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Big Block Modified Top Contenders Win Qualifying Heats

By Michelina Friss, Super DIRTcar Series PR (Oswego, NY) -- After an hours long rain delay, the stars of the Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds hit the track at Oswego Speedway Saturday night one more time before Sunday’s Feature race.

Three 25-lap Qualifying Heats saw 24 cars qualify for the $50,000-to-win, Billy Whittaker Cars 200 championship.

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Fry

Qualifying Heat 1

Starting off in the pole position, Matt Sheppard shot out in front of the rest of the field and never looked back. Ryan Godown followed in pursuit trying to keep in step with the eight-time and defending Series champion, but to no avail. Sheppard continued on his current hot streak and recorded the fastest time in his field for the second night in a row, taking home the $4,000 first place check.

“The cars been excellent the last two or three days,” Sheppard said. “The track had a lot of bite, that first one. It’s starting to polish off now. Definitely hammered down the fastest we’ve seen all week here. We still had a really good race car. It’s a pleasure to drive when it’s that balanced,” Sheppard said.

Godown held his ground against a charging Stewart Friesen, taking home second while Friesen finished third.

Marc Johnson (fourth) and Jimmy Phelps (fifth) rounded out the top five finishers.

Qualifying Heat 2

Defending Super DIRT Week champion Mat Williamson continued to build his momentum for Sunday’s Feature with a solid performance in the second Qualifying Heat. Like Sheppard, Williamson bolted out in front after starting on the pole and never relinquished his position. His most difficult challenge was navigating the lapped traffic he encountered halfway through the matchup. Williamson maneuvered strategically, keeping his significant lead over his competitors.

Peter Britten and Erick Rudolph trailed several car lengths behind in second and third until “Mad Max” McLaughlin aggressively charged forward, making his presence known. Running in a retro-scheme #Z8 designed specifically for Super DIRT Week, McLaughlin charged up five positions around his competition using both the inside and outside of the track.

Behind Williamson, Peter Britten finished second, Max McLaughlin finished third, Erick Rudolph finished fourth, and Anthony Perrego finished fifth.

Qualifying Heat 3

After qualifying for Sunday’s Feature on the inside of row two, four-time Super DIRT Week champion Billy Decker repeated his success on Saturday. Starting in the pole position, Decker fired hard at the start to jump out to an early lead. He showed his tenacity after maintaining his lead on three restarts, doing so by taking advantage of the inside of the track.

“This JSR car is pretty good,” Decker said. “These guys have been working pretty hard all week. We unloaded pretty good and we’ve been making small improvements all along. We’re going to dissect some information and then make a big swing at it tomorrow.”

Mike Mahaney, who secured a sixth place starting position for Sunday’s Feature in Time Trials, gave a repeat solid performance finishing second. Darren Smith finished third, Tim Sears Jr. finished fourth, and Kyle Coffey finished fifth.

UP NEXT: The Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds will run the $50,000-to-win Billy Whittaker Cars 200 on Sunday, Oct. 9 to see who will be crowned the champion of the 50th Running of NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either at DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

RESULTS:

Heat 1 (25 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[1]; 2. 26-Ryan Godown[2]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[5]; 4. 9-Marc Johnson[4]; 5. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[9]; 6. 215-Adam Pierson[7]; 7. 2-Jack Lehner[8]; 8. 84-Gary Tomkins[3]; 9. 19-Tim Fuller[19]; 10. 125-Jackson Gill[17]; 11. 43-Jimmy Horton[15]; 12. 21C-Brian Calabrese[13]; 13. 58M-Marshall Hurd[6]; 14. 8-Rich Scagliotta[18]; 15. 7-Rick Laubach[14]; 16. 14M-CG Morey[23]; 17. 27W-Nick Webb[11]; 18. 9X-Tyler Trump[16]; 19. 16-Aaron Jacobs[22]; 20. 01C-Bob Henry Jr[12]; 21. 76-John Brown[20]; 22. 4V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[25]; 23. 26R-Corey Cormier[10]; 24. 28T-Michael Trautschold[24]; 25. (DNS) 713-Tommy Collins; 26. (DNS) 18-Ryan Macartney

Heat 2 (25 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson[1]; 2. 21A-Peter Britten[2]; 3. Z8-Max McLaughlin[8]; 4. 25-Erick Rudolph[4]; 5. 4-Anthony Perrego[6]; 6. 98-Rocky Warner[7]; 7. 27J-Danny Johnson[3]; 8. 3-Justin Haers[10]; 9. 35L-LJ Lombardo[5]; 10. 28-Jordan McCreadie[16]; 11. 62S-Tom Sears Jr[9]; 12. 20-Brett Hearn[18]; 13. 7Z-Zachary Payne[13]; 14. 37M-Mathieu Desardins[12]; 15. 49-Billy Dunn[14]; 16. 36B-Ben Bushaw[11]; 17. 14S-Brian Swarthout[20]; 18. Z4-JJ Courcy[21]; 19. 19W-Justin Wright[19]; 20. 1NY-Gregory Atkins[15]; 21. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher[17]; 22. 4C-Michelle Courcy[24]; 23. 17T-Richie Tobias Jr[22]; 24. (DNS) 36-Brian Whittemore; 25. (DNS) 11S-James Sweeting

