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Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – FONDA, NY – Since winning the Short Track Super Series race at Port Royal in the middle of March, Matt Sheppard had been held winless in series competition.
Although he’s piled up podium finishes, the wins had eluded him.
That all changed on Wednesday night at the Track of Champions.
Sheppard drove to victory in the Firecracker 50 at Fonda Speedway, a race that had many twists and turns.
And naturally, Sheppard was glad to be back in Victory Lane.
“What a crazy race and turn of events. What a big win, I didn’t want you guys to forget about me,” said the happy winner in Victory Lane.
For a good portion of the 50 lap race, it appeared that Sheppard would have to settle for a lower spot on the podium than #1.
“I fell back on the original drop of the green. Then, I got a good restart and was battling for 3rd,” Sheppard said. “Then I had a bad restart and was back to 5th.”
Mat Williamson took the early lead from Ronnie Johnson. On a restart after 4 complete, Stewart Friesen took control and was comfortably out front when he shredded a tire after 27 laps complete.
The caution for Friesen put Williamson back into the lead with Sheppard now 2nd. And Sheppard was still having mixed feelings about the performance of the 9S.
“Stew looked like the car to beat, but then it was anyone’s race. My car would come and go.”
Sheppard moved to the lead on lap 29, but a quick caution set up a restart which saw Williamson retake the lead.
“When I got by him (Williamson) the first time, I thought we were in pretty good shape. Then the next restart, the thing just didn’t fire off. And he drove by me and I got back by him again.”
Williamson held the lead until 10 to go when Sheppard took the lead again for the final time.
A tangle of cars in the 3rd turn with 6 to go saw Roger Henion Jr. have a series of flips. Heavy damage to the 19jr., but fortunately, Roger was uninjured.
On this restart, Williamson gave it one more great effort to get by Sheppard up top, but Matt was able to put some distance between himself and Mat and went on to the win.
The win was worth $10,000 to Sheppard and it was his 43rd career STSS win.
“Just glad everything worked out for us tonight. Big win for myself and the team and crew. Can’t think of a better way to start the 4th of July weekend.”
For many events this year, Sheppard has been the ‘Hot Lap Hero”. It didn’t transfer into STSS feature wins. But in the one event lately that he wasn’t the fastest in hot laps, it turned into victory for him.
“Maybe not being the Hot Lap Hero was the key tonight,” Sheppard said with a chuckle.
Although it was a 2nd place for Williamson, it was a good points night for him as he is in contention for the STSS championship this year.
“Hopefully, it was a good race for the fans with those restarts. After 3 laps after a restart, I couldn’t do anything. The top would get crumbed up and I was really driving that thing in. Matt would just pull away from me after that,” Williamson said.
It was another good run for Anthony Perrego, who finished 3rd in the Bob Hentschel #4.
“They both had really good cars,” Perrego said. “I feel that when we had a longer green flag run, the car would come back to me. When Stewie got the flat, we were all over Matt. I think it’s a different story for us. But all in all, a good night at Fonda. Being on the podium with these two guys is something to look forward to for the Fonda 200.”
Alex Yankowski finished 4th with Tyler Dippel 5th. Friesen recovered from his flat to finish 6th, Chris Raabe 7th, Marc Johnson 8th, Jessica Friesen 9th and Michael Maresca 10th.
In the Bill Ag Memorial Match Races, Rocky Warner was the winner over Alex Yankowski. Jack Lehner was the leading money winner in the match races, pocketing $1,900 with 3 wins before Alex Yankowski beat him in race 4. Warner took home $1,100 with Yankowski winning $926.
Fonda Speedway is quickly back in action this Saturday as it’s Palmer’s Service Center Hall of Fame Night. It will be all divisions plus Mohawk Valley Vintage Dirt Modifieds – May 25 Modified & Limited Sportsman Features plus pre-race Meet & Greet.
