GRANBY, Quebec — Matt Sheppard made it through an 11-car pileup on lap 29 to drive through the field for his fifth Super DIRTcar Series victory of the season Tuesday night at Autodrome Granby.
Sheppard took the lead from Peter Britten on lap 84 after battling lap after lap. Drummond winner Erick Rudolph rounded out the podium after starting 12th.
With the win at Granby, Matt Sheppard is now third on the all-time Super DIRTcar Series wins list. His 66th win breaks the tie with Billy Decker. Sheppard needed some luck, some speed, and expert race craft to come out on top at the end of the challenging 100-lap race.
Sheppard was pleased to come back with a win after a difficult night at Drummond. He said, “We had a very good car last night [at Autodrome Drummond]. We got up to second and cut a tire down and that ended our night.”
The pilot of the No. 9s almost failed to finish the race on two occasions, much less win it. First Sheppard managed to avoid the serious crash on the frontstretch.
Sheppard described the accident, “I thought our night was over when I almost ended up in the grandstands on that restart. I lost a bunch of positions and man, that was pretty scary. I couldn’t tell what happened up here. Everyone got bottled up on that restart. We gathered our thoughts back up and started picking away and held steady for a while. We found that bottom groove come in and we were pretty darn good after that.”
Britten finished in second place to take home $4,000.
“We started ninth, got to the lead, and got beaten by the best car that runs on the tour,” Britten said. “It still sucks. I would have loved to have gotten the win for myself and Troyer and everybody that helps me out but second is a good result.”
Coming off his huge win at Autodrome Drummond, Erick Rudolph followed it up with a podium finish at Granby.
One thing is for certain, Rudolph loves Quebec: “Sheppard did an awesome job. He’s very fast. We got a win last night and third tonight so we’re all happy here. It was a really good trip for us and I’m looking forward to coming back to Quebec in September.”
The finish:
Feature (100 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard [8][$7,500]; 2. 21A-Peter Britten [9][$4,000]; 3. 25-Erick Rudolph [12][$2,500]; 4. 6m-Mat Williamson [3][$1,800]; 5. 91-Billy Decker [6][$1,600]; 6. 20-Brett Hearn [10][$1,400]; 7. 44-Stewart Friesen [16][$1,300]; 8. 99L-Larry Wight [4][$1,200]; 9. 96-JF Corriveau [7][$1,100]; 10. 2L-Jack Lehner [23][$1,000]; 11. 71-Pierre Hebert [22][$800]; 12. 26-Ryan Godown [20][$700]; 13. 21-Yan Bussiere [2][$600]; 14. R2-Rusty Smith [18][$575]; 15. 35-Mike Mahaney [5][$550]; 16. 111-Demetrios Drellos [11][$525]; 17. 17-Marcus Dinkins [26][$500]; 18. 66xm-Michael Maresca [1][$500]; 19. 19m-Jesse Mueller [13][$500]; 20. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [15][$500]; 21. 59-Yanick Mathieu [14][$500]; 22. 49B-Fracois Bernier [19][$500]; 23. 25b-Steve Bernier [24][$]; 24. 63D-Dominic Dufault [21][$]; 25. 37-Paul StSauveur [17][$500]; 26. 27J-Danny Johnson [25][$500]