11/4/2022
RacinBoys
Mat Williamson Scores Win On Night One Of World Finals At Charlotte
By Michelina Friss, Super DIRTcar Series PR (Concord, NC) -- They’ve raced against each other many times before on their home track of Ransomville Speedway. But tonight, when Mat Williamson and Erick Rudolph met each other on The Dirt Track at Charlotte for the World of Outlaws World Finals, it meant a little something more.
The two Ransomville Speedway regulars lined up behind each other on the grid to start off the Feature, with Rudolph starting on the outside of row one and Williamson starting on the inside of row two. Having competed at the 4/10-mile oval several times in their careers, both competitors knew they needed to have a superior machine to take home the win.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jacy Norgaard
Rudolph maneuvered around pole-starter Anthony Perrego after trailing him for the first seven laps. On his pass, Williamson was not far behind, passing Perrego as well, dropping him into third. It then became a tight battle between the two leaders, with the two cars riding neck and neck around the turns. Williamson eventually moved to the bottom coming into Turn 3 and 4, sneaking past #25 to take the lead.
That was all the #88 Buzzchew Racing driver needed to seal the deal. From then on, Williamson took advantage of the clean air to distance himself from the rest of the pack, bringing him closer and closer to victory as he pulled away.
“Once I got him, I could use the whole race track up,” Williamson said. “That was a big benefit. This place is a lot about momentum and once you get the lead you get momentum.”
Williamson crossed the finish line in first, capturing the $10,000 purse and giving himself additional cushion on his way to securing a second-place finish for the season. Rudolph stayed in the runner-up position for the final third of the race, keeping a steady hand to fend off a charging Matt Sheppard, the expected Series winner to be crowned on Saturday night.
“He [Williamson] just seemed like he had a really good car on the long runs,” Rudolph said. “He just had the superior machine tonight. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow, but we’re really proud of second place.”
Sheppard crossed the finish line in third, rounding out the podium. It was his season’s 13th top-five finish and 15th top-10 finish.
Perrego finished in fourth and Demetrios Drellos finished in fifth. Jimmy Phelps stayed in third place in the points race with a sixth-place finish.
UP NEXT: The Super DIRTcar Series Big Blocks will return to The Dirt Track at Charlotte tomorrow for their second day of racing in a $10,000-to-win, 30-lap Feature.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
RESULTS
Super DIRTcar Series Feature (30 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson[3]; 2. 25-Erick Rudolph[2]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[4]; 4. 4-Anthony Perrego[1]; 5. 111-Demetrios Drellos[5]; 6. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[6]; 7. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 8. 26-Ryan Godown[9]; 9. 21A-Peter Britten[7]; 10. 91-Billy Decker[10]; 11. 8H-Max McLaughlin[13]; 12. 19-Tim Fuller[20]; 13. 9-Marc Johnson[14]; 14. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins[11]; 15. 99L-Larry Wight[22]; 16. 3-Justin Haers[16]; 17. 2L-Jack Lehner[15]; 18. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[27]; 19. 98JS-Rocky Warner[23]; 20. 215-Adam Pierson[24]; 21. 12-Darren Smith[26]; 22. 11T-Jeff Taylor[18]; 23. 20-Brett Hearn[12]; 24. 14-CG Morey[29]; 25. 34-Kevin Root[21]; 26. 7Z-Zachary Payne[30]; 27. 17-Marcus Dinkins[17]; 28. 37-Paul St Sauveur[28]; 29. (DNF) 21M-Bob Mcgannon[25]; 30. (DNF) 70A-Alex Payne[19]
LCS 1 (10 Laps): 1. 34-Kevin Root[4]; 2. 98JS-Rocky Warner[1]; 3. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[5]; 4. 8-Rich Scagliotta[6]; 5. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[8]; 6. 33-Louden Reimert[3]; 7. 14-CG Morey[11]; 8. 5-Brock Pinkerous[7]; 9. 18-Ryan Macartney[2]; 10. 4S-Peter Schwartzott Jr[10]; 11. (DNS) 43-Keith Flach
LCS 2 (10 Laps): 1. 99L-Larry Wight[2]; 2. 215-Adam Pierson[1]; 3. 12-Darren Smith[4]; 4. 27J-Danny Johnson[6]; 5. 7Z-Zachary Payne[5]; 6. 21-Yan Bussiere[11]; 7. 151KB-Brian McDonald[7]; 8. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[3]; 9. 98T-Tyler Thompson[10]; 10. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher[8]; 11. 37-Paul St Sauveur[9]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21A-Peter Britten[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[2]; 3. 26-Ryan Godown[3]; 4. 8H-Max McLaughlin[7]; 5. 17-Marcus Dinkins[4]; 6. 98JS-Rocky Warner[5]; 7. 33-Louden Reimert[8]; 8. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[10]; 9. 5-Brock Pinkerous[9]; 10. (DNF) 43-Keith Flach[6]; 11. (DNF) 14-CG Morey[11]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 111-Demetrios Drellos[1]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[2]; 3. 91-Billy Decker[3]; 4. 9-Marc Johnson[4]; 5. 11T-Jeff Taylor[5]; 6. 18-Ryan Macartney[7]; 7. 34-Kevin Root[8]; 8. 8-Rich Scagliotta[9]; 9. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[6]; 10. 4S-Peter Schwartzott Jr[10]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Anthony Perrego[2]; 2. 25-Erick Rudolph[1]; 3. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins[3]; 4. 2L-Jack Lehner[7]; 5. 70A-Alex Payne[5]; 6. 215-Adam Pierson[11]; 7. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[6]; 8. 7Z-Zachary Payne[4]; 9. 151KB-Brian McDonald[10]; 10. 37-Paul St Sauveur[8]; 11. (DNS) 21-Yan Bussiere
