Interesting Weekend Produces Mixed Bag at Mohawk

By DAVE SULLY - AKWESASNE, NY – The trip to Mohawk for the 358 Series Race took some unexpected turns and resulted in a generally positive weekend before it ended, two days later than planned. The team was scheduled to race the Series event at Mohawk on Friday, and then Little Valley on Saturday, but rain threw a monkey wrench into those plans. Instead of merely canceling the 358 race, it was re-scheduled to Sunday afternoon, making the run to Little Valley a non starter, due to time and distance. The team opted to remain at Mohawk to try to qualify for the Big Block Series race on Saturday, put in a perfunctory appearance if they made the race, and then get ready for the point race on Sunday.

Things got really interesting on Saturday, when, on worn tires, Mat timed well, qualified well enough to make the redraw and started fourth in the feature. He ended up running up front all night, ultimately finishing fourth, a totally unexpected, but very satisfying result.

I’ll let Mat explain it. “Of course, we were planning on running Little Valley (on Saturday). We had 200 and 300 tires for that. We didn’t have enough tires for the Big Block race. So, we just put on old tires and ended up going out. We time trialed good. We got in the redraw from the heat and started fourth. I was really going to take a lap as soon as I dropped out of the top ten, but we didn’t get a chance to do that, so we just kept our foot into her and hoped everything went well the next day.”

“We ended up fourth. It was good. We actually passed Brett (Hearn) at one point and kept the momentum up. We faded back to fourth after being passed back by Brent, but I can’t complain about that. We had a good car. That’s for sure. We like that place. I always run good there. It just seems that when the races count, I just can’t finish. That’s the unfortunate thing.”

With the unexpected finish on Saturday, the team started well in the Small Block Feature on Sunday, timing well once more and having another good draw. Because of the number of laps run the night before, when the track rubbered over, it was no surprise that it took rubber quickly on Sunday afternoon, only a few hours after the Big Block race. That certainly affected the outcome. Mat noted, “We got the last spot in the redraw after the heat, drew four for the start and just hung in there. It was crucial to start up front. It was basically rubber downright from the first lap in the feature. It was like asphalt or go kart racing. We were running third when we got taken out (by Pete Britten) and with the rubber being down, you couldn’t really pass that well.”

Working hard, Mat was able to come back to record a fourteenth place finish. He explained, “I probably passed about four more cars. We pitted two different times for tires and tried to make some of the other rubber work, but that didn’t happen. It was unfortunate, but that’s racing.”

“You can’t look back on it. You’ve just go to move ahead. He (Britten) admitted he turned me. I don’t know if he was trying to apologize or whatnot, but it’s unfortunate that when we’ve been better than everybody else in the Series races at various race tracks, the points don’t show it. We’ve just got to get ready for the next six shows and try to win this thing.”

All was not lost however, as, even with the disappointment on Sunday, he lies in a second place tie with Carey Terrence, only 25 points behind the new leader, Erick Rudolph, going into next week’s races at RPM in Quebec on Friday and Brighton on Saturday. The good news overall is that the crew has worked very hard and the car has performed superbly. Mat is doing all he can. All they need is a bit of racing luck, and they’ll be back on top.