Fourth Place Series Finish at Cornwall Puts Team on Top

By Dave Sully - CORNWALL, ON- One of the most successful weekends in team history concluded with a strong fourth place finish in the 358 Series race at Cornwall, which vaulted the team to the top of the standings. Beginning with the gutty performance on Friday, August 30, in the season ender at Lernerville, which saw Mat prevail over the Big Block of Brian Schwartzlander and continuing at Merrittville on Saturday, when Mat bested Pete Bicknell to win the John Spencer Memorial, the team journeyed to Cornwall, hoping to extend the momentum, and they did.

There was a momentary bit of angst at the start, however, before things brightened up. Mat explained, “It was a rough start to the night. We got to Cornwall and realized the fuel cap was off when we were washing the car. We thought there was some water in the fuel, so we drained the tank when we arruived. From there, we went out for hot laps and the motor was breaking down because the floats were too low. We fixed that, and things got a lot better. We went out for time trials and timed second in our group. We wound up winning the heat, started third in the feature and finished fourth.”

It wasn’t just a case of riding around at the front all night. Running a hundred twenty-five laps on a quarter mile track requires some strategy and a lot of concentration. There is really no time at all to relax. Early in the race, Mat actually surrendered some spots to save the equipment before making his surge back up to the front at the end.

Mat noted, “We dropped back early in the race. We were back to tenth or eleventh. In big long races, you do that to preserve the tires and brakes. The first 75 laps (before a mandatory yellow) is more like an extended hot lap session. I was just happy we were there at the end.”

With that finish the current Series standings show Mat ahead of Erick Rudolph by 44 points, David Hebert by 72 points, and Carey Terrence by 95 points. Rudolph, Hebert, and Terrence will probably be running the entire Series, so they figure to be some of the top pursuers for now.



All in all, it was a great weekend for the team, which now gears up for the long drive to Drummondville on Friday to try to keep the drive alive.