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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 BVille
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 Deckers 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 didnt 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 Sheppards
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 Brewertons
annual Series showdown.
You
never know if a caution helps or hurts, it is what it is,
its a race and theres 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 years 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 wasnt 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.
Were
still happy, second-place isnt so bad, its already been
a great year so far. Were just going to keep on working
to get better in time for tomorrow. Were not out of
the Series hunt yet, the guys on this team are really focused
and working hard. Theres 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 youre 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. Everybodys
working hard, I think were gaining.
We
havent been very consistent this year, were trying
though and hopefully well 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.
Theres
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
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