BROCKVILLE, Ontario — Defending champion Matt Sheppard’s bucket list got a little shorter after taking his No. 9s Super DIRTcar Series big-block modified to the front Saturday night for an elusive win at Brockville Ontario Speedway.
Rival Larry Wight captured the second step of the podium while Mat Williamson finished third. Sheppard has now retaken the Super DIRTcar Series points lead over Williamson, but only by the slightest of margins – six points, to be exact.
Sheppard took this round in the championship battle after Williamson got the big NAPA Super DIRT Week win at Oswego Speedway. Sheppard romped to the front from 12th to pick up his first Series win of his career at Brockville.
“We’ve had a lot of really good runs here but just never came away with a W,” Sheppard said with a grin. “I can’t think of a better time than tonight. This thing was a rocket ship. We just missed the Billy Whittaker Fast-Time Award, we won our heat race, and the track was fast and racy tonight.”
In second was Larry Wight with his familiar crimson red Gypsum Racing modified. He started in the second row and never fell out of the top three. Wight looked fast but described a struggle with the track and his race car.
“I was in survival mode. We’ll take the second place rather than wrecking the car trying to catch Sheppard,” Wight said.
With the season winding down, we are winding up for the Can-Am World Finals and Wight is ready.
“We are going into the big races with extra points. We gotta gather up everything we can and try to finish off the year on as high a note as we can.”
Williamson finished third and lost the points lead but it’s far from over.
“That was a battle out there. That was probably the toughest race car I’ve ever gotten to a finish. It was tough and I’m just happy to get up on the podium.”
Jack Lehner, who is running his first full-time season with the Super DIRTcar Series, put in a great time trial, took second in his heat race, and drew the pole for the 100-lap feature. Lehner lead past the halfway point but Matt Sheppard jumped him on a restart to grab the lead. Lehner finished fifth which is his best series finish.
The finish:
Feature (100 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard [12][$7,500]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight [3][$4,000]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson [6][$2,500]; 4. 91-Billy Decker [4][$1,800]; 5. 2L-Jack Lehner [1][$1,600]; 6. R70-Ryan Arbuthnot [15][$1,400]; 7. 26-Ryan Godown [13][$1,300]; 8. 35-Mike Mahaney [10][$1,200]; 9. 124-Mario Clair [24][$1,100]; 10. 27J-Danny Johnson [8][$1,000]; 11. 19-Tim Fuller [20][$800]; 12. 21A-Peter Britten [21][$700]; 13. 54-Steve Bernard [23][$600]; 14. 21-Yan Bussiere [16][$575]; 15. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [19][$550]; 16. 37-Paul StSauveur [25][$525]; 17. 111-Demetrios Drellos [2][$500]; 18. 7MM-Michael Maresca [7][$500]; 19. 96C-JF Corriveau [5][$500]; 20. 25-Erick Rudolph [11][$500]; 21. 8-Tim O’Brien [14][$500]; 22. 17-Marcus Dinkins [26][$500]; 23. 96-Brian McDonald [18][$500]; 24. 66-Kyle Dingwall [22][$500]; 25. 66X-Carey Terrance [17][$500]; 26. 38-Luke Whitteker [9][$500]