CORNWALL, Ontario — Matt Sheppard led 74 of the 75-lap ‘Rumble by the Seaway,’ the inaugural Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Seriesevent at Cornwall Motor Speedway.
It wasn’t as easy as it seemed for Sheppard however, as the lone lap he didn’t lead, was lap 69 with Stewart Friesen making a bid for the $10,205 victory for much of the latter half of the race.
The sweep of Cornwall Motor Speedway and Tuesday’s victory at Mohawk International Raceway in Akwesasne, N.Y., moved Sheppard to within 21 points of Friesen for the River Valley Builders North Region title fight.
Sheppard now also leads the Ollie’s Overall Championship by 39 markers over Mat Williamson.
“Lapped traffic is always so hairy at this place,” Sheppard explained in Bicknell Racing Products Victory Lane. “Sometimes you just get stuck behind guys that are two and three-wide and you just have nowhere to go.”
Sheppard navigated the lap traffic and held off the hard charging Friesen, now matching his counterpart with 46 career STSS wins, tied for the most all-time.
“We were definitely fading, I felt,” Sheppard proclaimed. “These tires just go through so many heat cycles, sometimes you feel good and then you feel like something is wrong.
“Fortunately, we had enough to hang on in the end.”
Friesen came home second.
“We got back to him in traffic and traded the lead and it got pretty racy,” Friesen stated. “Just a fun little racetrack and it’s been fun to be up here for a couple days.”
David Hebert was third. Tim Fuller charged from 17th to finish fourth. Mat Williamson rounded out the top five.
Cedric Gauvreau topped the sportsman main event.
The finish:
Feature (75 laps): 1.9S-Matt Sheppard[2]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen[6]; 3. ONE-David Hebert[9]; 4. 19-Tim Fuller[17]; 5. 3W-Mat Williamson[5]; 6. 35M-Mike Mahaney[12]; 7. 13-Kevin Hamel[1]; 8. 77E-Ryan Stabler[7]; 9. 15B-Brianna Ladouceur[3]; 10. 61-Felix Roy[18]; 11. 66K-Kyle Dingwall[14]; 12. 66X-Carey Terrance[8]; 13. 47S-Corey Wheeler[4]; 14. 35B-Francois Bellemare[16]; 15. R70-Ryan Arbuthnot[20]; 16. 02-Jack Lehner[26]; 17. 35T-Thomas Cook[11]; 18. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[28]; 19. 124-Mario Clair[23]; 20. 22C-Cederic Gauvreau[21]; 21. 35R-William Racine[15]; 22. 18JR-Louie Jackson Jr[27]; 23. 28T-Michael Trautschold[24]; 24. 4P-Anthony Perrego[25]; 25. 44J-Johnathon Ferguson[22]; 26. 23J-Joey Ladouceur[19]; 27. 17D-Tristan Draper[10]; 28. 60-Jackson Gill[13]