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OSWEGO, N.Y. — Matt Sheppard did “Big Block things” in a Small Block Modified Wednesday night, while Mat Williamson’s path to a third consecutive DIRTcar 358 Modified Salute to the Troops 150 title had an eventful start.
Ninety-eight DIRTcar 358 Modifieds tried to secure one of the available lock-in spots for Friday’s Salute to the Troops 150 during Super DIRT Week 53.
After Time Trials, Matt Sheppard was on “cloud nine,” securing the SRI Performance/Stock Car Steel Pole Award for the 150-lap main event for the first time in his career with a 20.268-second lap. He also accomplished the feat outside of his own equipment, piloting Dave Camara’s 358 modified.
“There’s no better starting spot to be this week,” Sheppard said. “To get the pole with this new qualifying format and everything, it feels really good. Just really happy for this whole team. You know, they took a chance and let me drive this thing this week. Really happy more for them than anybody.”
Alex Payne grabbed the Fratto Curbing Outside Pole Award and joined Matt Janczuk, Anthony Perrego, Jessica Friesen, Billy Dunn, Jimmy Phelps and Matt Stangle as the rest of the top eight drivers to secure a spot in the first four rows.
One noticeable driver who did not take time was two-time and defending Salute to the Troops 150 champion Mat Williamson. He blew an engine during practice and did not have a backup. That created a race against the clock as his dad and crew members raced back to Canada to pick up Williamson’s S&W No. 6 358 Modified – the car he recently dominated the Outlaw 200 with at Fulton Speedway – and try to bring it back in time for him to run a Qualifying Heat.
“The car was sitting at my house with the body off of it,” Williamson said. “We had ran the valves, but the body was still off of it. The tires were there. It was generally ready to go.”
With help from a few friends, his team was able to pick up the car just over the border, saving about another hour of the drive and got the car back in time to get race-ready and through tech just as cars were stagging for the qualifying heats.
Starting last – 24th – in the final heat, Williamson was the star of the night, climbing out of his hole to finish fifth and lock himself into Friday’s main event.
“I just went where they weren’t,” Williamson said. “Wherever the car in front of me went. One time going into (Turn) one, one (car) went high and one went low and that’s when I blew it into the bump and slid the guy that went high. The car ran really good.”
The four qualifying heats started with Jimmy Phelps leading all 20 laps in the first heat, as he targets his second 150 title.
“Yeah, 100 cars and get locked in toward the front is a relief,” Phelps said. “The car feels really good in traffic and seems to race really well. So, that’s got us pretty upbeat going into Friday.”
The second Heat saw Darren Smith out duel Anthony Perrego for the top spot and lock himself into Friday’s feature.
“We made some adjustments after Time Trials there, and I was telling the boys I’ll try to get the best starting position I can, and they said, ‘Just go win it,’ and I said, alright,” Smith said with a chuckle. “It was a little funky in dirty air but once we were in clean air, we were pretty good.”
Billy Dunn and Chris Raabe brought the crowd to their feet in heat three as Dunn ran down Raabe in the closing laps and rocketed around the outside of him on the final corner to pull ahead with the victory. A little bit of a surprise victory for Dunn, as he hadn’t realized his winning move took place on the final lap.
“I honestly didn’t even know it was the last lap,” Dunn said. “I just knew I was catching the leader really quick and found a lane he wasn’t running, so if I did catch him I’d have a good run and luckily it was the last lap.
“The car is great. It took it about half the race to feel like it came in, but the more the track slowed down, I feel like my car didn’t slow down but everyone backed up to me a little bit. We need to make it a little better, but we’re pretty good.”
No matter if it is a Sportsman or a 358 Modified, two-time and defending Super DIRT Week Sportsman champion Matt Janczuk continued to prove he is fast at Oswego Speedway by winning heat four. However, luck played a hand as Sheppard suffered an issue with his engine while leading.
“You never like to get a win when somebody breaks, but we had a really good car,” Janczuk said. “I’m super thankful for all of my guys, it’s just great to be down here.
“I would have never expected this. It’s just a testament to this team and all the work we’ve been doing.”
Drivers also transferring to Friday’s $20,000-to-win Salute to the Troops 150 included Erick Rudolph, Tim Fuller, Ryan Godown, Jordan McCreadie, Mike Mahaney, Larry Wight, Brian Calabrese, Ronnie Davis, Marc Johnson, Raabe, Dalton Slack, Bobby Hackel IV, Jackson Gill, Dave Marcucilli, Alex Yankowski, Chris Curtis, Pat Ward and Zachary Payne.
The rest of the 70-plus drivers will have to race their way in through Friday’s Last Chance Showdowns, which start at 2:30 p.m.
