PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Modified drivers Mat Williamson and Ryan Godown despise each another and they don’t mince that sentiment.
“He’s a kid. He’s a spoiled brat,” Godown said of Williamson.
“I mean, everybody watches Bridgeport [Motorsports Park] every week. The guy’s an asshole,” Williamson said.
The mutual dislike between Godown, the 46-year-old Bridgeport champion, and Williamson, the 31-year-old who’s on top of the modified game at the moment, has unmistakably spilled into this weekend’s Speed Showcase 200 at Port Royal Speedway.
During Thursday’s preliminary feature, Williamson saw a window to take second underneath the New Jersey driver with 12 laps to go.
While Godown cut off the top side of turn four, Williamson found some room inside, stayed in the gas and didn’t think about lifting.
Williamson clobbered Godown, who shot up the banking. The fury was on from there.
“That wasn’t racing as far as I’m concerned,” Godown said after his qualifier win on Friday.
Godown, the hard-nosed racer who proudly wears his blue-collar image, couldn’t run down Williamson in the closing laps Thursday to repay any sort of favor on the track.
Once the drivers exited the track, joining Thursday’s podium as second and third-place finishers, Godown sprung from his car and approached Williamson angrily.
“If the roles were reversed, everybody would be really hard on me, I guarantee you that, you know what I mean?” Godown said. “Since it’s the golden child, nobody is hard on him. It is what is. I’m going for $53,000 [on Saturday].”
“I couldn’t go any lower. If I went any lower, I’d be in the wall,” Williamson said. “For him to be upset at that, I was pretty disappointed he was hitting me after the race, pushing me in victory lane over something I’ve seen him do 100 times at Bridgeport.
“Did I certainly fill a hole that I knew was going to close up? Yeah, probably,” Williamson continued. “But you race people the way they race you and he would’ve done it 100 times out of a 100. In my mind, hard racing, to throw a hissy fit after it happened to him, try to take me out three laps in a row, then try to take me out after the race, is just ridiculous.
“I wouldn’t expect anything else from that guy,” Williamson added.
Godown’s 10 wins this year are his most since 2016 and the benefit of returning to his own equipment. Williamson, meanwhile, owns 23 wins on the year, a new career high as he continues to evolve as one of modified racing’s best.
Godown isn’t jealous, as many fans speculate.
“He’s never had to work for anything in his life, so that’s what you expect out of somebody like that,” Godown said.
A win for Godown Saturday would be one of the biggest of his career. He’ll have a good shot, being in the 12-driver redraw. Williamson, meanwhile, starts 13th as the event’s reigning champion.
“I’m sure he’ll be fast, as a lot of guys will, and we have to run our own race,” Godown said.