A Reversal of Fortunes Puts Team Back in the Title Hunt

By DAVE SULLY - With the bad taste still in their mouths after the disheartening battery problem produced a poor finish two weeks ago, the stars lined up for the team on Saturday, July 26th, resulting in their regaining the point lead. It took a bad break for Chad Brachmann and a gutty performance by Mat to turn the trick.

After finishing third in the heat, Mat started eleventh in the field, next to Brachmann, and the two were immediately caught up in a battle for positions, as Scott Wood grabbed the lead on lap three and established himself as the one to beat. Mat had moved up a few spots when the caution flew on lap 10 when Tim Jones spun in turn four after contact with Brachmann. Brachmann was sent to the rear for hitting Jones.

When the race restarted, Mat continued to advance, with each spot being surrendered grudgingly by his competitors. By lap 33, Mat had moved past Mike Bowman into third when the caution flew once again, setting up a green/white/checker finish. Wood held on for the win, while Mat kept digging and nipped Chad Chevalier for second at the line. Brachmann, meanwhile wound up finished 15th, which at the end of the day, saw Mat regain the point lead by a single point, with plenty of racing left in the season.

Mat had this to say about the goings on, “I've got a sweet hot rod right now. We worked for it. We got down on ourselves last week and tonight what happened was the perfect situation. It's bad luck for Chad. Whether he got into Jonesie or not, they put him back. I don't know the logistics of it. It was good for us. It just needed to be a deal where he had a bad night and I had a bad night. I had mine two weeks ago, and he had his tonight. We're going to do the last five nights here, I think it is, with some good runs and just hope we're ahead at the end.”

“Like I said at the beginning of the year, the ultimate goal is the point championship, and tonight couldn't have gone any better. It's like a win, coming from eleventh on a track like that, which is really tough to pass on. We've got a good hot rod and it showed. We just have to keep trucking.”

On the last second pass for second, which turned out to be huge, Mat added, “You have to look at it as it's four points. Third is two points, but if you get to second it's four more points, so you look at it like that when you're behind. Now that we're close, you can just go back to racing again. I had to get that distance that we lost. I had to get it down to where we don't have to worry about it any more. Now, we're back in the picture.”

Nothing regarding the championship is assured, as the team is readily aware, but it's a nice feeling to know that they're in the hunt. They'll carry that euphoria to the next race.

Clock Strikes Twelve for Mat Williamson at Merrittville

The recent Cindarella ride to the top of the Modified heap for the team saw the coach turn into a pumpkin, as a malfunctioning battery ruined a promising start at Merrrittivlle on Saturday, July 12th. Everything was looking good early, as Mat showed plenty of speed in winning the third heat. He drew eighth in the redraw, but with this being the 50 lap Jerry Winger Memorial, that shouldn't have been an overwhelming problem.

When the feature started, it became obvious that something was wrong, as Mat immediately began dropping back. On lap two he went off turn one to bring out the caution. He went to the pits and the team quickly replaced the MSD box, hoping that ignition was the problem. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and the car rolled to stop on the front stretch when Mat tried to continue.

Very disappointed, Mat observed, “I knew something was wrong right away. I just didn't know what it was. It's just frustrating. Now, all we've got to do is win every race from here til September and hope the points fall our way. If you start worrying about points, it bites you. Tonight, it was just one of those deals. You've just got to keep on trucking, just move on.”

As I mentioned to Mat, the hill just got a little higher to climb, but in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, “It ain't over till it's over.” I've been around racing a long time, and the one thing I learned is nothing is for certain. Sometimes, it takes more than talent and hard work. Luck and breaks play a significant role as well, for everybody. The team will get back to work and maybe the pumpkin will become a carriage again.

Near Win at Humberstone and a Win at Merrittville Keeps Team Geared Up

By DAVE SULLY - On Tuesday, July 1st, the team made the short tow to Humberstone for the track's first DIRTcar 358 Series race, a hundred lapper, and when the night was over, Mat came up one spot short of scoring his first ever Series win, and it took a bizarre sequence of events to deprive him of a race he should have won. Starting eighth in the 23 car field, Mat moved steadily forward while Mike Bowman and Todd Gordon were duking it out at the front, claiming second on lap 19 and then taking over the top spot on a lap 22 restart when Gordon chose the outside.

