One night after reclaiming the Super DIRTcar Series points lead, Mat Williamson took another leap toward the 2024 championship Friday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
The St. Catharines, ON driver led all 30-lap to earn his fourth World of Outlaws World Finals victory and extended his points lead to 30 over Matt Sheppard.
“It’s cool to get back to Victory Lane here,” Williamson said. “It’s been a couple of years. Obviously, the draw helped us tonight, but the crew did a good job of giving me a good car, and we had a couple of restarts we had to survive, and those aren’t easy.”
Williamson, the SRI Performance Redraw Bonus winner, led the field into Turns 1 and 2 ahead of Demetrios Drellos on the race’s opening lap. However, his lead was short-lived when the caution came out on Lap 3 for Chris Curtis and Sebastien Gougeon.
When the race resumed, Williamson jumped ahead of Drellos again, with the No. 111 staying within a second of “Money Mat” through the first 10 laps.
But while Drellos was chasing Williamson, Sheppard, the 10-time defending champion, charged forward from his fifth starting spot.
Running fourth on Lap 10, the Waterloo, NY driver powered around the outside of Justin Haers in Turns 1 and 2 to wrestle third away. He didn’t stop there, using a wave of momentum down the backstretch to slide in front of Drellos in Turn 3, taking over second.
Sheppard’s pass for second came as Williamson caught the tail of the field, allowing the No. 9S to rapidly close in on the lead.
As the race reached its halfway point, Sheppard had his best opportunity to pass Williamson, using the inside lane to try and sneak by the 2019 Series champion. But that was as close as Sheppard got under green. Williamson put two lap cars between himself and Sheppard before the caution came out for 2024 Series Rookie of the Year Alex Payne, who stopped in Turn 2 on Lap 22.
Even with two restarts in the race’s final eight laps, Sheppard couldn’t keep pace with Williamson, who cruised to the $10,000 victory—the 31st Super DIRTcar Series triumph of his career.
With the win, Williamson gained four points on Sheppard and said he’s content with the points battle entering Saturday’s finale.
“We’re going into the last race, and we’re contending with [Sheppard],” Williamson said. “It’s pretty sweet. I don’t wish bad luck on anybody, but it obviously makes our week a little easier with the bad luck Matt’s had.
“We came down here, and we knew we had to be really good. We went back to the notebook from 2022.”
Sheppard settled for second, bouncing back from his 28th-place finish on Thursday. Despite the uphill climb he faces on Saturday, Sheppard said he’s happy with his team’s ability to bounce back.
“The guys worked hard,” Sheppard said. “We put another motor in it today, tweaked the setup a bit, and had great speed all night long. We didn’t draw as good a number as [Mat] did, but we got up there and got to him.
“I needed to get by him quick. And I kind of showed him a nose there. It was just a weird part of the race, and not getting by him quick was the end of the deal. You get some cautions, and he gets out in clean air, and it’s pretty tough after that.”
Drellos crossed the line third, earning his second consecutive third-place finish. The Queensbury, NY driver said he expected a different type of surface after crews worked the track prior to the Feature.
“I felt like I had a solid third-place car for the second straight night,” Drellos said. “The top only came in for about three laps for me. And my tire was too far gone by the time I got going.”
Jimmy Phelps finished fourth, and Alex Yankowski finished fifth after starting 14th.
Up Next: The Super DIRTcar Series concludes its season on the final night of the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte on Saturday, Nov. 9. Drivers will battle in a 40-lap Feature paying $15,000-to-win.
Following all three Features, the 2024 champion will be crowned in a celebration in the infield.
TICKETS: bit.ly/2024WorldFinals
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all of the action on DIRTVision, either online or with the DIRTVision app.
World Finals Feature Night 3 (30 Laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[5]; 3. 111-Demetrios Drellos[2]; 4. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[3]; 5. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[14]; 6. 19-Tim Fuller[9]; 7. 26-Ryan Godown[6]; 8. 3-Justin Haers[4]; 9. 02-Jack Lehner[8]; 10. 4*-Anthony Perrego[19]; 11. 91-Felix Roy[13]; 12. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[17]; 13. 27J-Danny Johnson[21]; 14. 21A-Peter Britten[11]; 15. R70-Ryan Arbuthnot[24]; 16. 11T-Jeff Taylor[20]; 17. 28-Michael Trautschold[12]; 18. 12-Darren Smith[7]; 19. 25-Erick Rudolph[16]; 20. 35-Mike Mahaney[27]; 21. 5-Tyler Siri[26]; 22. 99L-Larry Wight[28]; 23. 21C-Brian Calabrese[25]; 24. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[10]; 25. 35C-Chris Curtis[22]; 26. 17-Marcus Dinkins[30]; 27. (DNF) 70A-Alex Payne[23]; 28. (DNF) 27JR-Daniel Johnson[29]; 29. (DNF) 58-Louden Reimert[18]; 30. (DNF) 44G-Sebastien Gougeon[15]
