LAKE CITY, Fla. — Matt Sheppard kicked off the 2024 racing season with a $5,000 win with the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series (STSS) Fueled By Sunoco.
He won opening night of the ‘Sunshine Swing’ presented by Capitol Custom Trailers & Coaches, leading from lap five through the checkered flag to take home the win.
‘Super Matt’ carved his way through several bouts of lap traffic nearly flawlessly to claim the 39th win of his STSS career and his second at All-Tech Raceway.
“It feels really good, you never know with a new year, but we haven’t really changed our program,” Sheppard explained. “Everything went our way tonight — we had a good car and we drew a good number.”
With Sheppard rolling off third, Seth Zacharias and Danny Creeden occupied the front row for the 30-lap affair after the Beyea Custom Headers Redraw. Creeden quickly raced out to the lead on the opening lap with Sheppard following him by Zacharias and into the runner-up spot.
Creeden was rolling the outside groove trying to maintain the top side with Sheppard plugging on the bottom side of the speedway chasing Creeden. Sheppard worked by Creeden on the inside groove at the completion of the fifth circuit and began to drive away.
Meanwhile, Larry Wight was quickly marching from the seventh-starting position and working on Marc Johnson for fourth.
Wight surpassed Johnson on lap seven and set his sights on what was becoming a battle for the runner-up spot. Darren Smith parlayed his strong practice night into a fast race car and worked by Creeden for the runner-up spot on the same lap.
Two laps later, Mike Trautschold slowed exiting turn two to head off the race track, directly in front of Sheppard. Sheppard hooked Trautschold in the left rear and sent him around bringing out the race’s first yellow.
Racing resumed with Sheppard leading Smith, Creeden, Wight and Johnson.
Wight made quick work of Creeden when racing resumed, while Darren Smith showed the potential to challenge Sheppard for the top spot. Smith bounced off the turn two concrete however on lap 11, and Sheppard skated away.
Shortly after, Wight took advantage of Smith continuing to rebound and drove him for the runner-up spot and set his sights on Sheppard for the top spot. Wight, however, made a similar mistake, bouncing off the third-turn concrete and losing crucial ground on Sheppard.
From there, Wight never got close enough to offer Sheppard a challenge as the driver of the No. 9S navigated through lap traffic without a hiccup.
“I ran the bottom most of the race, so I didn’t really know what I had up top,” Sheppard proclaimed. “But I know these guys are too good for me to ride around behind the lapped cars.”
Wight settled for the runner-up spot.
“Our car was good, and I lost the right-front once and smacked the wall,” Wight explained with a laugh. “After that I think it knocked a hub loose because the brakes were shaking really bad.”
Darren Smith rounded out the podium finishers — the best finish of his STSS career in his Jeremy Smith Racing No. 12.
“We were really good tonight and we had really good balance in our car,” Smith said. “I’d just lose the nose every now and then and it hurt us when I hit the wall.”
Stewart Friesen charged from the 11th starting spot to finish fourth and Marc Johnson rounded out the top five.
Finishing sixth through 10th were Erick Rudolph aboard his family-owned No. 25; Austin Hubbard in the Blades HVAC Services No. 65; Danny Creeden piloting his own No. 16x; Tanner VanDoren driving in the Charlie Lord No. 01C; Bobby Hackel from 23rd in the Godgart Motorsports No. 97; and Chris Curtis.
Feature Results (30 Laps)
1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[7]; 3. 12S-Darren Smith[5]; 4. 44-Stewart Friesen[11]; 5. 9-Marc Johnson[4]; 6. 25R-Erick Rudolph[10]; 7. 65-Austin Hubbard[9]; 8. 01VD-Tanner VanDoren[14]; 9. 97H-Bobby Hackel IV[23]; 10. 35C-Chris Curtis[21]; 11. 6-Mat Williamson[17]; 12. 16X-Dan Creeden[2]; 13. 6B-Danny Bouc[6]; 14. 11H-Danny Hieber[15]; 15. 21A-Peter Britten[18]; 16. 7-Rick Laubach[16]; 17. 70A-Alex Payne[22]; 18. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[1]; 19. 35-Francois Bellemare[20]; 20. 11-Matt Caprara[24]; 21. 34-Rusty Smith[12]; 22. 6S-Matt Stangle[13]; 23. 28T-Michael Trautschold[8]; 24. 27J-Danny Johnson[26]; 25. 27-Jason Reome[19]; 26. 22J-Bubba McPhee[25]