5.28.23 Super DIRTcar Series Results

SIX FOR EIGHT: Mat Williamson captures second points-paying victory of season at Weedsport Speedway

Mat Williamson laps up to fourth place car in caution free race, Jimmy Phelps makes last lap pass to secure runner-up finish

Mat Williamson had a night to remember Sunday evening at Weedsport Speedway. Not only did he secure his second points-paying win of the season in the Heroes Remembered 100, he did it in a car that performed as well as any driver could hope.

The Super DIRTcar Series Big Blocks lined up for their first 100-lap Feature of the season with a $7,500 payday on the line. After starting third on the grid, Williamson quickly moved past Jimmy Phelps and into second place, ready to chase leader Peter Britten. After staying within striking distance while navigating through lapped traffic, the St. Catharines, ON driver made his move on Lap 22 and passed the Australian competitor.

After finding clean air, Williamson established himself as the car to beat, with his Buzzchew Racing machine hitting its spots around every turn.

“The car felt really good,” Williamson said. “I didn’t know how far we were ahead of the second-place car…that’s one of those cars you get every once in a while. If you hit everything right, it’s just your night. And when it’s your night, it’s your night. And tonight, was my night.”

Williamson wove in and out of traffic during the 78 laps he held the lead, using both the inside and the outside of the track to maneuver around the lapped competitors.

“I just went where they weren’t for the most part,” Williamson said. “When the lapped cars were in front of us, we had to be really good at going where they weren’t, trying to keep the torque arms loaded, keep the thing rolling through the corner…you have to put good laps together, consistent laps. 100 laps is a long time around this place. Fortunately, tonight it paid off.”

Williamson’s machine performed so well that he lapped up to the fourth-place car by the final laps of the race.

Behind him, defending Series champion Matt Sheppard charged his way up from sixth position to second place. He too ran both the inside and the outside of the track, making his way around the 27-car field. While Williamson remained out of reach to anyone, Sheppard solidly held the second position, fending off any challenges. It wasn’t until the final lap that Jimmy Phelps was able to find an opening and take advantage of every inch of open track.

Coming out of Turn 4, Jimmy Phelps pushed his machine one last time to pass Sheppard on the top and move into second, effectively dropping Sheppard into third.

“Our cars were pretty even,” Phelps said. “Then you get into traffic, and you have to lick your chops a little bit and see how it works out. It went our way on that last corner. I felt good. Obviously, the #88 [Williamson] was in another zip code but when you can run with the #9s [Sheppard], you’re at least in the ballpark. We’ll take that away tonight and keep digging.”

Sheppard faced challenges keeping his car balanced and running optimally for the last portion of the race, attributing Phelps’s pass as a direct consequence.

“We got rolling a little bit in the middle of that race and thought we were a little better than that last week. And then kind of at the end there I just lost the balance. I’d either lose a nose or lose the back and I was kind of hanging on. I didn’t know whether to drive around the #70 [Alex Payne] or follow him and I guess I didn’t use enough race track up there at the end.”

Peter Britten finished fourth place followed by Chris Hile in fifth place to round out the top five.

SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES
Heros Remembered 100 (100 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson[3]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[2]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[6]; 4. 21A-Peter Britten[1]; 5. 5H-Chris Hile[7]; 6. 4-Anthony Perrego[9]; 7. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[15]; 8. M1-Dave Marcuccilli[8]; 9. 7Z-Zachary Payne[17]; 10. 35-Mike Mahaney[5]; 11. 2-Jack Lehner[11]; 12. 99L-Larry Wight[12]; 13. 8H-Max McLaughlin[14]; 14. 70A-Alex Payne[23]; 15. 91D-Billy Decker[13]; 16. 54-Steve Bernard[25]; 17. 12-Darren Smith[4]; 18. 16X-Dan Creeden[24]; 19. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[10]; 20. 215-Adam Pierson[19]; 21. 91-Felix Roy[27]; 22. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins[26]; 23. (DNF) X-Chad Phelps[18]; 24. (DNF) 22-Tanner Van Doren[21]; 25. (DNF) 19-Tim Fuller[16]; 26. (DNF) 29-Matt Caprara[22]; 27. (DNF) 34-Kevin Root[20]

HYTORC Of New York LCS 1 (10 Laps): 1. 22-Tanner Van Doren[1]; 2. 70A-Alex Payne[2]; 3. 91-Felix Roy[5]; 4. 27J-Danny Johnson[3]; 5. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins[7]; 6. 42P-Pat Ward[4]; 7. 54-Steve Bernard[8]; 8. 15X-Justin Stone[6]; 9. 160-Max Hill[9]; 10. (DNF) 9JF-JF Corriveau[10]

HYTORC Of New York LCS 2 (10 Laps): 1. 29-Matt Caprara[1]; 2. 16X-Dan Creeden[4]; 3. 60-Jackson Gill[3]; 4. 14-CG Morey[7]; 5. 58M-Marshall Hurd[5]; 6. 27JR-Daniel Johnson[8]; 7. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[6]; 8. 26C-Luke Carleton[9]; 9. (DQ) 17-Marcus Dinkins[2]

Case No.1 Engine Oil Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Darren Smith[1]; 2. 35-Mike Mahaney[2]; 3. 21A-Peter Britten[4]; 4. 91D-Billy Decker[3]; 5. 7Z-Zachary Payne[5]; 6. 22-Tanner Van Doren[7]; 7. 27J-Danny Johnson[10]; 8. 91-Felix Roy[6]; 9. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins[8]; 10. 160-Max Hill[9]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Jack Lehner[1]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[3]; 3. M1-Dave Marcuccilli[2]; 4. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[4]; 5. 215-Adam Pierson[7]; 6. 70A-Alex Payne[5]; 7. 42P-Pat Ward[6]; 8. 15X-Justin Stone[9]; 9. 54-Steve Bernard[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Anthony Perrego[1]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[2]; 3. 5H-Chris Hile[3]; 4. 8H-Max McLaughlin[5]; 5. X-Chad Phelps[4]; 6. 29-Matt Caprara[8]; 7. 60-Jackson Gill[6]; 8. 58M-Marshall Hurd[7]; 9. 14-CG Morey[9]; 10. 26C-Luke Carleton[10]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[1]; 2. 88-Mat Williamson[2]; 3. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[3]; 4. 19-Tim Fuller[4]; 5. 34-Kevin Root[5]; 6. 17-Marcus Dinkins[6]; 7. 16X-Dan Creeden[7]; 8. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[8]; 9. 27JR-Daniel Johnson[9]

Group Qualifying A (2 Laps): 1. 12-Darren Smith, 00:16.297[2]; 2. 2-Jack Lehner, 00:16.326[18]; 3. 35-Mike Mahaney, 00:16.332[7]; 4. M1-Dave Marcuccilli, 00:16.344[15]; 5. 91D-Billy Decker, 00:16.408[10]; 6. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:16.416[6]; 7. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:16.427[14]; 8. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:16.549[9]; 9. 7Z-Zachary Payne, 00:16.578[11]; 10. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:16.591[19]; 11. 91-Felix Roy, 00:16.619[17]; 12. 42P-Pat Ward, 00:16.659[16]; 13. 22-Tanner Van Doren, 00:16.674[8]; 14. 215-Adam Pierson, 00:16.711[3]; 15. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins, 00:16.816[4]; 16. 54-Steve Bernard, 00:16.848[13]; 17. 160-Max Hill, 00:16.851[1]; 18. 15X-Justin Stone, 00:16.861[5]; 19. 27J-Danny Johnson, 00:17.154[12]

Group Qualifying B (2 Laps): 1. 4-Anthony Perrego, 00:16.439[18]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:16.442[19]; 3. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:16.548[6]; 4. 88-Mat Williamson, 00:16.600[2]; 5. 5H-Chris Hile, 00:16.622[4]; 6. 32R-Ronnie Davis III, 00:16.627[17]; 7. X-Chad Phelps, 00:16.721[12]; 8. 19-Tim Fuller, 00:16.731[8]; 9. 8H-Max McLaughlin, 00:16.772[16]; 10. 34-Kevin Root, 00:16.802[9]; 11. 60-Jackson Gill, 00:16.805[10]; 12. 17-Marcus Dinkins, 00:16.905[15]; 13. 58M-Marshall Hurd, 00:16.961[13]; 14. 16X-Dan Creeden, 00:17.022[7]; 15. 29-Matt Caprara, 00:17.036[11]; 16. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias, 00:17.126[3]; 17. 14-CG Morey, 00:17.157[5]; 18. 27JR-Daniel Johnson, 00:17.346[14]; 19. 26C-Luke Carleton, 00:17.471[1]

Redraw Order: 1. 22-Tanner Van Doren; 2. 70A-Alex Payne; 3. 91-Felix Roy; 4. 27J-Danny Johnson; 5. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins; 6. 42P-Pat Ward; 7. 54-Steve Bernard; 8. 15X-Justin Stone; 9. 160-Max Hill

Hot Lap Group A: 1. 2-Jack Lehner, 00:15.268[18]; 2. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:15.582[14]; 3. 91D-Billy Decker, 00:15.658[10]; 4. 35-Mike Mahaney, 00:15.668[7]; 5. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:15.694[19]; 6. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:15.701[9]; 7. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins, 00:15.803[4]; 8. 22-Tanner Van Doren, 00:15.813[8]; 9. 7Z-Zachary Payne, 00:15.848[11]; 10. 215-Adam Pierson, 00:15.876[3]; 11. 15X-Justin Stone, 00:15.891[5]; 12. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:15.913[6]; 13. M1-Dave Marcuccilli, 00:15.985[15]; 14. 91-Felix Roy, 00:15.995[17]; 15. 160-Max Hill, 00:16.105[1]; 16. 12-Darren Smith, 00:16.139[2]; 17. 27J-Danny Johnson, 00:16.167[12]; 18. 54-Steve Bernard, 00:16.247[13]; 19. 42P-Pat Ward, 00:16.247[16]

Hot Lap Group B: 1. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:15.755[6]; 2. 5H-Chris Hile, 00:15.803[4]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:15.864[19]; 4. 32R-Ronnie Davis III, 00:15.903[17]; 5. 4-Anthony Perrego, 00:15.963[18]; 6. 88-Mat Williamson, 00:15.970[2]; 7. 8H-Max McLaughlin, 00:16.079[16]; 8. 34-Kevin Root, 00:16.094[9]; 9. 19-Tim Fuller, 00:16.106[8]; 10. 16X-Dan Creeden, 00:16.136[7]; 11. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias, 00:16.273[3]; 12. 29-Matt Caprara, 00:16.288[11]; 13. 14-CG Morey, 00:16.309[5]; 14. 17-Marcus Dinkins, 00:16.399[15]; 15. 58M-Marshall Hurd, 00:16.408[13]; 16. 27JR-Daniel Johnson, 00:16.442[14]; 17. 60-Jackson Gill, 00:16.600[10]; 18. 26C-Luke Carleton, 00:16.640[1]; 19. X-Chad Phelps, 00:16.640[12]