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson[2]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[1]; 3. 20-Brett Hearn[4]; 4. 3-Justin Haers[6]; 5. 19-Tim Fuller[3]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight[9]; 7. 12-Darren Smith[5]; 8. 27J-Danny Johnson[7]; 9. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher[10]; 10. 98T-Tyler Thompson[8]
My Place Hotels Qualifying Qualifying Group 1 (2 Laps): 1. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:16.103[9]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:16.282[1]; 3. 26-Ryan Godown, 00:16.294[2]; 4. 17-Marcus Dinkins, 00:16.451[10]; 5. 98JS-Rocky Warner, 00:16.562[11]; 6. 43-Keith Flach, 00:16.610[4]; 7. 8H-Max McLaughlin, 00:16.693[6]; 8. 33-Louden Reimert, 00:16.697[8]; 9. 5-Brock Pinkerous, 00:16.851[5]; 10. (DNF) 21M-Bob Mcgannon, 00:16.851[7]; 11. (DNS) 14-CG Morey, 00:16.851
My Place Hotels Qualifying Qualifying Group 2 (2 Laps): 1. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 00:16.344[5]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:16.407[10]; 3. 91-Billy Decker, 00:16.431[7]; 4. 9-Marc Johnson, 00:16.498[4]; 5. 11T-Jeff Taylor, 00:16.609[9]; 6. 32R-Ronnie Davis III, 00:16.758[6]; 7. 18-Ryan Macartney, 00:16.854[2]; 8. 34-Kevin Root, 00:16.941[3]; 9. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 00:17.091[1]; 10. 4S-Peter Schwartzott Jr, 00:17.272[8]
My Place Hotels Qualifying Qualifying Group 3 (2 Laps): 1. 25-Erick Rudolph, 00:16.352[8]; 2. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins, 00:16.383[1]; 3. 7Z-Zachary Payne, 00:16.447[7]; 4. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:16.514[10]; 5. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:16.677[9]; 6. 2L-Jack Lehner, 00:16.677[2]; 7. 37-Paul St Sauveur, 00:16.677[6]; 8. 21-Yan Bussiere, 00:16.677[3]; 9. 151KB-Brian McDonald, 00:16.677[11]; 10. 215-Adam Pierson, 00:16.677[5]; 11. 4-Anthony Perrego, 00:16.919[4]
My Place Hotels Qualifying Qualifying Group 4 (2 Laps): 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:16.238[5]; 2. 88-Mat Williamson, 00:16.254[4]; 3. 19-Tim Fuller, 00:16.502[2]; 4. 20-Brett Hearn, 00:16.527[7]; 5. 12-Darren Smith, 00:16.538[3]; 6. 3-Justin Haers, 00:16.678[6]; 7. 27J-Danny Johnson, 00:16.750[9]; 8. 98T-Tyler Thompson, 00:16.765[1]; 9. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:16.852[8]; 10. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher, 00:16.915[10]
Hot Laps G1 (3 Laps): 1. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:16.773[9]; 2. 43-Keith Flach, 00:16.781[4]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:16.810[1]; 4. 17-Marcus Dinkins, 00:16.910[10]; 5. 8H-Max McLaughlin, 00:16.999[6]; 6. 33-Louden Reimert, 00:17.077[8]; 7. 26-Ryan Godown, 00:17.292[2]; 8. 98JS-Rocky Warner, 00:17.332[11]; 9. 5-Brock Pinkerous, 00:17.955[5]; 10. 21M-Bob Mcgannon, 00:17.955[7]; 11. 14-CG Morey, 00:17.955[3]
Hot Laps G2 (3 Laps): 1. 91-Billy Decker, 00:16.424[7]; 2. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 00:16.426[5]; 3. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:16.530[10]; 4. 11T-Jeff Taylor, 00:16.549[9]; 5. 9-Marc Johnson, 00:16.601[4]; 6. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 00:16.786[1]; 7. 32R-Ronnie Davis III, 00:16.960[6]; 8. 34-Kevin Root, 00:17.019[3]; 9. 18-Ryan Macartney, 00:17.067[2]; 10. 4S-Peter Schwartzott Jr, 00:17.960[8]
Hot Laps G3 (3 Laps): 1. 37M-Mathieu Desjardins, 00:16.191[1]; 2. 4-Anthony Perrego, 00:16.244[4]; 3. 25-Erick Rudolph, 00:16.263[8]; 4. 21-Yan Bussiere, 00:16.347[3]; 5. 2L-Jack Lehner, 00:16.506[2]; 6. 7Z-Zachary Payne, 00:16.518[7]; 7. 215-Adam Pierson, 00:16.684[5]; 8. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:16.724[9]; 9. 37-Paul St Sauveur, 00:16.809[6]; 10. 151KB-Brian McDonald, 00:16.825[11]; 11. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:16.825[10]
Hot Laps G4 (3 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson, 00:16.177[4]; 2. 20-Brett Hearn, 00:16.331[7]; 3. 3-Justin Haers, 00:16.384[6]; 4. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:16.388[5]; 5. 12-Darren Smith, 00:16.399[3]; 6. 27J-Danny Johnson, 00:16.452[9]; 7. 19-Tim Fuller, 00:16.520[2]; 8. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:16.552[8]; 9. 48TOO-Dave Rauscher, 00:16.730[10]; 10. 98T-Tyler Thompson, 00:16.730[1]
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott
