RANSOMVILLE, N.Y. — On a night honoring his family’s legacy at Ransomville Speedway, Stewart Friesen made the night even more special.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, driver stormed from 12th to first in 27 laps to win Tuesday’s Ron Martin Summer Nationals—his third Super DIRTcar Series win of 2026.
Earlier in the night, longtime track-owner and promoter Stan Friesen, Stewart’s grandfather, was inducted into the track’s Ring of Honor, which made the night even more extraordinary for the Friesen family.
“What a great race car tonight,” Friesen said. “The Halmar team nailed it. It’s so great to see so many family members and friends here. To bring Parker (his son), he’s old enough now to know what this place is to us and our family is pretty cool. It’s just a super special night.”
Darren Smith led the field to the green in the 60-lap feature alongside 10-time series champion Matt Sheppard. Smith held on for the first five laps until Chad Brachmann brought out the race’s first caution.
As the leader, Smith chose the inside lane on the Lap 7 restart, giving Sheppard the outside. That proved costly for Smith, as when the race resumed, Sheppard drove around the No. 12 to take the lead.
Behind Sheppard, Friesen charged forward, getting to fifth by Lap 16. He wasn’t done there, either. After a red flag for Ryan Krachun, who hit the Turn 1 wall and flipped, Friesen used the restart to charge to the front, getting by Gary Lindberg in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 16, and Alex Yankowski on Lap 17 by driving around the No. 84Y in Turns 3 and 4.
Three laps later, he got to Smith, this time rolling by him on the inside lane to wrestle second away. Then, Friesen chased the No. 9S for the lead over the next seven laps before getting an opportunity on the inside lane on Lap 29.
Like how he passed Smith, Friesen found momentum in Turns 3 and 4, pulling ahead of “Super Matt” at the start/finish line by 0.011 seconds. That advantage was all he needed the rest of the way, as Friesen cruised to earn his 55th career series win and the $6,000 prize.
“I saw those guys sliding a little bit, and we were gripped up wherever we wanted to stick it,” Friesen said. “The track was in great shape. Old school shape. I just watched the track change throughout the night. Once the night settled in, and the dew settled in, I went out and took a peek during the Street Stock race, and Tommy Conroy (his crew chief) made a great call. I backed him up and didn’t doubt him for a second, and here we are.”
While Sheppard crossed the line second, he had to battle for the spot with three-time defending Series champion Mat Williamson over the last 30 laps. On multiple occasions, Williamson swung his No. 88 on the top side of Turns 3 and 4, hoping his momentum would carry him down the frontstretch ahead of Sheppard’s Bicknell chassis.
However, every time Williamson seemed to have a run, Sheppard did enough to stay in front of him in Turns 1 and 2 en route to his third consecutive podium finish.
“We’ve been making strides on this thing,” Sheppard said. “Obviously, these two cars I’m sandwiched in between have been the class of just about every field, everywhere we’ve been. We couldn’t hold Stewie off. He was really good tonight. Mat was better than we were, but we were at least able to hold him off.
“I felt like I was basically the same speed no matter where I ran on the racetrack, so I kept changing my line up to try and keep [Williamson] guessing. Luckily, he got pinned behind some lap cars, and we came home with a nice second-place finish.”
Williamson settled for third, rebounding after an 11th-place finish at Lebanon Valley Speedway last week.
“You take Stew out of the equation, and that was the race of the year for second,” Williamson said. “I tried the top. Matt really kept me guessing on where to be on the race track.
“I just needed to get clean air. I think Stew snookered me. Going through traffic early, he was a little better than I was and got to the front quicker. And at that point, the race was over.”
With his third-place finish and Yankowski finishing seventh, Williamson trails Yankowski by three points for the top spot in the standings.
Ransomville regular Gary Lindberg finished fourth, and Darren Smith rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (60 Laps): 1. 44-Stewart Friesen[12]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[2]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson[9]; 4. 37S-Gary Lindberg[4]; 5. 12-Darren Smith[1]; 6. 70A-Alex Payne[5]; 7. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[3]; 8. 91-Felix Roy[8]; 9. 11-Matt Caprara[11]; 10. 2-Jack Lehner[10]; 11. 3RS-Ryan Susice[13]; 12. 35-Mike Mahaney[6]; 13. 25-Erick Rudolph[7]; 14. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[16]; 15. 1-Tyler Dippel[17]; 16. 6-Matt Stangle[15]; 17. 26-Kyle Richner[25]; 18. 28-Michael Trautschold[21]; 19. 15X-Justin Stone[14]; 20. 444-Russell Morseman IV[24]; 21. 17-Marcus Dinkins[18]; 22. (DNF) 11S-Steve Lewis Jr[26]; 23. (DNF) 18R-Brad Rouse[22]; 24. (DNF) 29-Ryan Krachun[19]; 25. (DNF) 3-Chad Brachmann[23]; 26. (DNS) 7M-Paul Mancini
