By Dave Sully - (Thorold, Ontario) The Williamson Racing Team capped off a grueling four day stretch consisting of 30 laps at Ransomville, 35 laps at Merrittville, 100 laps at Cornwall, and 100 more at Merrittville, with a fine fourth place finish, which put an exclamation point on the early season effort. With a first at Ransomville, a second at Merrittville, and two fourths in 358 Series events at Cornwall and Merrittville, the team sits in first at Ransomville, second at Merrittville, and unofficially second or third in the Series, pretty heady stuff at this point in the season.
Monday night started out very well, as Mat was victorious in the first heat of the evening, after time trialing fourth. From there, he proceeded to the redraw, from where he ended up starting eighth. The early part of the race was plagued by several cautions, while Mat bided his time. By the midpoint of the race, he was slotted fifth, while Brett Hearn and Chad Brachmann battled for the lead.
He was able to get past the fast running Mark D’Ilario for fourth and then had a spirited battle with Pete Bicknell and third place runner Jimmy Phelps before settling for the fourth place finish.
Of the overall effort, Mat declared, “Tonight it didn’t go as planned. I really wanted to win tonight. It’s my ballpark here, and this is one of the places I’d like to get a Series win. I couldn’t do it. The car was a little tight in and loose off. We just missed the setup. It’s such a fine line in a Series race if you’re going to win or lose. You’ve got to be on your game, and tonight we missed it just a little bit.”
On his late race battles with Pete Bicknell and Jimmy Phelps, he commented, “I saw Pete underneath me once or twice, and I didn’t know whether he was going to get by me or not. I thought I was a little better than Jimmy. He would get the drive out of two that I couldn’t get. I could get up to him in three and four, but I couldn’t complete a pass. I was hoping we’d have a few more laps, but I knew he was holding Pete up on the bottom and as long as I stayed on the outside of Jimmy that Pete wouldn’t get by me. It was good racing.”
A true racer, Mat concluded, “It was a good weekend. Not being out of the top five is pretty good, but I really wanted that win tonight.”
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