Heat 3 (25 Laps): 1. 91-Billy Decker[1]; 2. 35-Mike Mahaney[2]; 3. 12-Darren Smith[3]; 4. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[5]; 5. 39-Kyle Coffey[4]; 6. 28L-Gary Lindberg[9]; 7. 7D-Tyler Dippel[10]; 8. 5H-Chris Hile[14]; 9. 34-Kevin Root[8]; 10. 22-Tanner Van Dohren[7]; 11. 99L-Larry Wight[24]; 12. X-Chad Phelps[17]; 13. 70A-Alex Payne[13]; 14. 02-Roy Bresnahan[18]; 15. 37-Paul St Sauveur[16]; 16. 27-Jeremy Pitts[15]; 17. 63-Adam Roberts[19]; 18. 17-Marcus Dinkins[20]; 19. 0-Matt Humes[25]; 20. 74-Dave Flannigan Jr[22]; 21. 115-Kenny Tremont Jr[11]; 22. 27JR-Daniel Johnson[21]; 23. (DNS) M1-David Marcuccilli; 24. (DNS) 15-Todd Root; 25. (DNS) 11-Steve Lewis Jr

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MATT SHEPPARD WINS THIRD SALUTE TO THE TROOPS 150 TITLE

By Nick Graziano, Super DIRT Week PR (Oswego, NY) -- – Matt Sheppard has shown this “super” strength throughout the 50th Running of NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week, winning the pole and his Qualifying Heat for the Billy Whittaker Cars 200. However, when it came to his 358 Modified, he questioned at times why he brought it.

His answer came Saturday night during the DIRTcar 358 Modified Salute to the Troops 150 at Oswego Speedway.

After suffering a flat left front tire past the halfway point of the race, “Super Matt” soared his way to the front and ran away with this third Super DIRT Week 358 Modified triumph – in his first start in the division in three years.

“It always feels good when you win,” Sheppard said with smile. “It was something we’d talked about doing. We had the motor laying there and had no race conflicts, so we said, ‘Let’s run the Small Block this year.’ It’s one of those things, I swear, it’s like, ‘Why did I even do this?’ But then you run like you did today, and man, it’s awesome.”

Sheppard, of Waterloo, NY, qualified sixth, locking himself into that starting position for the 150-lap race, while defending Salute to the Troops 150 winner Stewart Friesen claimed the SRI Performance/Stock Car Steel & Aluminum Pole Award and Marc Johnson earned the Finishing Touch Construction Outside Pole Award. Then, when it came to the Qualifying Heats, Sheppard finished second to Mat Williamson.

When the 150-lap race commenced, Friesen pulled ahead with the early lead. Behind him, Williamson bested Johnson for second. The three stayed that way in the early portion of the race, while Sheppard made his way to fourth by Lap 7.

The first caution of the night flew on Lap 25 due to Lance Willix suffering a flat left front tire.

When the race resumed, Williamson had a bad start and fell to fifth – moving Sheppard to third and Rocky Warner to fourth.

By Lap 44, Friesen found himself in heavy traffic, allowing Johnson and Sheppard to close.

Johnson built a run around the bottom, sneaking under Friesen and inching ahead of him down the front stretch for a glimpse at the lead. However, the caution flew and since the lap wasn’t completed the lineup resorted back to the last lap, placing Johnson back in second.

The top three remained the same for the next 10 laps. When the race resumed on Lap 54, Sheppard had his own poor restart and fell to fifth. He slowly made his way forward again, making it back to third by Lap 87.

On Lap 91, the caution flew again and became the competition caution for the race, allowing teams to pit for fuel if they needed. And it came just in time for Sheppard, who suffered a flat left front tire.

He, along with Friesen, and the majority of the field pitted. But, as a shock to many, Johnson decided to stay out and inherit the lead. Joining him in doing so were Peter Britten, Danny Johnson, Billy Dunn, Lance Willix and Darren Smith.

As the new leader, Johnson launched ahead of the field to finally find himself in clean air. Behind him, Friesen drove by cars like they were standing still. Putting his Halmar #44 Modified as high as he could in the first corner, Friesen torpedoed his way from sixth to second by the backstretch. He kept that momentum going around the high side of the track to reclaim the lead from Johnson on Lap 103.

