A Rough Night at Merrittville Has 6 Team Looking for Answers

By Dave Sully - (Thorold, Ontario) Another frustrating night at Merrittville, on July 28th, has the Williamson Racing Team scratching their collective heads as they continue to chase the set-up. If hard work were the answer, they would be contending every week, but in a class where the competition is so keen, being even a click off can mean running at the front to struggling in the middle, or worse.

On the surface, the eighth place finish doesn’t sound awful, but when the chief competition for the title, Pete Bicknell, finishes second, there is no cause for celebration. To have any shot at the title, Mat has to beat the 42 every night and hope for the best.

The night started okay, with Mat finishing third in his heat, which put him ninth on the starting grid. Things got worse at the drop of the green, as the car was tight and Mat struggled to hold onto it. Then, early in the race, he provide the drama for the evening when contact with the No. 38 coming out of turn four put him into the implement tires. The car got airborne, but Mat made an extraordinary save.

He explained, “I went into the corner on the bottom. He went in on the top and decided he wanted the bottom halfway through turn four there, and it put me into the tires. My left front climbed the tires and my right front climbed his left front tire. It got my front end in the air. I knew if I came down I was going to roll, so I kept my foot in it and cat-walked the front straightaway.”

When asked if the car was damaged as a result, he cracked wryly, “I was hoping it would have. It might have made the car a little better. We were no good until then.”

After that, it was bite and scratch for every spot. He had a prolonged battle with Shayne Pierce for eighth before finally prevailing, but it was another disappointing finish.

Mat declared, “From sixth to eighth to tenth to ninth. We’re not doing the right things and we’re not doing them at the right time. It was too tight to race. There’s nothing you can do when you’re tight like that. When you’re loose you can adjust the panhard bar. That’s some thing I can do, but when you’re tight like that, you’re kind of euchred the rest of the night.”

The team is down right now, but not out. They’ll keep working, and Mat will keep digging. That’s the name of the game.