By Jimmy Phelps, as told to Mandee Pauch

Jimmy Phelps, better known in racing circles as "The Baldwinsville Bandit," is the general manager of Weedsport Speedway in New York and one of the most successful and well-respected drivers on the Super DIRTcar Series. This is his story.

From the time I could remember, my dad and Uncle Roger always raced on the weekends and had race cars at the house. Back then it seemed like every night of the week there were always things to do. You couldn’t help but get engulfed in it. 

During the early ages, I couldn’t wait to get to the races. As I got older, I started tinkering with the cars and started to fall in love with that side of the sport, as well. 

I was fortunate because it was something I really liked to do, and I had it at my fingertips. The big difference between then and now? They never used to do a lot of traveling back then so it was always just a weekend thing. 

As we got older, we still worked regular jobs, did regular school things, and played sports, so I kind of had the best of both worlds growing up.

It’s Never Too Late To Start

My dad and uncle were partners. My uncle did the driving and my dad worked on the cars. They were always so immersed into that, so there were never any go-karts or quarter midgets growing up for me. 

I was part of the pit crew and worked on the cars for several years before I actually drove a car. I think I was 16 years old when I ended up starting out with a 4-cylinder street stock. We didn’t have a very big garage, so I ended up working on it outside under the tree and ran it one night a week.

Right around that same time frame my uncle started a speed shop. He moved his racing operation over to where the speed shop was, so it freed my dad up a little bit. At that time, the tracks around us just started running the sportsman division, so the timing was just right. 

By the time I was 17, I was in a sportsman modified.

The Move Up

In 1995, Fulton and Brewerton had an open outlaw 358 rule, then you had the big blocks on Sunday, locally. Soon after that, Brewerton went big-block racing. It was a weird time. Everything was changing. The guys that ran the outlaw alcohol motors were going from a big tire to a smaller tire. We weren’t really ready for a big block. All we had was a dirt-legal 358. 

We ran against big blocks, whether it be at Weedsport or Brewerton. We were pretty competitive for a couple of years. We ran Weedsport, Brewerton, and Fulton. We were underpowered, but I think it gave me that stepping stone to keep me out of trouble the first years that we had a modified. 

The first year we actually invested in a big block was 1997. We ran it at Brewerton and Weedsport. We didn’t do much traveling then but we started to creep into tracks like Rolling Wheels and Canandaigua. As time went on, we started getting more and more competitive at our home tracks and were starting to enjoy some success. 

I was very fortunate to have some great sponsors, and a core group of family and friends led by my dad that worked extremely hard to keep pushing forward. 

Opportunity Of A Lifetime

We did all of the local tour events that we could physically and financially handle. We didn’t get too far out of the comfort zone with our equipment. And with our work schedule, that was enough. 

It wasn’t until 2005 that I had the opportunity to drive for Heinke-Baldwin Racing, formerly known as H&H, and team owner Al Heinke. That was an opportunity of a lifetime and still is. 

Naturally, it provided a whole other opportunity to go out and really get to travel and do it right. I started seeing all of these new tracks for the first time. Sure, I would have loved to have traveled all over the place before joining HBR, but we weren’t going to run 25-plus Super DIRTcar Series races, run at our weekly home tracks, and come home to a full-time job. 

Thanks to Mr. Heinke, we’ve been able to do this for quite some time now. 

For a good part of a decade, we kept both teams going and it worked. We were able to share notes and it was keeping the series equipment fresh. When we started the speedway venture in Weedsport, things really changed from a time perspective. 

With myself and my family really involved with the speedway, it really made sense to consolidate the racing efforts under one roof, and I have to thank Al, my dad, and everyone involved. I take a lot of pride in what our small, family-owned team was able to accomplish for all those years and I cherish the fact that we were able to do it as a family. 

The beauty of it is, everyone is still involved either with the race team or the speedway. So we are all still working together, and with the relationships with HBR and in Connecticut, our family got a whole lot bigger.

A Man With Two Hats

My role is technically general manager at Weedsport Speedway. I basically oversee the operations for Al Heinke. I’m very involved with scheduling and the events. I oversee what we’re doing from a construction standpoint. I may be doing anything from riding around in a packer truck to talking to the World of Outlaws Series Director to cleaning the ice cream machine.

What’s changed over the last few years is that we’ve gotten a lot of really good help at Weedsport. When we first started, we didn’t really know what we were doing and were kind of winging it. We have learned a lot and continue to learn every day. We have some really good people in the office, people doing PR, people hunting for sponsorship.

I’ve heard this saying a hundred times, it never quite registered until the past couple of years. I was told that every racer should have to run a race track for six months. It’s really true. I’m starting to see things now from both sides. 

I was one of the biggest critics. I was pretty open about my opinion about what I thought, but then you start to see that there are real reasons behind the things you used to question over the years. There’s a lot on the other side of the gate on every aspect that leads to certain decisions like raining out early or why certain events are put on the way they’re put on.

There’s a lot of behind the scenes that control that. 

I have a new respect for racetracks that do it well and there’s a lot of them. I also see some of the things that are misconceived as mismanagement or not caring as real hurdles that these race tracks face and are affected by.

As a racer, it’s allowed me to be a little bit more patient. It opened my eyes and enlightened me. From the track management side of it, I think it’s been a huge help because a good majority of the management team here are all racers. It lets us come in from a little bit different angle at times, which seems to be received well. 

We’ve had a lot of obstacles in the short amount of time we’ve been doing this, but for the most part, I think we’ve left everyone pretty satisfied.

Advice For Future Super DIRTcar Series Drivers

Dirt modified racing is very difficult. This is the toughest form of racing on the planet. 

My best advice would be that you need to be patient and not rush things. You have to keep working on your craft and keep from getting disappointed. It’s one of the very few divisions where the seasoned veterans never seem to fall off. 

The best stay the best for a long time and you have to keep chasing them.