VERNON, N.Y. — For the third consecutive year, Matt Sheppard topped the Richie Evans Remembered 61 at Utica-Rome Speedway.
Sheppard’s win earned him a cool $6,100 payday for his 44th career Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco triumph.
“This race has really been good to us,” Sheppard smiled. “Anytime you can win a race with Richie’s name on it is a big win.
“He was probably the best ever at Utica-Rome and in the Northeast.”
Sheppard fired from the third starting position in Round No. 12 of the Ollie’s Overall Championship and Round No. 6 of the River Valley Builders North Region.
Addison Bowman and Mike Mahaney shared the front row of the 61-lap event.
Mahaney quickly raced out to the early lead while Sheppard worked his way to the runner-up spot at the completion of the fourth circuit.
Mahaney kept a healthy advantage nearing two seconds over Sheppard prior to the races first caution flag fell eight laps into the affair.
On the restart, Mahaney chose the inside groove and tried to slide up in front of Sheppard in turns one and two to try and maintain the lead.
The attempt was unsuccessful, however, as Sheppard crossed over on Mahaney and cleared the No. 35 down the back straightaway to take the lead.
Sheppard went the remaining 53 laps relatively unchallenged. Despite a few yellows over the remainder of the race, Sheppard held firm for a dominant victory.
“We got out front and I didn’t know where the fast lane was,” Sheppard explained. “I didn’t feel spectacular anywhere, so I just tried to move and keep the guys behind me guessing.”
The win was the eighth of the season with the 3 Bastards Brewing Modifieds at Utica-Rome Speedway and his sixth STSS Modified triumph of ’24.
Stewart Friesen charged from the 10th starting position in his Halmar No. 44, including going from fourth to second on a lap 38 restart, to come in the runner-up spot.
“We made a bunch of adjustments before the feature and we missed it just a little bit,” Friesen proclaimed. “Matt’s had this place wired the last little bit here… just second best for our team tonight.”
Jimmy Phelps completed the podium aboard his HBR No. 98H in a rare STSS appearance.
“I think the car was probably a little better than me,” Phelps laughed. “We raced really hard with (Mahaney) and I think if I could’ve cleared him and restarted on the front row we could’ve gotten second.”
Mat Williamson came from the 13th starting position to finish fourth and Mahaney was fifth.
Brian Calabrese raced from the fifth starting position to the lead on lap four in the Taylor’s Trailers LLC Crate 602 Sportsman feature for his second career STSS triumph.
The win nets Calabrese a $2,061 payday for the win in the 25-lap event.
The finish:
Feature (61 laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen[10]; 3. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[4]; 4. 3W-Mat Williamson[13]; 5. 35M-Mike Mahaney[2]; 6. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[12]; 7. 42-Pat Ward[7]; 8. 02-Jack Lehner[11]; 9. 19-Tim Fuller[8]; 10. 28T-Michael Trautschold[14]; 11. 9J-Marc Johnson[25]; 12. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[9]; 13. 70A-Alex Payne[17]; 14. 4P-Anthony Perrego[22]; 15. 98JS-Rocky Warner[19]; 16. 1X-Willy Decker[15]; 17. 27-Tanner Van Doren[23]; 18. 22W-Brandon Walters[27]; 19. 23-Brandon Loucks[24]; 20. 77X-Addison Bowman[1]; 21. 35B-Francois Bellemare[16]; 22. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[6]; 23. 879-Darryl Mitchell[26]; 24. 34-Dave Constantino[20]; 25. 91-Billy Decker[5]; 26. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[21]; 27. 27J-Danny Johnson[18]