RPW Column: What A Difference 24 Hours Makes For Mat Williamson; Hard-Fought Eighth Monday At Lebanon Valley

Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – WEST LEBANON, NY – One night after obliterating the Super DIRTcar Series field at Weedsport Speedway, Mat Williamson struggled to finish eighth in the King of Spring 100 at Lebanon Valley Speedway.

However, it was a very hard-fought eighth place run for the 2019 Series champion.

Williamson made his way into the redraw after scoring a victory in his heat race. He drew lucky #7 and was poised to continue his stranglehold on the series so far in 2023.

Unfortunately, it didn’t play out the way the St. Catherines, ONT driver had hoped.

“We chose the wrong right rear tire compound tonight,” Williamson said. “A better draw may have helped, but we went too hard on tire selection and that hurt us.”

What was the issue for the Buzz Chew team? Did it take too long for the tire to come in and start working or was he unable to get enough heat into it to get it working?

“We were the only one on a 500 compound (X-tra Hard),” he said. “We went off of old notes we had for Lebanon Valley and thought a 500 would be what we needed, like it was in the past.”

For Williamson, that wasn’t the case.

“This just didn’t play into our favor tonight,” he said. “We’ll put this in the memory bank for September and hopefully we can make the right call then.”

This was the first time Williamson had sent the new layout and surface Lebanon Valley put together over the off-season.

Thoughts?

“The track doesn’t really seem that much different to be honest with you,” he said. “The only change I noticed was the flat part on the bottom. However, we couldn’t really run down there tonight.”

Now, Williamson heads back to his weekly stomping grounds for the next two weeks before heading to Albany-Saratoga Speedway for the next Super DIRTcar Series race on June 13th.

However, he’ll also hit the Short Track Super Series event at Outlaw Speedway on June 6th as well as the DIRTcar 358-Modified Series race at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park this coming Sunday evening.

The guy known as “Money Mat” may not have had the night he wanted Monday at Lebanon Valley, but, as they say, there’s always the next race and Mat Williamson is chasing wins all over the northeast.