HOGANSBURG, N.Y. — Mat Williamson made a daring race-winning pass overtaking Billy Dunn and Matt Sheppard to win Saturday’s Super DIRTcar Series feature at Mohawk Int’l Raceway.
Williamson banked $10,000 for his second series victory in as many nights. He also earned a guaranteed start in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 at NAPA Super DIRT Week XLVIII.
Dunn maintained second and Sheppard settled for third.
Demetrios Drellos, in his black and white No. 111, brought the field to the green flag alongside Erick Rudolph. Drellos led the early stages but slipped up and over the cushion allowing Billy Dunn to inherit the lead. Dunn, Sheppard, and Williamson were locked in a battle when a lapped car forced the leaders to change their racing lines. Suddenly the No. 88 drove high and whipped by Dunn and Sheppard for the lead.
“We’ve got a really good car. It was the same thing as last night,” Williamson said. “We were fortunate with the starting position [fourth both nights]. I dropped back there at the start and I was like, “Man if we don’t get up there before it rubbers we’ll be in trouble.” I think I was back as far as eighth and had to come back up. I made a Bonzai move going into three and four to get around Billy [Dunn]. With the rubber down, it made it challenging at the end. Fortunately, we were up front.”
At the halfway point, Williamson took the No. 88 around the outside for a stunning pass on then-leader Dunn.
“It was a Bonzai move to get around him and he got checked up by a lapped car. He’s great to race with and I’m surprised he didn’t give me any shots in the bumper at the end,” Williamson said with a chuckle.
Dunn had a strong night in his Graham Racing machine.
“This Graham Racing car was really good,” Dunn said. “We made some pretty big changes after the heat race. We got it dialed in so we could drive to the front before it rubbered.”
Sheppard showed off once again why he is a champion. The No. 9s is always there at the end.
“We didn’t get a very good start and dropped back a little bit. We passed a lot of cars and got up here with the leaders,” noted Sheppard.
The finish:
Feature (100 Laps) 1. 88-Mat Williamson [4][$10,000]; 2. 49-Billy Dunn [7][$5,000]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard [8][$2,500]; 4. 25-Erick Rudolph [2][$1,800]; 5. 124-David Hebert [9][$1,600]; 6. 19-Tim Fuller [10][$1,400]; 7. 99L-Larry Wight [6][$1,300]; 8. 91-Billy Decker [13][$1,200]; 9. 31-Lance Willix [14][$1,100]; 10. 111-Demetrios Drellos [1][$1,000]; 11. 35-Mike Mahaney [12][$800]; 12. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [11][$700]; 13. 22C-Mario Clair [18][$600]; 14. 26-Ryan Godown [5][$575]; 15. 21A-Peter Britten [15][$550]; 16. 18J-Louis Jackson [24][$525]; 17. 42P-Pat Ward [17][$500]; 18. 27J-Danny Johnson [20][$500]; 19. 66X-Carey Terrance [16][$500]; 20. R2-Rusty Smith [25][$500]; 21. 17-Marcus Dinkins [27][$500]; 22. 2L-Jack Lehner [21][$500]; 23. 63d-Domonic Dufault [23][$500]; 24. R70-Ryan Arbuthnot [3][$500]; 25. 23m-Mike Stacey [19][$500]; 26. 96S-Paul St.Sauveur [26][$500]; 27. 23-Cameron Black [22][$500]