On Saturday, Mat started twelfth and was able to soldier to a seventh place finish on another night when it was tough to pass, which is becoming the norm at Merrittville because of the quality of the competition.
Mat summed it up, saying, “We were decent. We were going for fourth and just got caught up in other people's messes, I guess.”
The upshot of the Saturday finish is that, with the three remaining points races, Mat trails Chad Brachmann, who won the race, by eleven points, hardly insurmountable, but it will require due diligence by the team to bring about the desired outcome- the title.
On Monday, things were going swimmingly for a while. Mat, driving his Small Block, timed second and started outside Larry Wight, who had a Big Block under the hood, in the heat. The two bolted into the lead and quickly separated themselves from the rest of the ten car field. However, on the fourth lap the caution flew for a spin, necessitating a restart. Wight started inside and Mat started outside on the front row. When the green flew, things went awry.
Mat explained, “I went into turn one, and of course, I had a Small Block and Larry's got a Big Block. He was trying to protect the bottom. He did nothing wrong. I went in a little harder because we're a hundred pounds lighter. We can drive it in harder and the car is going to stick. I drove it in like I normally would in a heat race, not thinking that Larry was going to protect the bottom, and I got into his left rear. It was unintentional, but it was my own mistake. That basically set the night up for us.”
“We got two flat tires and a bunch of damage. We actually got the tires changed and got out on the lead lap and then cut another one down because it was rubbing on the sheet metal.”
The end result of the heat race was Mat had to start tenth in the consi, where only three cars would qualify. Mat was able to get up to sixth, but wasn't able to race his way in. Fortunately, he qualified for the Feature by way of the track provisional, along with Scott Wood, and ended up starting 29th in the 30 car field.
By any account, Mat had a great run, clawing his way to an impressive 12th place finish, which Mat actually thought could have been higher. He observed, “We looked forward to that race. We put so much effort in running good in it. We had a good race car. In a hundred laps it shouldn't matter where you start. I got up to about 13th or 14th and got door slammed going into turn three in the middle of the race. I don't know if it caused us to have a slow leak or what happened, but after that we didn't have as good a race car as we did the first 50 laps. It was just unfortunate, but we just have to move on to this week.”
To sum it up, Mat added, “We had a good race car the first 50 laps when it was slippery. The car was tight actually, so it would have been nice to see what it would have done the last 50 laps. A couple more cautions might have helped us, but to come from 29th to 12th, I'm happy, but I'm not happy.”
So, the die is cast, with three more point races, starting this Saturday. Mat and the team know what they have to do. Now they need to execute.
To sum it up, Mat added, “We had a good race car the first 50 laps when it was slippery. The car was tight actually, so it would have been nice to see what it would have done the last 50 laps. A couple more cautions might have helped us, but to come from 29th to 12th, I'm happy, but I'm not happy.”
So, the die is cast, with three more point races, starting this Saturday. Mat and the team know what they have to do. Now they need to execute.
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