RANSOMVILLE, N.Y. — After a disastrous start to the night, Mat Williamson found his way to victory lane Tuesday at Ransomville Speedway.
Forced to go to a backup car after a wreck in hot laps, Williamson never missed a beat, leading all 75 laps to win the Ron Martin Summer Nationals—his second Super DIRTcar Series win of 2025.
“Hats off to my team,” Williamson said. “They deserve all the credit. When the throttle stuck in hot laps, we were in the first group of time trials. It was a big scramble to get that car turned around from last night in the seven or eight minutes we had.”
Williamson led the field to the green in the 75-lap feature, outdueling Gary Lindberg, his brother-in-law, through Turns 1 and 2.
Using the outside lane to his advantage, “Money Mat” pulled away from Lindberg and opened a full-straightaway advantage throughout the race’s first 10 laps.
However, that changed once Williamson reached the back of the field on Lap 18, allowing Lindberg to lessen the gap.
Lindberg had his best chance on Lap 23, when Williamson straggled to get by Dalton Slack and Ryan Susice, lapped cars, who were racing for position in front of him.
However, that’s when the race’s only caution came out for Alex Yankowski, who slowed in Turns 3 and 4. Yankowski’s issues came one lap after Alex Payne pulled into the pits, with smoke showing from his No. 70a.
When the race resumed, Williamson used the outside lane to drive away from Lindberg. That restart was as close as Lindberg got for the rest of the feature, as Williamson cruised to the victory, lapping up to ninth place.
The $7,500 triumph is Williamson’s 33rd series win, and second consecutive Ron Martin Summer Nationals victory.
“I knew my car was maneuverable,” Williamson said. “And I was judging how good I was in lap traffic. The lap cars were good to judge off whether the top was better or the bottom was better.”
Williamson extended his points lead to 60 points over 10-time champion Matt Sheppard, who finished third.
Lindberg settled for second, holding off a late charge from Sheppard.
“I didn’t really know where to be, so I was following Mat,” Lindberg said. “He’s smart and knows where to go. I said if I could just hang with him, I’d be happy about second. We got caught in lap traffic there and reeled him in a little bit, but then we had that restart and he checked out.
“We didn’t run a mud plug in the right rear to keep it cool, but there were big chunks coming out of four, and I picked up a couple running the top. It’d vibrate for a couple of laps and then it must’ve broken up and fallen out. I was really hanging on the last 15 laps.”
Sheppard’s third-place finish was his sixth consecutive Super DIRTcar Series podium.
“We were able to make most of our moves on the bottom,” Sheppard said. “I was able to use that to get up through there before the bottom burnt off. The track was really racy tonight. The best I’ve really seen it in a long time. It was fun being to race up through the field, and that’s what Big Block racing should be.
“I felt like I got rolling pretty good before that yellow. But there was a traffic jam, and that caution definitely played in my favor. Guys were struggling to hold the bottom then and my car was really good on the bottom. Passing a bunch of them real quick definitely makes the night a lot easier.”
Darren Smith finished fourth and Peter Britten was fifth.
The finish:
Feature (75 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson[1]; 2. 37S-Gary Lindberg[2]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[9]; 4. 12-Darren Smith[8]; 5. 21A-Peter Britten[3]; 6. 35-Mike Mahaney[10]; 7. 25-Erick Rudolph[14]; 8. 91-Felix Roy[7]; 9. 4-Anthony Perrego[17]; 10. 6-Matt Stangle[4]; 11. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[6]; 12. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[11]; 13. 3-Chad Brachmann[15]; 14. 2-Jack Lehner[16]; 15. 3RS-Dalton Slack[19]; 16. 5H-Amy Holland[20]; 17. 38-Ryan Susice[21]; 18. 1-Andrew Smith[12]; 19. 11S-Steve Lewis Jr[23]; 20. 26-Kyle Richner[25]; 21. 18R-Brad Rouse[24]; 22. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[13]; 23. 35M-Nelson Mason[22]; 24. 55C-Jesse Cotriss[26]; 25. 70A-Alex Payne[5]; 26. 22-Noah Walker[18]
