News Director 
Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – FONDA, NY – Matt Sheppard keeps just clicking them off.
After Saturday night he will once again add himself to the list of multi time winners for a crown jewel event in the Northeast.
He’s now a two-time Fonda 200 Champion while joining names such as Richard Petty, Jack Johnson, Brett Hearn and Stewart Friesen as drivers to win it more then once after his dominating win at Fonda Speedway.
For the Savannah, NY Driver it was not a Sunday drive for him to capture the $53,000 win on a brisk September evening. Sheppard who won in 2022 to finally break into record books started third on the field and had the lead before the midway point of the first 100 laps when he got past pole sitter Tyler Dipple after some early yellows.
From there on out the track took rubber and became one lane. If you know anything about racing in rubber and Matt Sheppard leading well it’s Matt Sheppard leading. However by the end before the caution break to work on your car it seemed Sheppard could not pull away in traffic.
Once he hit pit road for the 10 minute period he found out why. His right front tire was almost flat and all four tires needed to be replaced as the mad dash started.
“I don’t really know when it went flat.” Sheppard said. “When I pulled in it was bald and going flat and I couldn’t steer and it was in bad shape.”
After the change of the tire there were a few other changes as well, even a rear gear change with hot gear and gear oil is never fun.
“All we really did was change gears and put four fresh tires on it. I adjusted the shock a little bit to get the thing to steer a little bit better but I am not sure it even helped. The gear definitely helped it. I knew we had a good race car and having to get back to the front was going to be the tough part.”
Sheppard was right on the tough part about getting back to the front, as the second 100 lap started after some major track prep to get the rubber back off the track, he would be restarting fifth with last place starter Marc Johnson assuming command of the race after a few restarts from Chris Curtis on lap 108.
Johnson looked to set a torrid pace in 9J car and motored out to the lead after some yellow flags, while Sheppard was headed in the wrong direction, even falling down to eighth at one point during the chaos of the restarts, letting Stewart Friesen, Mike Mahaney and Jack Lehner get by him.
However Sheppards car all of a sudden with the changes came to life and he started to pick them off one by one like a veteran and one of the best does.
“We got knocked back to eighth on the early part of the second 100. I thought our night was pretty much over and I did not think we had a shot at winning. All of a sudden this thing came to life and we drove to the front of the field, I was a happy camper then.”
On a lap 129 restart Sheppard powered around the outside of Friesen from the outside of row two, then around Danny Varin exiting two to set his sights on Johnson for the race lead and he just hounded him.
For 20 more laps and through some a restart Sheppard hounded the Guilderland, NY driver and on lap 149, Johnson missed the rubber down in turn one and out of turn two he pulled even with the white knight but it was to no use for Marc as he passed him in the short shoot in between turns three and four.
“I don’t know if he (Marc Johnson) slowed down a little bit or if he took front tires at the break and that hurt him a little bit. I just kind of dogged him there and he started dying and we took off a little bit.”
It was not easy from there however as lap traffic would play a role and Jack Lehner was next to stalk Sheppard in lap traffic.
“Traffic was a challenge for sure. You did not really want to try to pass them but you wanted to get by them.”
However despite the struggles Matt Sheppard picked up his Second Fonda 200 victory and etched his name in the record books for the historic event.
“It’s Awesome.” Sheppard Commented on winning the Fonda 200 twice. “It’s a race we have been really good at every year for the last four years. We never finished worse than second but have only won it one time following Stewie across the line. I think we were better than he was for once. We could make some of the moves he is normally able to make and get this thing out front and hold on till the end.”
With this notch in his belt in what is already a hall of fame career for Sheppard, you might not believe there are events or tracks he wants to win at and add to extensive resume but there is and he knows right where he wants to win.
“There’s one place that I have finished second on every configuration. Its Bridgeport Speedway when it was the big 5/8th mile to the 3/8th they had there for a little while to now the new configuration, I want to win there.”
STSS Modified FONDA 200 (200 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 2. 02-Jack Lehner[4]; 3. 9J-Marc Johnson[32]; 4. 4P-Anthony Perrego[12]; 5. 93-Danny Varin[7]; 6. 35M-Mike Mahaney[10]; 7. 21C-Brian Calabrese[6]; 8. 1-Rocky Warner[5]; 9. 1D-Tyler Dippel[1]; 10. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[8]; 11. 76-Jamike Sowle[26]; 12. 35C-Chris Curtis[13]; 13. 24P-Brian Pessolano[22]; 14. 71-Eric Mack[21]; 15. 76M-Ricky Quick[16]; 16. 28T-Michael Trautschold[14]; 17. 35B-Francois Bellemare[25]; 18. 24-Adam McAuliffe[18]; 19. 20C-Craig Hanson[2]; 20. 44-Stewart Friesen[15]; 21. 85-Max McLaughlin[9]; 22. 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi[19]; 23. 16-Aaron Jacobs[24]; 24. 27-Jason Reome[30]; 25. 42-Tucker O’Connor[23]; 26. 97-Bobby Hackel IV[11]; 27. 50-Bill August[28]; 28. 98-Tanner Warner[20]; 29. 3-Jeff Trombley[17]; 30. 1Z-Jessica Friesen[27]; 31. 7J-Dan Santabarbara[29]; 32. (DNS) 22-Kurtis Hohensheldt
Hot Laps: 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:18.098[25]; 2. 1D-Tyler Dippel, 00:18.258[6]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:18.259[8]; 4. 02-Jack Lehner, 00:18.265[14]; 5. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:18.282[33]; 6. 85-Max McLaughlin, 00:18.312[18]; 7. 35C-Chris Curtis, 00:18.371[5]; 8. 1-Rocky Warner, 00:18.388[30]; 9. 28T-Michael Trautschold, 00:18.405[27]; 10. 93-Danny Varin, 00:18.430[29]; 11. 9J-Marc Johnson, 00:18.509[13]; 12. 35M-Mike Mahaney, 00:18.536[16]; 13. 42-Tucker O’Connor, 00:18.566[19]; 14. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:18.635[3]; 15. 4P-Anthony Perrego, 00:18.658[20]; 16. 98-Tanner Warner, 00:18.676[31]; 17. 76M-Ricky Quick, 00:18.716[22]; 18. 35B-Francois Bellemare, 00:18.771[2]; 19. 1Z-Jessica Friesen, 00:18.794[7]; 20. 76-Jamike Sowle, 00:18.801[26]; 21. 24-Adam McAuliffe, 00:19.093[17]; 22. 24P-Brian Pessolano, 00:19.167[21]; 23. 20C-Craig Hanson, 00:19.472[10]; 24. 50-Bill August, 00:19.561[1]; 25. 27-Jason Reome, 00:19.883[23]; 26. 71-Eric Mack, 00:19.947[15]; 27. 97-Bobby Hackel IV, 00:19.947[9]; 28. (DNS) 21P-Luciano (Pep) Corradi; 29. (DNS) 22-Kurtis Hohensheldt; 30. (DNS) 16-Aaron Jacobs; 31. (DNS) 7J-Dan Santabarbara; 32. (DNS) 3-Jeff Trombley; 33. (DNS) 3W-Mat Williamson
