PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Ryan Godown displayed everything that’s gone into his turnaround season in this past weekend’s Speed Showcase 200 at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway.
“Finishing third [Thursday] and fourth [Saturday], a lot of people would be happy with that, and I am happy,” Godown said. “There are just a few things I could have done better myself, things I screwed up. You have to learn from it, take notes, and next time do them.”
The 46-year-old continued, in his words, “one of the best years” of his long modified career when he ended up as the only driver with two top-five finishes from the mega, 49-car event. In between, he won Friday’s 20-lap qualifier and — like he has in his first 10-win year since 2016 — never briddled his hallmark grit.
Over the winter, Godown and his car owner of three years, Steve Searock, parted ways in the wake of a lackluster, four-win 2020 season. The Ringoes, N.J., driver contemplated a few driving offers until they were filled by other drivers.
“We just said, ‘Let’s work hard ourselves, build our program back up,’” said Godown, who’s reassembled his No. 26 family team and is making the most of it. “It makes you work harder. And that’s what we did.”
Now he is one of seven modified drivers with double-digit wins nationally.
Over the summer, Godown won eight of 20 features at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park for championship claim in runaway fashion. Across the Delaware River in Bechtelsville, Pa., Godown prevailed over a 66-car field to bank Grandview Speedway’s $30,000 Freedom 76.
In Saturday’s 200-lapper at Port Royal, he thought he was the third best car. The nation’s two winningest, Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard, were only better.
“I’m ecstatic with how the year’s been, considering we’re back to our own stuff,” Godown said. “We’ll just keep plugging away.”
The secret to Godown’s upswing — his grit — is also the very thing that rubs modified fans the wrong way.
All weekend, he clashed with Mat Williamson on and off the track. Godown confronted Williamson at the conclusion of Thursday’s feature when contact on a restart spoiled a runner-up finish.
“You race people the way they race you and he would’ve done it 100 times out of a 100,” Williamson said.
On the whole, Godown likes to think he’s pruning his hard-nosed ways.
“I’ve calmed down a little bit,” Godown said. “We’ve worked really hard on the car to not get into guys and stay straight. I think that’s paying off here. As it goes on, you just learn more about the suspension and stuff, just concentrating on keeping the car straight, keeping it underneath you.”
At one point Saturday, Godown had Friesen, the Speed Showcase 200 winner, in his crosshairs. With 10 laps to go, Godown moved within two seconds of the lead. Then the caution came out on lap 191.
“I didn’t want to see that caution,” Godown said. “I thought [Friesen] was a little better than us anyway, but I would have liked to stay green. We had good momentum.”
“Once we got rolling, I thought we were better than anybody,” Godown added. “Well, other than Friesen.
“We had a good car all day I thought, then we came to the halfway break, came back out, and got bounced around a little while … guys trying to run three to four-wide, overdriving their cars,” Godown said. “But we got through it. We had to take our time. Well, we couldn’t get through it. In turn, I had to use my car up to get there.”
Godown restarted on the inside, the non-preferred lane, with six laps left. Matt Sheppard and Matt Stangle eventually got the best of Godown, who tried following Friesen on the bottom groove because his tires faded and he thought the track was taking rubber.
“Hindsight 20/20, I should have kept my line I was running,” Godown said. “Probably would have stayed ahead of Stangle. Sheppard probably would have gotten us anyway. Top five with a new car, can’t be mad. There’s a lot of good cars here.”