By Dave Sully - SARVER, PA- It looked like win number four at Lernerville was a distinct possibility at the Mid-Season Championship, with Mat starting on the outside pole after the redraw following a strong run in his heat, which saw him come from sixth to win it easily. The feature started okay, as Mat blasted into the lead right away and was in the process of establishing a big advantage when the caution flew on lap 5, erasing the lead and bunching the field.
The man on the move was Jeremiah Shingledecker, who had switched from his Big Block to his Small Block when his crew determined the track was a little too slick for the bigger motor. Lined up fourth on the restart, after going away eighth, he bolted into second, but was thwarted when the caution flew again. It didn’t matter, as he moved steadily forward, taking second on lap 7 and then, following a lap ten caution, got inside Mat in turn four on the restart and it was all she wrote, From there, he drew out to a commanding lead, leaving Mat trying to solve turns one and two, which plagued him all night.
Mat ended up second, followed by Eric Gabany, who finished a distant third. Mat’s closest pursuer in the points, Brain Schwartzlander finished fifth, so Mat’s point lead grew. All in all, it was a good night, and I was there to see it, my first visit to the fabled facility, and it really lived up to its billing.
Mat, talking about Shingledecker’s win, observed, “You get those nights when it’s going to be slick. I’m glad Shingledecker won. It’s good for those guys. It’s kind of good for business too. It was a new BRP car. We just got to get back there one of these weeks. We won three weeks in a row, and three out of four, and now we’ve gone three weeks without winning.”
“I thought I was going pretty good until those restarts. Once they had the opportunity to catch back up to me, I was kind of playing protective. I should have just raced my own race, aimed a little higher and diamonded it. I was trying to protect the bottom lane going into the corner and drift up to the top. I just had to slow down so much that I could eat a sandwich.”
Regarding the problems in turns one and two, he added, “We (the Big Blocks) carry an extra hundred pounds to what Shingledecker had. A Small Block can wind up just as fast, if not faster, than a Big Block anyway. It’s kind of like carrying an extra person in your car that you don’t need, with less power. We have more power, but when you can’t use it, it’s technically like having less.”
“That was the only unfortunate thing. It was a good night for the car and a good night for the crew.
Along with that, I had a nice time at a new track for me. I’ll probably go again before the end of the season.
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