Sixth Place Finish at Merrittville Keeps Mat in the Hunt

By Dave Sully - (Thorold, Ontario) There was a brand new No. 6 car on the track at Merrittville on Saturday, June 30th, and like all new cars, there is going to be a feeling out process. The result was a hard earned and sometimes bizarre sixth place finish, which kept the team in the point chase, but probably too early to be concentrating on that aspect.

After a second place finish in his heat, Mat started eleventh on the grid, next to point leader Pete Bicknell. The car was pretty good early, with Mat moving up a few spots in the intense battle, but then he, figuratively, hit a wall, and couldn’t get any further. From there it was biting and clawing for every position.

Two debatable calls on restarts put Mat a further disadvantage (Mat suggested that they went back to the position on the previous lap to line up the cars, something that they haven’t done in quite a while), placing him behind cars he felt he had cleared before the yellow flew. Mat stayed with it, however, trying to make adjustments under yellow. When it appeared he was going to finish eighth or worse, he got a big break, courtesy of Chad Chevalier and Travis Braun, who got locked together on lap 15, bringing out the caution and moving Mat to sixth for the restart. From there, he was able to protect the spot over the rest of the race.

Talking about the night, Mat observed, “There were some minor details with the new car. The throttle was either on or off, so we have to fix that for tomorrow. Little things like that can make or break a race. We weren’t a winning car. You have to take them as you get them. We were good at first and then kind of faded. I made some adjustments, but they didn’t help as much as they should have. It’s back to the drawing board tomorrow.”

Regarding the point race, Mat is taking a broadened approach, noting, “I not worrying about point racing right now. We’re going for the “W. If we’re the best car, the point championship will come. I’m going to stop looking at it (the point race).”

There’s no time to fret, because the team is back at it on Sunday at Humberstone and Tuesday at Ransomville for the Battle of the Border, where they hope to turn things around.