Williamson Racing Team Debuts New Car With Big Win at Ransomville

By Dave Sully  - Any time a race team puts a new car on the track, there is great anticipation, but also a degree of trepidation as well because there is no guarantee that the car will perform as advertised. A brand new BRP chassis, with a brand new ERD motor, was rolled out for the first time at Ransomville on Friday, May 18^th and it passed with flying colors, as Mat drove the car to a hard earned victory in the 30 lap Modified Feature.

Mat declared, “I can’t say enough for my crew. These guys thrashed all week to get this thing out.  We went practicing Wednesday, and to win the race feels really good.”

Starting fourteenth in the tough field of cars, Mat was on the gas from the start, while four cautions in the first nine laps kept the leaders from getting too far out front.  The race went caution free from the lap nine restart, with Rick Richner, Mat, and Chad Brachmann the big movers, with Richner taking second behind Boyd Mactavish on lap 22, while Mat, who had claimed third on lap 12, kept pace.

When Richner took the lead on lap 22, Mat grabbed second on lap 23, and the race, as they say, was on.  Mat quickly closed on Richner and the two diced for several laps as Mat worked the bottom, while Richner tried to protect it.  Mat observed, “It was fun racing. The track took rubber in the middle.  I was able to roll out of one and two like nobody else.”  Indeed the pass for the lead, on lap 27, came as the two roared out of turn two.

Once he cleared Richner, Mat was able to put some distance between them over the final three laps.

In Victory Lane, Mat commented, “We got lucky on the restarts.  We were outside on a couple of them and that was the lane to be in. This new car is unbelievable. To come out with new stuff is always good, but this one’s special.” 

On his race with Richner he added, “I had a good race with Ricky.We raced each other clean before I finally got by.”  Richner observed, “It was exciting. Mat had a real good car. He had a lot of side bite. I was lacking side bite through the corner. He got under me and away he went.”

The race was the first in a grueling four races in four days, which also includes Saturday at Merrittville, Sunday, a 358 Series race at Cornwall, and Monday, another 358 Series race back at Merrittville on Victoria Day. Hopefully, winning the first one is a harbinger of things to come.