Sheppard restarted the race in seventh and made his way back to third on Lap 131. Four laps later, the caution came out for Britten running out of fuel – putting Johnson’s decision to not stop also in question.

When the green flag flew again, Sheppard went from Clark Kent to Superman. He tangled with “The Dark Knight” on entry in Turn 1, banging side panels with Johnson and muscling his way by for second. Then, he turned his attention to ending the reign of “Mr. Freeze.”

Sheppard rocketed by Friesen for the lead on Lap 140 and then went ultra-sonic. With eight laps to go, he was a straightaway ahead of Friesen. And three laps later, Friesen and Johnson were no longer a concern. Friesen blew a right rear tire and Johnson ran out of fuel.

“I knew we did fuel mileage for the Heat Race, and we were good,” said Johnson, of Guilderland, NY. “I didn’t realize they were going to do so many yellow flag laps and only count three of them. That was major.

“Car was unbelievable. Joe did an awesome job with the shocks and springs. I just got to thank all my guys for everything that they did. They gave me a really good piece that was, I think, probably one of the best cars of the night. Especially on a long run. Just, shit luck I guess.”

Their misfortunes put Max McLaughlin on Sheppard’s tail for the final restart of the night and moved Tim Fuller up to third – who’d been on the move all race, after initially starting 17th.

McLaughlin threw his #8H machine into Turn 1, trying to grab Sheppard’s bumper and hang with him on the restart but “Super Matt” was untouchable. He drove away to win the Salute to the Troops 150 by 1.35 seconds.

“I was a little snug at the beginning and didn’t realize our stagger grew so much and got really tight at the end,” said McLaughlin, of Mooresville, NC, who had to settle for second. “Just really really tight through the center. That’s what ultimately did it. Even though I was tight, I had wicked drive off. That’s what really helped me tonight. I could stick the bottom, especially off of (Turn) four. I was really good off of four and could make most of my passes. We were close, man. Just typical Sheppard right there.”

Fuller finished third, Anthony Perrego fourth and Williamson rounded out the top five. Ronnie Davis quietly had one of the best runs of the race, racing his way from 38th to 10th – earning the Penske Racing Shocks Hard Charger Award.

Sheppard walked away with the $20,000 check and etched his name in another spot in the Super DIRT Week history book as he eyes another page on Sunday. The last time he won the DIRTcar 358 Modified race at Super DIRT Week in 2017, he went on to win the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 in the same year.

He starts from the pole for the $50,000-to-win, 200-lap, 50th NAPA Super DIRT Week main event.

“Really good run for my whole team,” Sheppard said. “We’re on a roll right now. Things are going our way. I don’t know. Not much more to say than that.”

UP NEXT: The DIRTcar 358 Modified Series will conclude its championship battle at Brockville Ontario Speedway, Saturday, Oct. 15.

The 50th Running of NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week comes to its historic finale Sunday, Oct. 9, with the DIRTcar Sportsman Chevrolet Performance 75 and the Super DIRTcar Series Billy Whittaker Cars 200. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either on DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

RESULTS
Salute To the Troops 150 (150 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[6]; 2. 8H-Max McLaughlin[14]; 3. 3RS-Tim Fuller[17]; 4. 4-Anthony Perrego[8]; 5. 6-Mat Williamson[3]; 6. 83-Danny Johnson[19]; 7. 35-Mike Mahaney[12]; 8. 37S-Gary Lindberg[5]; 9. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[29]; 10. 32R-Ronnie Davis[38]; 11. 21-Taylor Caprara[21]; 12. 28-Jordan McCreadie[27]; 13. 97-Rocky Warner[4]; 14. 26R-Corey Cormier[26]; 15. 21C-Brian Calabrese[23]; 16. 8R-Tim Sears Jr[20]; 17. M1-David Marcuccilli[9]; 18. 39-Ryan Bartlett[37]; 19. 44-Stewart Friesen[1]; 20. 9M-Tyler Meeks[25]; 21. 7Z-Zachary Payne[22]; 22. 27W-Nick Webb[28]; 23. 99L-Larry Wight[11]; 24. 4V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[16]; 25. 31-Corey Barker[33]; 26. 15X-Justin Stone[24]; 27. 31W-Lance Willix[13]; 28. 34-Rusty Smith[35]; 29. 3J-Marc Johnson[2]; 30. 11S-Steve Lewis Jr[40]; 31. 713-Tommy Collins[36]; 32. 21A-Peter Britten[10]; 33. 215-Adam Pierson[18]; 34. 12S-Darren Smith[30]; 35. 49-Billy Dunn[15]; 36. 66W-Derek Webb[39]; 37. 21R-RJ Tresidder[34]; 38. 15-Todd Root[32]; 39. 25-Erick Rudolph[7]; 40. 29-Matt Caprara[31]

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NICK STONE SCORES FIRST CAREER DIRTCAR PRO STOCK 50 VICTORY

By Mike Warren, Super DIRT Week PR (Oswego, NY) -- – Nick Stone found the missing piece to his DIRTcar Pro Stock resume Saturday night at Oswego Speedway.

