RANSOMVILLE, N.Y. — Mat Williamson scored his first Krown Undercoating 358 Modified win of the season on Friday night at Ransomville Speedway on Regional Haulage night at the races.
Williamson passed Pete Bicknell for the lead on lap seven of the 30-lap feature and never looked back.
The 30-lap Krown Undercoating Modified feature ran off with just one caution flag. The one slowdown happened just after the completion of the first lap when last week’s winner Mike Bowman tangled with Allan Wills on the frontstretch. Wills’s suffered terminal front end damage, and was unable to continue.
The ensuing 29 laps went caution free with the race restarting with Pete Bicknell leading Jeff McGinnis, James Sweeting, Williamson and Gary Lindberg. Williamson quickly picked off Sweeting and McGinnis when the race restarted to move into second place by lap 5.
Williamson then turned his attention to Bicknell for the lead. Bicknell was riding the inside line while Willamson took to the outside. He drove around the outside of Bicknell to take the lead on lap seven. The race took a torrid pace with no cautions and dry and slick track conditions. Williamson drove away to a large lead, and caught lapped traffic with about 10 laps to go.
Defending track champion and current points leader, Erick Rudolph, started 11th, and he put on a show as he drove through the field. Rudolph entered the top five for the first time on lap 9. He passed Sweeting for fourth two laps later, and then took third from McGinnis at the halfway point of the event.
Not even lapped traffic could slow down Mat Williamson. The CW Racing Wendt’s Propane #6 looked dominant as it rolled through the back half of the field in the closing laps. Williamson cruised to his first win at Ransomville since May 18, 2012.
Rudolph caught Bicknell late in the race, but couldn’t get close enough to overtake him for second. Bicknell held on to finish second with Rudolph in third. James Sweeting finished fourth for his second-straight top five finish. Chad Brachmann rounded out the top five.
Derek Wagner held off defending track champion Brett Senek to win the Investors Service feature. Pete Stefanski won his second Ki-Po Chevrolet Street Stock feature of 2019. Dante Mancuso won his second race at the “Big R” in the Ransomville/Genesee Mini Stock series for the Gippster’s Collision Mini Stocks. Bubby Pawlak won for the second week in a row in the Stevenson’s Hardware Novice Sportsman.