Firecracker 50 Feature (50 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[6]; 2. 3W-Mat Williamson[3]; 3. 4P-Anthony Perrego[4]; 4. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 5. 1D-Tyler Dippel[7]; 6. 44-Stewart Friesen[5]; 7. 01-Chris Raabe[22]; 8. 9J-Marc Johnson[2]; 9. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[17]; 10. 7MM-Michael Maresca[21]; 11. 02-Jack Lehner[13]; 12. 35M-Mike Mahaney[16]; 13. 34-Dave Constantino[19]; 14. 4-Cody Clark[15]; 15. 21-Gary Edwards III[18]; 16. 19JR-Roger Henion Jr[27]; 17. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[1]; 18. 111-Demetrios Drellos[10]; 19. 42-Tucker O’Connor[24]; 20. 24P-Brian Pessolano[20]; 21. 879-Darryl Mitchell[25]; 22. 22W-Brandon Walters[23]; 23. 35B-Francois Bellemare[26]; 24. 28T-Michael Trautschold[14]; 25. 70A-Alex Payne[9]; 26. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[11]; 27. 1-Rocky Warner[12]
Consolation #1 (8 Laps): 1. 7MM-Michael Maresca[1]; 2. 22W-Brandon Walters[2]; 3. 20C-Craig Hanson[5]; 4. 19JR-Roger Henion Jr[6]; 5. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[4]; 6. 21C-Brian Calabrese[3]; 7. 47-Simon Perreault[8]; 8. 76-Jamike Sowle[9]; 9. (DNS) 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr
Consolation #2 (8 Laps): 1. 01-Chris Raabe[1]; 2. 42-Tucker O’Connor[3]; 3. 93-Ryan Odasz[5]; 4. 96-Andy Graves[6]; 5. 879-Darryl Mitchell[2]; 6. 24D-Patrick Dupree[4]; 7. 35B-Francois Bellemare[8]; 8. 27-Jason Reome[7]
Heat #1 (8 Laps): 1. 4P-Anthony Perrego[1]; 2. 70A-Alex Payne[2]; 3. 1D-Tyler Dippel[3]; 4. 02-Jack Lehner[4]; 5. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[6]; 6. 7MM-Michael Maresca[8]; 7. 21C-Brian Calabrese[9]; 8. 20C-Craig Hanson[7]; 9. 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr[10]; 10. 76-Jamike Sowle[5]
Heat #2 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Rocky Warner[1]; 2. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[4]; 3. 111-Demetrios Drellos[3]; 4. 28T-Michael Trautschold[2]; 5. 21-Gary Edwards III[7]; 6. 01-Chris Raabe[5]; 7. 42-Tucker O’Connor[6]; 8. 93-Ryan Odasz[8]; 9. 27-Jason Reome[9]
Heat #3 (8 Laps): 1. 9J-Marc Johnson[1]; 2. 3W-Mat Williamson[3]; 3. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[4]; 4. 4-Cody Clark[2]; 5. 34-Dave Constantino[5]; 6. 22W-Brandon Walters[7]; 7. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[9]; 8. 19JR-Roger Henion Jr[6]; 9. 47-Simon Perreault[8]
Heat #4 (8 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[1]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen[2]; 3. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[3]; 4. 35M-Mike Mahaney[4]; 5. 24P-Brian Pessolano[5]; 6. 879-Darryl Mitchell[7]; 7. 24D-Patrick Dupree[9]; 8. 96-Andy Graves[6]; 9. 35B-Francois Bellemare[8]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 1: 1. 1D-Tyler Dippel, 00:18.115[3]; 2. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:18.190[1]; 3. 4P-Anthony Perrego, 00:18.209[5]; 4. 02-Jack Lehner, 00:18.214[7]; 5. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:18.413[10]; 6. 1Z-Jessica Friesen, 00:18.427[4]; 7. 20C-Craig Hanson, 00:18.600[9]; 8. 7MM-Michael Maresca, 00:18.653[8]; 9. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:19.014[2]; 10. 15M-Daniel Morgiewicz Jr, 00:19.282[6]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 2: 1. 111-Demetrios Drellos, 00:18.138[9]; 2. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:18.372[6]; 3. 1-Rocky Warner, 00:18.384[2]; 4. 97-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:18.425[4]; 5. 01-Chris Raabe, 00:18.445[8]; 6. 42-Tucker O’Connor, 00:18.549[3]; 7. 21-Gary Edwards III, 00:18.582[5]; 8. 93-Ryan Odasz, 00:18.776[7]; 9. 27-Jason Reome, 00:19.164[1]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 3: 1. 3W-Mat Williamson, 00:18.057[9]; 2. 4-Cody Clark, 00:18.187[8]; 3. 9J-Marc Johnson, 00:18.240[6]; 4. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson, 00:18.369[2]; 5. 34-Dave Constantino, 00:18.432[4]; 6. 19JR-Roger Henion Jr, 00:18.946[3]; 7. 22W-Brandon Walters, 00:19.113[1]; 8. 47-Simon Perreault, 00:19.249[7]; 9. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi, 00:19.265[5]
Penske Racing Shocks Hot Lap Group 4: 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.069[4]; 2. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:18.151[2]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:18.397[5]; 4. 35M-Mike Mahaney, 00:18.543[9]; 5. 24P-Brian Pessolano, 00:19.016[7]; 6. 96-Andy Graves, 00:19.198[8]; 7. 879-Darryl Mitchell, 00:19.923[6]; 8. 35B-Francois Bellemare, 00:19.975[3]; 9. 24D-Patrick Dupree, 00:20.019[1]
Bill Ag Match Race
Race #1 (2 Laps): 1. 02-Jack Lehner; 2. 7MM-Michael Maresca[1]
Race #2 (2 Laps): 1. 02-Jack Lehner; 2. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson[1]
Race #3 (2 Laps): 1. 02-Jack Lehner; 2. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[1]
Race #4 (2 Laps): 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski; 2. 02-Jack Lehner[1]
Race #5 (2 Laps): 1. 1-Rocky Warner[1]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[2]