WEEDSPORT, N.Y. — Mat Williamson surprised himself Sunday night by turning his Super DIRTcar Series season around with a victory at a track where he’s traditionally struggled.
The reigning champion earned his first Super DIRTcar Series win of 2021 at Weedsport Speedway after passing Billy Decker with 15 laps left to win the Heroes Remembered 100. With a last-lap pass on Justin Haers, Stewart Friesen took third place.
Williamson hasn’t hidden from his recent struggles on the tour after notching only one top five in the first four points races of the season.
“We’ve been disappointed with our start,” Williamson noted. “I haven’t had a good year. We struggled in Florida and then had a big win in Pennsylvania. We had passed Stewie [Friesen] and we felt like we were on top. He sets the bar very high. Then we came back up north and got our rear ends handed to us.”
Like the 2021 season, Weedsport has not been particularly kind to Williamson and the Buzz Chew Racing team.
“We’ve had success here in the 358,” Williamson said. “We’ve had some top threes and top fives. But we always struggle here. When we run third in a Series race it’s because we started on the pole and that’s not good.”
But tonight, Williamson reminded himself why he is among the elite drivers in the Super DIRTcar Series.
“Tonight, we passed Stew [Friesen], Matt [Sheppard], Billy [Decker] and Jimmy [Phelps]. Those are four very good cars so we’ll take that any day of the week,” he said.
Billy Decker finished second with Stewart Friesen, Justin Haers and Jimmy Phelps rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (100 Laps): 1. 88W-Mat Williamson [5][$7,500]; 2. 91D-Billy Decker [2][$4,000]; 3. 44F-Stewart Friesen [4][$2,500]; 4. 3H-Justin Haers [6][$1,800]; 5. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [1][$1,600]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight [10][$1,400]; 7. 9S-Matt Sheppard [3][$1,300]; 8. 32CC-Max Mclaughlin [7][$1,200]; 9. 25R-Erick Rudolph [16][$1,100]; 10. 21A-Peter Britten [11][$1,000]; 11. 111D-Demetrios Drellos [14][$800]; 12. 5H-Chris Hile [9][$700]; 13. 27J-Danny Johnson [19][$600]; 14. 2L-Jack Lehner [21][$575]; 15. 32R-Ronnie Davis [15][$550]; 16. 42P-Pat Ward [18][$525]; 17. X-Chad Phelps [23][$500]; 18. 28M-Jordan Mcreadie [25][$500]; 19. 83X-Tim Sears [8][$500]; 20. 33J-Robbie Johnston [17][$500]; 21. 4R-Kevin Root [27][$]; 22. 22W-Brandon Walters [28][$]; 23. 35M-Mike Mahaney [12][$500]; 24. 15R-Todd Root [13][$500]; 25. 84T-Gary Tomkins [22][$500]; 26. 17D-Marcus Dinkins [26][$500]; 27. 20T-Tyler Trump [24][$500]; 28. 19F-Tim Fuller [20][$500