By Dave Sully - (Granby, Quebec) A nightmarish trip to Granby for the Series race on Friday, September 7th, saw the team get bogged down for two hours in Toronto on Thursday night, followed by a long ride to Gananoque, only to find “No rooms at the Inn,” which necessitated another fifty mile jaunt to Brockville. They arrived at 2:45 in the morning, where they could finally rest their heads for a few hours. The agony wasn’t over, as they encountered another untenable delay, due to a construction detour on Rt 20, which saw them visiting heretofore unseen parts of Quebec. In spite of that, the intrepid band of travelers still managed to make the “Dipper deadline,” pulling into the track second in line on pit road, putting the travails of the tortuous journey in their rear view mirror.
Seizing the momentum from the great finish at Cornwall, the team hit the setup after making some changes after the heat, coming from seventeenth on the starting grid to finish fifth in a race that saw only one caution all night in the 75 lap affair. It was another remarkable performance.
Forty-one cars took time. Mat timed seventh in his group, which put him in seventh starting spot for his heat. His fifth place finish qualified him for the feature.
Dale Planck, who is riding a crest of incredible luck, along with his talent, drew the pole and ultimately won the race, but Mat had a much stiffer challenge, as he started considerably further back.
Mat talked about his night, noting, “We weren’t very good in time trials. I don’t know why. Everybody said the track was gong to be tacky and bitey, and you could go hammer down the whole way around. So, we changed our whole race car around for that. When we got there, it was slick, so we didn’t have time to change everything back over, but when we did, we were better. We just didn’t have time to do that for time trials. It was pretty much one lane racing for the heat. We were fortunate to get up to fifth and didn’t have to run the B Main. We started seventeenth, and there was only one caution. It was tough to pass, especially with only that one caution. We were lucky we got to where we did.”
Of the race itself, Mat observed, “We were rolling right through the middle. People would run the bottom, and I’d run up them so fast going in, that I could get a run on them coming out, and I could take their lane away. We passed Mario Clair, and a lot of other Frenchmen. I don’t remember their names. We got by Carey Terrence, and at one point we got up to Danny. I think I raced beside him for three or four laps, but then he turned the light switch on and it was, ‘see you later.’”
“I saw Brett (Hearn) on the last corner on the last lap, but I got under (Matt) Billings, so I think Billings kind of blocked him from getting by me. They said he was on me at one point, (my source told me lap 40) and then I left him. Then he was on me again, and I left him again, so I guess it was quite the battle, but I didn’t see much of it.”
At the line it was Planck, David Hebert, Danny Johnson and Gino Clair the top four ahead of Mat. Dipper summed up the effort, saying, “The car was good. We made a lot of changes. Mat looked good. The guys that finished ahead of him started ahead of him. They all started in the top twelve, basically. Matt Billings started outside pole, and Mat passed him on the last lap for fifth, so it was a good night.”
As for the standings, Mat observed, “We’ve got to start gaining some ground. I started work on the Syracuse car this week, so hopefully we’ll gain some points then. I know that all the point races from here on out are 150 points, so one bad night for Planck, and we could be back in it.”
Following a rain-soaked sojourn back to St. Catharines, after spending the night in Cornwall, the team will catch their collective breaths and begin prepping for Mohawk on Friday, a track that saw Mat in contention for the win with only a few laps to go, only to suffer a mechanical breakdown. They will go to Mohawk hoping to seal the deal this time.
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