By Dave Sully - (Sarver, PA) A much-anticipated visit to Lernerville Speedway, a 4/10 mile semi-banked clay oval in Sarver, PA, located at the western end of the state, not far from the Ohio border, produced better than anticipated results and a new found future destination for the Williamson Racing Team. Everything about the trip was positive.
Dipper explained how the trip came about and what occurred, noting, “We’ve been wanting to go there for the last two years. We finally decided on Wednesday we were going and we had a lot of fun. It’s not a bad drive, 3 and a half hours. They run big blocks there, so Mat was at somewhat of a disadvantage. They have a pill draw for starting positions for the heat and out of fifty pills, Mat drew No. 50, putting him last in his heat. He did well, finishing fourth and qualifying for the redraw.”
“For the feature, Lernerville always starts the previous week’s winner tenth. Mat ended up starting ninth in the 25 lapper. He started coming, ran great, but you could notice halfway down the straightaway the big blocks kick in. We crossed the line underneath the third place car. It was great. We had a lot of fun. The people are great. The facility is beautiful, unbelievable. I told Mat that I’d drive there every Friday.”
“The talk is right now, there may be a big block next year. One car will have a big block in it, and we’ll do that (go to Lernervlle) because BRP sponsors a tour down there. So, why not go there, help BRP, and have fun? I was on the internet this morning and people were talking about Mat Williamson. They don’t even know him, and they wanted to know all about him.”
“Now that Ransomville is no longer in the plans, we can do what we want on a Friday night. When you get welcomed like you do at Lernerville, with people coming over to talk to you, and track officials and tech people hanging out in the trailer, it makes you feel good. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.”
Not be outdone and not a party to my conversation with Dipper, Mat offered, “It’s my favorite race track. I love it. It’s not tricky. It’s like Ohsweken was when we were racing Sportsman. I loved that place, and I’ve found my new Ohsweken. It’s such a wide race track, that you don’t get caught behind somebody and trying to pass them for five laps.”
As for the race, Mat continued, “The car was really good. We made the right tire choice. We went with a 300. I don’t think you’d go with any other tire there. We didn’t even cut into the 300, so it’s not like racing Ransomville, where you have to replace a tire every 30 laps, which gets costly, and it doesn’t help when you’re trying to do it on a budget. Even if we have to drive a ways to go racing, you don’t have to spend $180 on a tire every week. The pros definitely outweigh the cons in this situation. It was good.”
“We were definitely at a disadvantage (racing against the big blocks). The track was tacky. I figured, starting at the back I had to either gain from the top or the bottom, so we picked the bottom, and I got stuck on the outside on the restart for one lap. The motor got a little hot, so I had to baby it for a couple laps. I think that hurt us from getting a top three. Everybody raced each other with respect. I love that place.”
It looks like the Williamson Racing Team has turned a corner. With a possible big block and dreams of racing at a top notch facility dancing in their heads, “Joie de vie” appears to be the order of the day.
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