From there, Mat jumped out to a healthy lead, which he held until late in the race. Erick Rudolph moved into contention, by taking second from Gordon on lap 50 and then tried to reel Mat in. Things came to a head when Mat entered lap traffic and Rudolph was able to slice into the lead dramatically. When he showed Mat his nose on lap 88, Mat made a banzai move between two lap cars, which had the crowd buzzing, to put some distance between himself and Rudolph.

It soon became apparent that Rudolph would need a caution to have any chance to win, and he got it on lap 91. Here's the rub. He caused it, when he struck a marker barrel in turn four and the barrel bounced out onto the race track. Ordinarily the person causing the caution has to go tail, but since there was no wreck and Rudolph never stopped, he wasn't penalized, so he restarted second. On top of that, the two lap cars that Mat took great risk in passing were moved to the rear, by DIRTcar rules, so he restarted on Mat's bumper.

When the race restarted Mat was bent on protecting the bottom and on lap 96 Rudolph was able to drive around the outside to take the lead and the win. Mat told the crowd at the post races interviews of the top three finishers that he may have been a little too good too early, and he sealed a tire over on the last caution and that gave Rudolph the opportunity to make the pass on the outside. Rudolph referred to the timely yellow that gave him the opportunity to win and denied that he hit the marker on purpose to bring out that “timely yellow.” Only Erick knows for sure.

Though it was disappointing, Mat gave Rudolph credit for the win, while celebrating the fact that the car was very great.

With Humberstone behind him, Mat set his sights on Merrittville on Saturday. Starting twelfth in the feature, he clawed his way forward in the uncharacteristically rugged Modified race, which saw eleven cautions punctuate the event. He was able to avoid being collected and found himself in the runnerup spot by the time a caution flew on lap 13, after a prolonged battle with Scott Wood, which produced some contact.

Mat battled Bicknell for close to ten laps before finally getting around him for the lead on lap 23. From there, the car, which was every bit as good as it was at Humberstone, carried Mat to close to a straightaway lead, which was erased by a final caution on lap 33. From there, Mat was able to keep his now somewhat bent up race car ahead of Bicknell to claim his second win of the year at Merrittville. Couple that with Chad Brachmann's third place finish and Mat, who trailed Brachmann by two points going into the event, now is back on top by six markers.

Mat mentioned that the pursuit of the Merrittville title is now center stage, as two ailing big block motors have changed the main focus to the 358 program.

The team knows there is a long way to go, so they will concentrate on scoring as many wins and top five finishes as they can to keep the title in reach until the end of the season.

Short Week Ends on Positive Front for Mat Willamson

By DAVE SULLY - With a rain-out of the Big Block Series race at Utica Rome on Wednesday and the night off from Lernerville for their Firecracker Late Model special, the team only hit the track once this week, Saturday, June 28th at Merrittville. At the end of the night, the team found itself a mere two points out of the point lead, following a gutty fourth place finish in what at times was a frustrating affair.

Following his fourth place finish in the heat, Mat, with his win the week before being handicapped, found himself slotted twelfth for the feature. Following an early caution, the race went green to checkers, which proved to be a problem for some and a boon to others. One who profited mightily was Pete Bicknell, who suffered a left front flat early, but was able to keep running well as long as there was no caution. He ended up seventh. The ones who didn't profit were those who needed a caution to adjust on their cars.

Mat clawed his way up to fifth by lap 13, and then was involved in a grueling battle for position with Chad Brachmann, Mike Bowman and Todd Gordon, with young Travis Miller in the middle of it, as well. Being a rookie, it was tough for the others to predict what he might do, making passes for position problematical. As the laps wore down, Brachmann took over second, while Mat was able to grab fourth. He tried to challenge Gordon for third, but ran out of time in the race, which was won by large margin by Brandon Easey.

Mat talked about the night, declaring, “I think we had a better car than the guys that finished in front of us, maybe not Brandon. The starting position didn't help, and we got some unlucky breaks where Chad got some lucky breaks. We were just biding our time. We finished behind Chad and Todd, but at one point I was racing in front of them. It was certainly what lane you picked and who you were racing behind which determined who you passed and who you got caught up with. It was good racing between me, Bowman, and Todd. We raced three wide for the last fifteen laps trying to get by Miller. He's all over the place, so you're trying to figure out where he's going and not go with him. It was just hard. We've just got to keep the momentum going and the string of top fives. The S and W car has been great.

At the end of the day, the standings saw Brachmann assuming the lead by those two points, with plenty of racing to go. Heck, we're just entering July, so nothing has been decided yet. With a slew of Series races coming up, along with the weekly shows at Lernerville and Merrittville, there is no time to muse about the past.