Sheppard Scores Opening Day All-Star Victory At Brewerton
Brewerton, NY — July 15, 2010 – By Tom Skibinski, Super DIRTcar Series PR Director

Opening day in the 2nd Annual DIRTcar All-Star Weekend speedfest at Brewerton Speedway produced a fitting finish with the winningest Big-Block Modified drivers on the circuit this season crossing the line 1-2.
‘Super Matt’ Sheppard charged past pole-sitter Jimmy Phelps on a lap 11 restart, then held off the ‘B’Ville Blizzard’ to score his Super DIRTcar Series-high third win of 2010 in the headline Longhorn Trucking 50 at the D-Shaped Dirt Demon.
“This is a big weekend for us and its already starting out great,” beamed Sheppard, who just turned 28 on Monday, after scoring his division-best 11th feature win of the season and his fourth of the year at Brewerton. “This is the way you want to start it out, hopefully it ends the same way too.”
Sheppard pocketed a cool $3,000 at Brewerton on Thursday and is now clearly the favorite to carry the momentum back to nearby Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y. to close out All-Star Weekend II at the home of DIRTcar Northeast. A second 50-lap preliminary event pays out another $3 grand on Friday while the Saturday evening fairgrounds finale dishes out $20,000 to the winners in twin-25-lappers and a 50-lap nightcap.
Phelps faded back to finish five car-lengths behind Sheppard in the Brewerton main, with open-wheel veteran Pat Ward claiming third-place ahead of defending overall Hoosier Tire-VP Racing Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Champion Brett Hearn and Steve Paine, who edged Billy Decker on the last lap to end Decker’s streak of eight consecutive Top-5 tallies on tour.
A solid showing of 39 Modified machines helped fill the pits with World of Outlaws Late Model Series title contender Tim McCreadie making his first appearance of the season on tour utilizing a Small-Block powered Modified owned by Vinny Salerno. Western New Yorker Randy Chrysler was the only other driver to steer a 358-Modified, and it was a 15th-place finish by McCreadie that earned him an automatic starting berth in the 358-Modified Championship held during Super DIRT Week in October.
Continuing the full-fender trend, WoO LM racer Vic Coffey entered his Sweeteners Plus no. 32c Integra Shocks-CME,Inc./Troyer Modified and went on to claim just his second career Bilstein Shocks Fast Time award. In his heat race qualifier however, Coffey could only muster a dismal fifth and the night seemed to worsen from there as he finished 26th in the feature with only 33 laps under his belt.
Stopping the clocks third fastest in time trial rounds, Sheppard chased Hearn across the stripe in their stacked heat and unlike Coffey, his night steadily got better with each passing lap.
Phelps easily outdistanced front row partner Jim Witko Jr. on the initial circuit while Shawn Donath, Hearn, Sheppard and Ward drop-kicked Witko to sixth after just five more times around the slickening one-third mile clay oval. Sheppard started eighth on the 30-car grid and with 10 laps in was already in the runner-up spot and hounding Phelps in his bid to grab the number one position.
The timing was right after Danny Johnson and Willy Decker tangled on lap 11 to force out the first yellow flag. Sheppard restarted in the outside lane and as soon as the green lights reappeared, he charged past Phelps out of turn four and never looked back despite two more cautions en route to his 15th career Super DIRTcar Series triumph which ranks him 13th all-time.
“The car was amazing as soon as the first green flag dropped,” remarked Sheppard, after closing to within 27 points of current Series leader Decker with his sixth Top-5 finish in the first nine events. “I didn’t think it was going to be very good early, thought it would be better later on but it was pretty much the opposite of what I thought. When the green came out it just went anywhere I wanted it to go.”
Phelps was able to close in on the back bumper of Sheppard’s JB Motorsports no. 9s Xtreme Lubricants/Bicknell machine in traffic at the halfway mark, yet a pair of yellow flags soonafter for a slowing Willy Decker ride (lap 35) and a spinning mount of Jason Rood (lap 43) knocked Phelps off the pace and continued Sheppard on course to successfully defend his title in Brewerton’s annual Series showdown.
“You never know if a caution helps or hurts, it is what it is, it’s a race and there’s going to be yellows. I was just happy to be able to get to the front quick and just try to hold on, and we were able to do that,” added Sheppard, who ironically took the lead away from Decker for good on lap 50 in last year’s 100-lapper held in August.
In that same century grind staged in ’09, Phelps finished third and was able to improve one position this time around in the same event that he took top honors in 2006.
“We were fair in the beginning but need the race to go green longer,” figured Phelps, 35, who remained third on the Series points chart with two wins to his credit in June buckled into the potent HBR Motorsports no. 98h Wave Energy Drink-Mohawk Northeast/Troyer machine. “We were decent on the longer runs yet with a short race there at the end as the yellows got rid of the traffic, there just wasn’t enough time.”
“We were both about the same (speed) on the bottom so the only way I was going to get past him was to go around him. Probably was going to need a little help from traffic to do that.”
“We’re still happy, second-place isn’t so bad, its already been a great year so far. We’re just going to keep on working to get better in time for tomorrow. We’re not out of the Series hunt yet, the guys on this team are really focused and working hard. There’s still a long ways to go,” said Phelps, who finished third in overall Mr. DIRTcar points last year behind Hearn and runner-up Sheppard.
