AKWESASNE, N.Y. — The first-ever Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco event at Mohawk Int’l Raceway was a roaring success. The grandstands and parking areas were filled to the overflow for the series debut at the venue.
Matt Sheppard emerged victorious with a last-lap, last-turn pass to claim the $10,000 payday in the inaugural ‘Summer Showdown on the Border.’
The Savannah, N.Y., resident claimed his seventh STSS triumph of the season in Round No. 8 of the River Valley Builders North Region and Round No. 14 of the Ollie’s Overall Championship.
“With three laps to go, I didn’t think I was going to get him,” Sheppard laughed. “With two to go, I went to the bottom of (turns) one and two and knew we had a shot.”
Sheppard used that bottom groove to race underneath Stewart Friesen, beating him to series starter Joe Kriss’ Sunoco Checkered Flags at the conclusion of the 50-lap affair.
“Sometimes the race works out your way and sometimes it doesn’t,” Sheppard explained. “Tonight, everything worked in our favor.”
After missing the Beyea Custom Headers Redraw, Sheppard rolled from the 13th starting position, with Friesen and Hogansburg, N.Y.’s Carey Terrance on the front row.
Friesen raced out to the early advantage, while Saint Damase, Quebec, Canada’s David Hebert and Sheppard were quickly racing their way towards the front in the early going.
Hebert, starting fifth, got third on the opening lap, and then went into a back-and-forth battle for the runner-up spot with Terrance from laps two through eight.
Hebert emerged with the spot at the completion of lap nine and set his sights on Friesen out front.
Sheppard meanwhile advanced from the 13th starting position into seventh in just seven laps.
The first restart of the race, on lap 13, moved Sheppard into the top five, settling in behind Friesen, Hebert, Mat Williamson and Terrance.
Sheppard worked by Terrance for fourth at the completion of lap 18, two laps prior to the next, and final yellow of the race. The final 30 laps of the race clicked off caution free.
The ensuing restart turned the intensity up on the race, which would never go away for the remainder of the affair.
Hebert snatched the lead away from Friesen, and Sheppard took the final podium position away from Williamson one lap later.
Ten laps into the green-flag run, Hebert began to navigate lapped traffic, allowing both Friesen and Sheppard to close in with still 20 laps remaining.
With the trio searching for speed in traffic, Hebert moved to the bottom groove with 13 laps remaining. The move was exactly what Friesen was looking for, rim-riding around the outer edge of the four-tenths-mile oval and wrestling the lead back.
Three laps later, Sheppard followed Friesen’s line, taking the runner-up spot with nine laps to go. The war was on between the two titans.
Sheppard got a run underneath Friesen for the lead with five laps remaining. He attempted to slide in front of Friesen through turns one and two, but Friesen beat him to the spot, and motored away with what appeared to be a race winning maneuver.
Sheppard, however, wasn’t willing to give in.
Friesen continued running the outside groove in turns one and two, while Sheppard had moved to the bottom and began making ground.
As the leaders took the Behrent’s Performance Warehouse White Flag, Friesen slid up in front of a lap car in turns one and two, allowing Sheppard to pull even with him on corner exit.
The pair raced side-by-side through turns three and four, but it was Sheppard who prevailed with the victory.
Friesen settled for the runner-up spot and Alexandria, Ontario, Canada’s Chris Raabe came from eighth to round out the podium.
Watertown, N.Y.’s Tim Fuller came home fourth and Hebert faded to fifth position.
The finish:
Feature (50 laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[13]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen[1]; 3. 01-Chris Raabe[8]; 4. 19-Tim Fuller[7]; 5. ONE-David Hebert[5]; 6. 3W-Mat Williamson[4]; 7. 124-Mario Clair[11]; 8. 4P-Anthony Perrego[14]; 9. 61-Felix Roy[15]; 10. 66X-Carey Terrance[2]; 11. 28T-Michael Trautschold[3]; 12. 02-Jack Lehner[10]; 13. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[19]; 14. 55-Matt Woodruff[9]; 15. 25P-Michael Parent[12]; 16. 44G-Sebastien Gougeon[6]; 17. 13-Kevin Hamel[17]; 18. 22C-Cederic Gauvreau[22]; 19. 35M-Mike Mahaney[21]; 20. 18JR-Louie Jackson Jr[18]; 21. 35T-Thomas Cook[16]; 22. 35B-Francois Bellemare[25]; 23. 21-Robert Delormier[23]; 24. 45R-Preston Forbes[24]; 25. 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr[26]; 26. 83D-Dustin Bradley[20]