – By Tom Skibinski, Super DIRTcar Series PR Director
Central New York chauffeur Jimmy Phelps ended a year-long drought Sunday night as he captured his first Super DIRTcar Series victory of the season in the headline Akwesasne Mohawk Casino International 100 at Cornwall Motor Speedway.
Competition in Canada has been kind to the Baldwinsville, New York driver as his last tour triumph was scored at Merrittville (Ont.) Speedway in August of 2008. Career series win number five is just the third win taken anywhere this season for last year’s runner-up in the overall Hoosier Tire-VP Racing Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Championship point standings.
“Man, we needed this (win), we’ve been so up and down all year with trying to find some consistency,” stated Phelps, 34, who holds down third in the current Mr. DIRTcar points chase behind leader Brett Hearn and hot shot Matt Sheppard. “We were real balanced tonight and things seemed to go in our favor.”
“These guys built this new car about three weeks ago and we had only around 4-5 races on it. The thing has been awesome right out of the box. Can’t thank the guys at Troyer enough, certainly can’t thank Curt for the job he does keeping it bolted together tight because tonight it really needed it. The track was awfully demanding tonight, fortunately these guys put a good car under me that I knew would make it to the end,” noted Phelps, who was one of 11 drivers to complete the entire 100 lap distance, with only three more cars taking the checkered flag.
Closest in pursuit at the line were popular Frenchman Pierre Dagenais and veteran New Yorker Danny Johnson, followed by Hearn, defending race winner Gary Tomkins and Sheppard. Reigning Mr. DIRTcar points king Billy Decker was the last to be scored on the lead lap after a late-race flat tire knocked him out of the top-three.
Plenty of rain from the day before and the forecast of more on raceday put track owner Ron Morin on the look-out all evening as the heavy quarter-miler was as treacherous as it was fast, making the century grind a battle of attrition as much as it was a struggle to keep up with the leaders throughout. Phelps took advantage of flat tires by Hearn and Decker to first inherit then hold on to the lead en route to the $6,000 victory, easily his biggest of the year steering the H&H Motorsports no. 98H Mohawk N.E.-New England Race Fuels-Joe Gibbs Racing Oil/Troyer machine.
“We were able to take advantage of guys that were real tight and pushing, and also good enough to get by those that were free and loose. The bottom line is we caught some breaks and just had a real good race car to be around when it counted. Fortunately, we got a yellow (flag) here and there to take a breather. It would’ve been a question mark whether we could’ve made it to the end so I’m just real happy right now for everybody involved,” Phelps pointed out.
In search of a fourth series win in five starts, Sheppard kicked off the Canadian card by collecting his fifth Integra Shocks Fast Time Award in pre-race trials. The Waterloo, N.Y. star drew his car number (9) to start the main inside row five yet could only get as high as fourth on the 30-car grid with a quarter of the race in the record book.
Hearn easily out-distanced the field from lap one steering the Madsen Motorsports no. 20 Wentworth Custom Homes-Kruger/TEO entry, able to pull away at will from the pack following each of the eight yellow flags that flew prior to he halfway mark. The ‘Jersey Jet’ built up nearly a straightaway lead over Tomkins and Johnson after just five laps, with 12th-place starter Phelps rolling into the top-three as lap 10 clicked off.
With the leaders facing traffic throughout much of the 100-lap Modified main, Hearn reached some of the heaviest on lap 40 enabling Tomkins to give his best shot before fading back after the halfway point. Some pressure was lifted from the front-runners when fourth-place Sheppard suffered a flat right-rear tire on lap 45, although two-time tour winner in ’09 Decker helped fill the void in his Gypsum Express, navigating through lapped cars to steal third from Phelps on lap 46 with Dagenais making up the top-five with half the race scored.
Tomkins suddenly slipped high on the 51st circuit allowing Phelps to grab second while Decker and Dagenais drop-kicked him to fifth ending his bid to repeat in the Cornwall classic. The ninth caution of the race on lap 59 proved to be pivotal as during the slowdown Hearn experienced a right-rear flat tire, electing to duck pitside right before the green lights reappeared, giving Phelps his first lead on lap 64 in the process.
Another flat, this time for Ryan Phelps, incurred still another caution period on lap 74, once again bunching the shrinking field paced by Phelps, Decker and Dagenais, with Tomkins and Danny Johnson holding down front-five slots. Five laps later, Dagenais slid under Decker for runner-up honors, yet in one quick blast, Decker moved to the high side and ultimately grabbed the lead from Phelps on lap 87.
Decker last only two laps out front before slipping high in turn four as Phelps forged what amounted to the final lead change on lap 89. Three more times around turned out to be too much for Decker as a soft right-rear tread sent him limping into the pits with and with just five laps to go the ‘Frankin Flyer’ was suddenly forced to pick up the back of the pack.
Hearn continued his charge from the rear following the inopportune tire replacement 2/3rds of the way through, securing sixth-place for the final run to the checkers with only a handful of laps to go. He then stormed into fourth over the remaining four circuits, yet could advance no further as time ran out giving Phelps a narrow victory worth $6,000. Runner-up Dagenais earned a guaranteed starting berth in the prestigious 200-lap Championship race on Oct. 11 of Super DIRT Week XXXVIII at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse after his best-ever Super DIRTcar Series race finish..
“This is the first good performance with the Big-Block Series, that’s for sure,” said Dagenais, a four-time DIRTcar 358-Modified track champion, with three of his Small-Block feature wins coming this year at Autodrome Edelweiss. His self-owned no 124 Carriere Sabliere (Quarry Dagenais)/Bicknell ride also housed a 358 cubic inch powerplant, earning him a guaranteed starting berth in the Super DIRT Week 358-Modified Championship at the New York State Fairgrounds on Oct. 10.
Added third-place finisher Danny Johnson, the last to arrive at the track on Sunday afternoon, “Of course starting up front we would’ve liked to have won, but dropping back as far as we did and getting back up to third I’m real happy to get a podium finish. Have to thank Dave Thompson (owner) for giving me this ride here and all the guys for getting the car ready for me today. It wasn’t perfect, but its wasn’t bad either,” said Johnson, 49, who helped put two Troyer chassis in the top-three this year for the first time after posting just his second front-five finish through 14 extra-distance tour races.
The final mid-week Super DIRTcar Series show arrives in just our more days as the revival of the ‘Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A.’ title event takes place on the high banks of Lebanon Valley Speedway with a whopping $17,500 saved for the 100-lap winner on Thursday, Aug. 27.
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