Enjoying the best view of the action up front from his third-place perch, Ward racked up a solid showing in just his fifth event of the year steering the LJL Racing no. 42p Gypsum Express,Ltd./Bicknell entry.
“The car was good but these two guys here are the hottest on the circuit, so if you finish right behind then you’re getting closer and closer,” noted Ward, 53, who started seventh and made his final pass of Hearn on lap 33 to secure the show position two-thirds of the way through. “Everybody’s working hard, I think we’re gaining.”
“We haven’t been very consistent this year, we’re trying though and hopefully we’ll continue to make progress. Third is a good start to the weekend, maybe we can tweak things a little more. Get (car) a little bit better instead of a little worse, then hopefully race for a win against them tomorrow and Saturday,” Ward added.
There’s little time to rest as Super DIRTcar Series teams prepare for round two of All-Star Weekend action as Cayuga County Fair Speedway hosts a 50-lap preliminary event plus the Exemption Dash tomorrow in Weedsport.
Super DIRTcar Series Race #9 – Brewerton Speedway, July 15, 2010, All-Star Weekend ‘Longhorn Trucking 50’ Big-Block Modified Event Summary
FIN STR CAR# DRIVER
1 8 9s Matt Sheppard/Waterloo,NY ($3,000)
2 1 98h Jimmy Phelps/Baldwinsville,NY
3 7 42p Pat Ward/Genoa,NY
4 6 20 Brett Hearn/Sussex,NJ
5 9 7x Steve Paine/Waterloo,NY
6 11 91 Billy Decker/Unadilla,NY
7 5 99 Ryan Phelps/Fulton,NY
8 14 99L Larry Wight/Phoenix,NY
9 2 24 Jim Witko Jr./Clarks Summit,PA
10 12 5h Chris Hile/Syracuse,NY
11 3 13d Shawn Donath/S.Onondaga,NY
12 13 62s Tom Sears Jr./Clay,NY
13 10 66x Dale Planck/Cortland,NY
14 4 8 Rich Scagliotta/Bound Brook,NJ
15 21 4t Tim McCreadie/Watertown,NY
16 15 4* Michael Storms/Wantage,NJ
17 19 49 Billy Dunn/Watertown,NY
18 16 74 Tim Fuller/Edwards,NY
19 28 1f Stewart Friesen/Niagara-o-t-Lake,ONT
20 23 21k Randy Chrysler/Lewiston,NY
21 18 99b Chuck Bower/Lansing,NY
22 22 27j Danny Johnson/Rochester,NY
23 30 16w Lance Willix II/Theresa,NY
24 29 1 Gary Tomkins/Clifton Springs,NY
25 27 18j Jason Rood/Oneida,NY
26 17 32c Vic Coffey/Caledonia,NY
27 20 1j Alan Johnson/Middlesex,NY
28 24 33 Mike Mahaney/King Ferry,NY
29 26 16 Mike Bowman/Baldwinsville,NY
30 25 1x Willy Decker/Vernon,NY
GATER RACING NEWS LAP LEADERS: J.Phelps (1-10), Sheppard (11-50).
CAUTIONS: 3 (lap 11, lap 35, lap 43).
HEAT WINNERS: R.Phelps, Paine, Planck, Hearn.
CONSI WINNERS: McCreadie, D.Johnson.
BICKNELL RACING PRODUCTS WINNER AWARD: Matt Sheppard.
MSD IGNITION WINNER AWARD: Matt Sheppard.
SYRACUSE 200 QUALIFIER: Pat Ward.
SYRACUSE 358-MODIFIED QUALIFIER: Tim McCreadie.
HALFWAY LEADER: Matt Sheppard.
BERT/KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Stewart Friesen.
XTREME LUBRICANTS SLICK MOVE OF THE RACE AWARD: Matt Sheppard.
PENSKE POWER POSITION AWARD (14th): Rich Scagliotta.
MSD IGNITION FINAL PLACEMENT AWARD: Willy Decker.
BILSTEIN SHOCKS FAST TIME AWARD: Vic Coffey (14.571sec/82.355mph).
TOTAL PURSE: $14,725.
CARS ENTERED: 39.
NEXT EVENTS: "All-Star Weekend" Cayuga County Fair Speedway - July 16-17, 2010.
DID NOT QUALIFY(9)
X-Chad Phelps/Mexico,NY
02-Roy Bresnahan/Palermo,NY
10-Tim Currier/Auburn,NY
10v-Bobby Varin/Sharon Springs,NY
13-Tony Steiner/Jamesville,NY
15-Matt Fink/Baldwinsville,NY
29e-Erik Martin/Evans City,PA
93-Ryan Bartlett/Adams Center,NY
160-Johnny Hill/Hastings,NY

QUALIFYING
FAST AVE
TIME MPH CAR# DRIVER
1 14.571 82.355 32c Vic Coffey/Caledonia,NY
*$100 Bilstein Shocks Fast Qualifier Award
2 14.597 82.209 1j Alan Johnson/Middlesex,NY
3 14.604 82.169 9s Matt Sheppard/Waterloo,NY
4 14.705 81.605 42p Pat Ward/Genoa,NY
5 14.784 81.169 8 Rich Scagliotta/Bound Brook,NJ