Sixth Place Finish at Merrittville Doesn’t Sit Well

By Dave Sully  - (Thorold, Ontario) Maybe it was the frustration of the disappointing conclusion at Mohawk on Thursday, or the struggle at Ransomville on Friday to salvage a decent finish, but the sixth place finish at Merrittville on Saturday, in the race won by point leader Pet Bicknell, didn’t Mat’s help demeanor following the event.

For the record, Mat started eighth and immediately went backward, similar to the previous night at the Big R. After falling back to around fourteenth, a caution came out on lap 7, allowing Mat to make some adjustments to right the ship and he began to claw his way forward. Another yellow flag on lap 15 allowed for more tinkering, and by the time the next caution flew on lap 28, he was up to eighth and seemed ready to challenge.

Up front, a barn burner was developing between Pete Bicknell, Tom Flannigan, and Tim Jones. Mat got a great restart and, hugging the bottom, he actually nosed into fourth for a short time before being shuffled back.

A final caution on lap 34 became the particular source of Mat’s ire, as it appeared he was in 5th when the yellow flew, but he was placed sixth on the restart behind the 71. There were no position changes in the one lap dash, and Mat ended up sixth, when he felt strongly that he should have been fifth. In a tight point race, where even one point can mean a position in the standings, perhaps even a title, any perceived indiscretion can be disheartening.

Mat reacted to that and opened a can of worms on some other issues. “We had that caution there and drove like mad over the last couple laps. We would have been a top five car, but for the guy up in the tower making all the calls. On the last restart I was blatantly in front of the 71. It showed it on the board. The caution came out going into one, and I slowed down for the yellow, and the 71 didn’t. They put me behind him. If it comes down to racing under the yellow, some people are going to get hurt. That’s what it takes. (It seems like) Every call that he makes is against me.”

Each race night, calls have to be made based on the perception of the officials running the event. Intent versus “One of them racin’ deals” is often a hard thing to decipher. Sometimes intentional wrong-doing is obvious, and the call is easy.

Not everyone is going to agree with every call. Every driver, at some point, feels that the scales of justice are tilted in the wrong direction. When families are involved, the situation can be exacerbated even more. Hopefully the events of the past won’t cloud the future, as there are a lot of races left, and neither Mat nor the team can afford any unnecessary distractions.