By DAVE SULLY - BROCKVILLE, ONTARIO – With the final championship race at Brockville on tap for Saturday, October 19th, it was going to take a great finish by Mat and an almost total collapse by Erick Rudolph to change the standings. That’s not the way, it played out, as Mat saw a great effort dissolve with one lap to go, while Rudolph went on to score his first ever series victory, clinching the overall title in the process.
The night started out very well for the Williamson Racing Team, as Mat set fast time and won $500 in the process. He then went on to win his heat, beating none other that Danny Johnson, in another heady effort. The race was going swimmingly, as well, for most of the way. However, bad luck, which has had its moments with the team this year, weighed in, with Mat suffering a flat tire with only one lap to go, dooming him to a seventeenth place finish and spoiling a really good pay day.
Talking about the Brockville trip, Mat declared, “We went there Friday night. They had timed hot laps, which paid $500 for quick time and nothing for second. We quick timed and got the $500. That was good. Saturday, we won the heat. We won over Danny Johnson, which is tough to do anywhere you go, him and Danny O’Brien. It was a pretty stacked heat. We had a really good race car in the heat. At feature time, we had just as good a race car, but the track took rubber. I put a 500 tire on the right rear and two 400s, so I went with a harder compound that most of the others went with, Erick included.”
“I went out and was being pretty aggressive with my tires. I was warming them up on restarts and wasn’t saving them at all. I wasn’t thinking it would be an issue. When we were sitting third, I was actually expecting the top two cars to blow a tire, considering they had 400s on. I could see that tire wear was an issue. If it would have been Erick getting the flat tire, we would have been champions. It just didn’t go that way. I’m glad that the point race is over, because we were just having bad luck points racing.”
After all was said and done, it was a good season in the Series. Mat’s duel with Erick Rudolph gave a lot of attention to the region and their one/two finish certainly bodes well for racing in Southern Ontario and western New York in the future.
The Williamson Racing Team isn’t finished yet, as this weekend, October 25th and 26th, they will be at Lernerville for their Firecracker weekend. They run all the heat races on Friday and the features on Saturday. It’s $3000 to win on Saturday for the Modified race, which is also a BRP Big Block tour event. Chad Brachmann has clinched the title in that series. Mat will have the Big Block back in the car, hoping to top off his track championship with a Big Block Tour win. Other local drivers planning on competing, along with Mat and Chad, are Ricky Richner, Justin Wright, Chad Homan, and possibly Randy Chrysler. Mat expects up to 45 cars for this event.
The team is ready to have a good finish to their Lernerville finale, a track which has been very kind to them this year.
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