Weedsport, NY – July 17, 2010 – It was a fitting finish to All-Star Weekend II after Matt Sheppard and Jimmy Phelps traded opening round 50-lappers Thursday at Brewerton Speedway and last night at Cayuga County Fair Speedway.
In one final bump and grind maneuver between DIRTcar Northeast’s winningest drivers in 2010, Sheppard took the tie-breaker Saturday night at Cayuga County an collected $10,000 for his decisive victory in the All-Star 100 at the home of DIRTcar Northeast.
“We fought through a lot of adversity tonight,” noted Sheppard, 28, after registering his Series-best fourth win of the season using a second car from the JB Motorsports shop. “Have to thank all the guys, I messed up the car real bad in the first race and we actually had to switch to a back-up.”
“We started last in that second one and we’re coming up through when I got caught up in that accident and had to go last again. It was just a tough night right until the end.”
After powering under Phelps with plenty of contact on the low side exiting turn four, Sheppard forged the final lead change on lap 43 and opened up a dozen car-length advantage under the checkered flag. Tim McCreadie’s rally to the front carried the Watertown, N.Y. driver to third-place ahead of Gypsum teammates Pat Ward and Billy Decker.
In the initial 25-lap segments that ultimately worked to set the starting grid for the big 50-lap, Canadian standout Stewart Friesen and Tom Sears Jr. from Clay, N.Y. each received $5,000 paydays out of the total All-Star Weekend purse that bordered on $100,000.
Super DIRTcar Series travelers return to action in less than 48 hours when they take the annual trek into Quebec for stops at autodromes Granby and Drummond in the annual doubleheader on Monday, July 19 & Tuesday, July 20.
From Tom Skibinski / Photo by Bill Moore
