Williamson Closes in on Point Lead With Strong Finish at Merrittville

By Dave Sully - (Thorold, Ontario)  After last weekend’s somewhat frustrating finishes, not all of his own making, Mat turned in a strong performance on Saturday, June 2^nd, finishing second to Chris Steele in a race he thought he could have won. In so doing, he pulled closer to the point lead, as Tim Jones, who was in second going into the race, suffered a flat tire, which relegated him to a thirteenth place finish, and top point man, Pete Bicknell finished fourth.  Mat now stands in second, two points out of the lead.

Crew Chief “Dipper” Windeatt noted that the team made a number of changes to the setup and practiced on Wednesday at Humberstone to work the bugs out. The strategy seemed to work, as Mat who started ninth, inside last week’s winner, Mike Bowman, was on the gas and passing cars early.

As Steele vaulted to the front from eighth, Mat was replying in kind, and when Steele took the lead on lap 12, Mat was ensconced in third. He diced with second place runner Rob Pietz for three laps before cruising by on the outside to claim second on lap 15.

A caution on lap 18 set up a series of three side by side restarts between Mat and Steele, with Steele able to keep Mat at bay by choosing the tackier bottom, forcing Mat to restart on the slicker part of the track.  Mat did the best he could, but ended up second, just ahead of a hard charging Tom Flannigan, who started sixteenth and may have been the fastest car on the track at the end.

On the overall effort, Mat noted, “We were good enough to win, but Steele was real good. He just kept snookering me on the restarts. I wasn’t quite good enough to get by him. I think if I could have gotten by him, I could have taken his line away. It was tough, but it was a good run and a good points night. I really wanted to win tonight, but second’s good.”

Of his restarts with Steele, he offered, “He kept going into one and sliding up, taking my line away, trying to slide job me. That’s racing. It was a good night for the S and W car.”

As for the points, he concluded, “It’s early. We’ve just got to keep knocking down these seconds, thirds, and wins.”

With Ransomville’s race rained out on Friday, Mat lies in a tie for third there with Pete Bicknell, two points behind Chad Brachmann in second, and ten behind point leader Danny Johnson after four events, one of them that great win on opening night.

The season is still young, and the Williamson racing team is positioned well to this point.