After years of trying, the Rotterdam, NY driver finally reached a Victory Lane that’s eluded him—the DIRTcar Pro Stock 50 at NAPA Super DIRT Week.

However, while the statistics show “The Manimal” led 39 laps, his win was anything but easy.

Chucky Dumblewski grabbed the early lead, pulling away from pole-sitter Kim Duell.

Behind them, Stone started to rise from his fourth starting position. It took him eight laps to power past Duell for second and set his sights on Dumblewski.

He quickly closed on the Amsterdam, NY driver, but Dumblewski took the outside lane away, successfully blocking his attempt to take the lead in Turn 2. Stone immediately switched lanes down the backstretch and used momentum off Turn 2 to inch ahead of the #7D in Turn 4 to take the lead on Lap 13.

It was a lead he wouldn’t relinquish, despite a final challenge in the race’s closing stages—three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish.

The Pro Stock veteran kept his competitors at bay on all three, holding on to score his first win at Oswego Speedway.

“All I can say is finally,” Stone said. “We’ve been trying since back in Syracuse, and I’ve been trying here ever since it’s been here. And we finally did it.”

“I just wanted to get those good starts and stay to the bottom, and I figured I’d be alright if I just keep them on my tail.”

Despite grabbing the lead early in the Feature, he struggled initially. It wasn’t until he passed Duell on the bottom that he realized it was the place to be.

“At the beginning of the race, I was trying anything,” Stone said. “I kind of shot it in up there. I didn’t want to be up there. There was no traction. I just got a heck of a run off the corner, and it worked out.

“Getting out there early was the way to go.”

Dumblewski held on for second—his third runner-up finish in the DIRTcar Pro Stock 50. The Amsterdam, NY, driver said his car was better on longer runs.

“The restarts were definitely tough,” Dumblewski said. “Once I got rolling, I was real good. The longer runs were where I felt like I was much better.

“I think it’s the third time we’ve finished second here, so a win would’ve been nice, but it’s a very good weekend for us.”

Pete Stefanski, from Wheatfield, NY, finished third, scoring his best finish at Oswego.

He said he knew he faced an uphill climb from the beginning.

“We started a bit farther back than these guys, so we had a lot of really good cars to pass,” Stefanski said. “I kind of got shuffled back at the beginning, and I figured if we bided our time, then we could get back to the front.”

Kenny Wallace finished fourth, and Bruno Richard rounded out the top five.

By taking the green flag at NAPA Super DIRT Week, Richard also captured the 2022 DIRTcar Pro Stock Championship.

The Gatineau, QC driver, said it’s a moment that’s a dream come true.

“It’s so great because it was my dream to [win a title] on dirt,” Richard said. “We started in April, and day by day, we were supposed to [only battle for a track championship], and we win everywhere we go.

“It’s so great to get [the championship] because it was one of my dreams.”

UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Pro Stocks head to The DIRT Track at Charlotte for the World Short Track Championships Oct. 27-29.

The 50th Running of NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week comes to its historic finale Sunday, Oct. 9, with the DIRTcar Sportsman Chevrolet Performance 75 and the Super DIRTcar Series Billy Whittaker Cars 200. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either on DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

FEATURE RESULTS

DIRTcar Prostock 50 (50 Laps): 1. 8N-Nick Stone[4]; 2. 7D-Chucky Dumblewski[2]; 3. 2-Pete Stefanski[11]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[8]; 5. 72-Bruno Richard[10]; 6. 2H-Luke Horning[3]; 7. 1X-Justin White[18]; 8. 4-Dean Charbonneau[23]; 9. 6-Shane Playford[12]; 10. 57-Charles Mcspirit[28]; 11. 30-Zach Daniels[26]; 12. 17-Nick Hilt[13]; 13. 09J-Shawn Perez[22]; 14. 75-Eli Gilbert[20]; 15. 76-Frank Hoard[30]; 16. 00X-Josh Coonradt[7]; 17. 56-Jay Fitzgerald[19]; 18. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[16]; 19. 322-Jay Casey[6]; 20. 9S-Ken Schrader[24]; 21. 14J-Johnny Rivers[21]; 22. X15-Tyler Bushey[15]; 23. 25-Chad Jeseo[14]; 24. 7-Rob Yetman[17]; 25. 14-Kim Duell[1]; 26. 55-David Stickles[25]; 27. 00C-Michael Clark[27]; 28. 69-Rich Crane[5]; 29. 6C-Brian Carter[29]; 30. 324-Jason Casey[9] PENSKE RACING SHOCKS HARD CHARGER: Chuck McSpirit [+18].

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