Mat Williamson Wins 39th Annual Outlaw 200 At Fulton
Story By: DAVE MEDLER / FULTON SPEEDWAY – FULTON, NY – The 39th Annual Outlaw 200 can be described in two short words: Mat Williamson. Scoring his third victory in the prestigious Fulton Speedway event, Williamson had the field at his mercy for the majority of the feature. After slipping by Tim Sears Jr. for the lead early on, Williamson ran away and dominated the remainder of the distance.
2012 Outlaw 200 winner Pat Ward led the opening stages of the grueling event, with Sears hot on his heels. Sears pried under Ward for the top spot on lap 17, with Williamson hot on his heels. Williamson remained glued to the rear bumper of Sears for the next few laps, rolling around the top of Sears for the lead on lap 31. From there, Williamson fired up the afterburners.
The race ran green until lap 74, where Peter Britten stole second from Sears on a restart. Williamson went uncontested until the halfway break, but picked up right where he left off after the 15-minute pause. By lap 125, Williamson had a straightaway over Britten. A set of yellows near the three-quarter mark brought the field back to Williamson, but only momentarily.
Larry Wight was on a mission. While Sears regained second from Britten on lap 151, Wight cracked the top five. After a spirited fight with Britten and Ronnie Davis III, Wight climbed to third on lap 160. A restart on lap 166 allowed Wight to dispose of Sears for the runner-up position. Britten and Davis continued their hectic battle through traffic, while Sears’ great run came to a halt in the infield with 20 laps remaining.
While all this was going on, Williamson had checked out. At the conclusion of 200 fast laps around Fulton Speedway, Williamson flashed under the flagstand over seven seconds ahead of Wight. Davis finished third, his best run in the event, while Britten held strong in fourth. Dalton Slack grabbed fifth from Jimmy Phelps on the final lap, completing the top five.
The Sears family has an illustrious history at the Brewerton and Fulton Speedways. Brett Sears added the most important page of his chapter in the Industrial Tire of CNY Sportsman Shootout 50, claiming the biggest win of his young career. Son of recently retired Big Block standout Tom Sears Jr. and cousin of Tim Sears Jr., Brett Sears started on pole and ran the bottom to perfection on his way to the dominating victory.
Early on, Mike Button was Sears’ primary competition. Button kept his momentum rolling around the top, nearly stealing the lead from Sears on lap 17. However, a couple restarts did not go Button’s way, and Zach Sobotka slipped to second just prior to halfway. Sobotka went to work on Sears, but Sears kept laying down consistent lap times and slowly inched away. Cody Manitta picked his way towards the front in the latter stages of the race, sliding by Sobotka for second with a handful of laps remaining. Despite the mounting pressure, Sears remained rock solid, reaching the checkered flag first for the Industrial Tire of CNY Sportsman Shootout 50 win. Manitta crossed the line in second, with Emmett Waldron, Zachary Buff, and Jacob Nadeau completing the first five.
39th Annual Neivel Precision Plumbing – Tracey Road Modifieds – Outlaw Results (200 Laps): 1. 6-Mat Williamson[5]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[26]; 3. 32R-Ronald Davis III[17]; 4. 21A-Peter Britten[2]; 5. 3RS-Dalton Slack[38]; 6. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[13]; 7. 4-Anthony Perrego[23]; 8. 9S-Matt Sheppard[15]; 9. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[27]; 10. 66X-Carey Terrance[14]; 11. 77Z-Zach Payne[9]; 12. 35-Mike Mahaney[21]; 13. 21C-Brian Calabrese[6]; 14. 49-Billy Dunn[24]; 15. 42P-Pat Ward[1]; 16. 28F-Alan Fink[7]; 17. 12-Darren Smith[31]; 18. 19C-Zach Sobotka[8]; 19. 3-Chris Mackey[34]; 20. 20-Cole Stangle[18]; 21. 16X-Dan Creeden[40]; 22. 28-Matt Smith[12]; 23. 31-Corey Barker[32]; 24. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[10]; 25. 38JR-Jason Parkhurst Jr[37]; 26. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[3]; 27. 23-Brandon Loucks[19]; 28. 91-Felix Roy[11]; 29. 5H-Amy Holland[30]; 30. 7MM-Michael Maresca[4]; 31. 97-Rocky Warner[28]; 32. 31B-Ryan Dolbear[25]; 33. 92-Andrew Buff[35]; 34. 58M-Marshall Hurd[22]; 35. 11C-Matt Caprara[33]; 36. 19-Tim Fuller[29]; 37. 15-Todd Root[36]; 38. 11J-James Sweeting[20]; 39. 20S-David Schilling[16]; 40. 5-Kyle Devendorf[41]; 41. 06J-Jordan Bennett[43]; 42. 18$-Sean Beardsley[42]; 43. 7S-Shaun Shaw[39]
