Gypsum Racing.com

By Dave Medler

BREWERTON, NY - May 12, 2017 - The 2017 racing season finally got underway Friday night at the Brewerton speedway as fans were greeted with a full pit of race cars eager to get on the track for racing action.

In the Tracey Road Equipment big block Modifieds, teammates Pat Ward and Larry Wight put on a thrilling side by side battle before Wight was able to make the winning pass on lap 13. Once out front Wight was able to hold off a hard charging Jimmy Phelps for the popular win.

Larry Wight and Pat Ward paced the stout field of Modifieds down to starter Dave Farney’s green flag with Ward grabbing the narrow lead in the 35 lap feature.

With 5 laps complete, Ward and Wight were slugging it out side by side for the top spot. Behind the top two, Jimmy Phelps, Mike Bowman and Bobby Varin were in a tight battle of their own for third through fifth.

At the 10 lap mark, Ward had the biggest lead of the race, but that was only by a couple car lengths as Wight, Phelps, Bowman and Matt Hulsizer were racing for top five spots.

On lap 13 it looked like Wight was shot out of a cannon as he drove by Ward to be scored the new leader.

With 20 laps showing on the scoring tower, Wight opened up a half a straightaway lead. Behind Wight, Ward, Phelps and Billy Decker raced in a close battle for second through fourth with Hulsizer fifth.

With 10 laps to go, Wight lengthened his lead to a full straightaway as he was putting cars a lap down. Phelps at that point had moved into second, with Ward, Decker and Hulsizer still showing in the top five.
A caution with 8 laps to go would give the field one last shot at Wight for the win. Over the remaining laps nobody seriously challenged Wight as he was the first under the checkers. Jimmy Phelps, Billy Decker, Matt Hulsizer and Max McLaughlin finished second through fifth.

(Tracey Road Equipment DIRTcar Modifieds 35 Laps) - LARRY WIGHT, Jimmy Phelps, Billy Decker, Matt Hulsizer, Max McLaughlin, Pat Ward, Chad Phelps, Rob Bellinger, Tim Kerr, Jeremy Smith, Chris Hile, Gary Tomkins, Mike Mahaney, Andrew Ferguson, Rich Scagliotta, Ryan Watt, Jim Witko, Mike Bowman, Adam Roberts, Joe August Jr., Ryan Bartlett, Tom Sears Jr., Bobby Varin, Tim Sears Jr., Lee Gill.