The team's first visit to New Egypt was eventful, as a slew of cars were there to attempt to qualify for the A Main. Mat finished fifth in the first heat, which relegated him to the first B Main, which he won. That put him 21st on the grid for the feature. Against a very talented field and mired toward the rear at the start, Mat clawed his way to 15th at the checkered flag.
On the night, he observed, “We were a top ten car. We started twenty-first and were racing with Stewie (Friesen). We raced with good guys. We raced with Tomkins for a long time. If we could have gotten by some of them, I think we would have been up there. It's one of those deals where we started twenty-first. If we would have started tenth, we would have been a top ten car. We were holding our own, but there was that stag position, and it's tough to pass there.”
Two days later, the team journeyed to Lernerville and came away with a second place finish, which keeps the team in the hunt in what has become a very competitive field. Asked if he was satisfied with the result, Mat answered, “No. We've got a program where we can win every race. That's our expectation, and we hold ourselves to that expectation. When we don't win, we're disappointed. We work harder than anybody. We like to win. That's what it comes down to. I started fourth and any other time it would have been good enough to win, but we just lacked a little bit of motor. We're there. We haven't been out of the top five, and everybody down there has stepped up their games, so it's not as easy to win races there as it was last year.” Still, in all, the second place finish with a motor a little down on power is a plus.
Fast forward to Saturday at Merrittville, where it all came together in great fashion. After winning the first heat easily, Mat lined up seventh for the feature. While Ryan Susice grabbed the early lead, Mat soldiered into second on a lap 10 restart and then began stalking Susice. He tried several moves, both high and low, but was unable to mount a serious bid for the lead.
On lap 20, things changed. A caution flew, putting Mat next to Susice for the restart. Susice chose the outside, where his car had been performing well. Mat was able to get a good jump on the bottom and executed a perfect slide job going into turn two to take the lead. From there, he drew away and at the end was close to a straightaway ahead.
Talking about the result, Mat declared, “I'm very happy tonight. We needed it. It's good to be here.” About the race, he explained, “I knew when the caution came out, that was my only opportunity to do it. I knew I was faster than he was, and if I didn't do the slider in one and two, I wouldn't have gotten him. I actually like it slicker. If the cushion were gone we would have been even better. We relied on it (the cushion) tonight, but if it was gone we'd have been better.”
Of the duel with Susice, he added, “I tried a couple of times, and I'd lose ground, so I really had to time it good. When the restart came out, he gave me the bottom, and I knew it was game over. You know you can run with Ryan. You know he's not going to screw up. When you get a restart you've got to take advantage of it because he's pretty talented and deserves to be up front. You have a lot of respect for him. I'm certainly happy with the outcome tonight, and hopefully we'll do this every week.”
Any time is a good time to round into shape, but with the heavy part of the schedule coming up, it behooves the team to maintain the high that they are on now, and you know they won't be outworked.
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