Merrittville Victory Drought Over

By DAVE SULLY - THOROLD, ON- After what seemed like an eternity, the team finally basked in the glory of a win at Merrittville on Saturday, July 20th, ending a winless streak there that began after the stirring duel with Pete Bicknell on May 4th. With a narrow loss to Mike Bowman on June 7th, the only other realistic chance for a win, the team had tried everything to get to Victory Lane, only to be thwarted. Last week was perhaps the most discouraging event, given a respectable finish at Humberstone, which had provided reason for optimism, with Mat admitting that they really didn’t know what to do next. He vowed they would find a solution and on Saturday, they found it.

A win in the heat, although not necessarily a guarantee of a good performance in the feature, got the team off to a good start, with the handicapping putting him in third place on the grid. When the green flag flew, polesitter Todd Gordon took off like he was shot out of a gun and opened a huge lead, while Mat sparred for position with Bill Bleich and Chris Steele before claiming second on lap 7.

By this time, Gordon was a straightaway ahead and still setting a brisk pace. Mat began to chip away at the lead, and was visibly gaining. When Gordon entered lap traffic on lap 14, Mat was rapidly closing the gap and began stalking the No. 28. On lap 21, he was able to draw up on the outside and pin Gordon behind the 108, from where he eased into the lead.

Once ahead, he drove out to a commanding lead, but there was one more hurdle, as the only caution of the event came out on lap 31. That forced a restart with Gordon and Pete Bicknell, up from tenth, ready to test him. Mat was up to the challenge, getting a great restart and then holding off a brief challenge by Bicknell, who got by Gordon, to win going away.

To say that Mat and the team were relieved would be a vast understatement. Upon reflection, Mat talked about what led to the winning performance, explaining, “We have been doing things for a while that just got outdated. We went back to basics. I’ve got to give a shout out to Matt Sheppard and Mike Payne. I talked to both those guys this week and got some information from both of them. Just some help and advice. It cleared my head a little bit. You know, ninety percent of this game is mental. It’s great to be back.  I’m just so happy to be back. It feels great. I’ve got to thank my crew for sticking it out, sticking with me when we’re running bad. It’s so mental. You get down in the dumps and you’re going to stay down there until you clear your head. It’s a different mental aspect. It’s great to be back, and I’m happy to win on Semenuk’s night.

Of the night itself, he continued, “We won the heat pretty convincingly, but we’ve been good in heats all year. To be honest, I didn’t think we’d be able to catch Todd. When I was racing with Bleich, and Steeler went by me, I figured we’d be done. The race car wasn’t really good for the first five laps. Then a tire came in, and it was like a light switch came on. It was good to catch Todd in lap traffic. We got him pinned against a lap car on the bottom and went around him on the outside. I could roll the middle really good. I had forward bite when nobody else did and just a little bit more side bite than anybody else. I could use the throttle more than they could. I think it paid off. I was not excited to see that late caution. I’m not sure how close Pete was before the caution.”

Mat concluded, “The car was pretty good tonight, but we’ve still got some improving to do. It’s not perfect yet, but we’re getting there.”

With plenty of racing left, it was important to get things turned around ASAP. One race does not make a season, but Saturday was a step in the right direction at a critical time.