By Dave Sully - (Elbridge, NY) What started out as a promising evening turned into frustration for the Williamson Racing Team’s first foray into the Big Block Super Dirt Series at Rolling Wheels Raceway on Wednesday, June 5th. Following a strong hot lap session and a good time trial effort, things went from bad to worse in the heat and consi, leaving the team scratching their collective heads to figure out what caused the reversal of fortunes.
The car was fast off the trailer, as Mat was second quick to Bobby Varin in his hot lap session, actually being the first one to break 20 seconds. In the group time trial, Mat clocked 20.704, which placed him third on the grid behind Varin and Alan Johnson for the first heat. However, when the green flag fell, the car went backward, ultimately finishing seventh.
It didn’t go much better in the consi, where Mat started sixth and once again slid backward, ultimately finishing 10th. In both races, it almost appeared as if Mat was running on seven cylinders, but, until the car is checked, there is no way to know if the cause was mechanical.
Mat put things in perspective, noting, “It was a tough field of cars, and we didn’t bring our “A” game tonight. It’s tough when you get to big races like this. The Big Block carries so much more speed through the corners than what I’m used to in the 358. I’ve got a lot of learning left to do. That showed tonight.”
“The car hurt us tonight too. We think a bar went bad. It was really good when I was in the brown. It just seems that when we’re out of the brown it doesn’t go anywhere. It just slides. I told my dad that I’ve never had a car that ran that bad. I think there’s something wrong somewhere, something went wrong, or the shock’s wrong.”
“We’re just going to go back tomorrow and regroup all day. Hopefully, we can get it back and check it for Lernerville on Friday. It’s discouraging when we get to races like this and we don’t qualify. It was the same as when we went to Florida and didn’t qualify there at first. We’ll get over it and, hopefully, we’ll run good at Lernerville. We need to just get our stuff together and put this behind us.”
Anybody who switches from the Small Block to the Big Block will tell you that the differences in handling characteristics are more significant than you would think. Couple that with a fast 5/8 mile like Rolling Wheels, racing against the best Modified drivers in the Northeast and the variables become more pronounced. The learning curve just became steeper, but it’s certainly not insurmountable. The team will stay focused and keep its eyes on the prize.
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