{"id":14209,"date":"2023-08-23T02:20:32","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T06:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/superdirtcarseries.com\/?p=14209"},"modified":"2023-08-23T02:37:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T06:37:05","slug":"right-at-home-erick-rudolphhh-uses-home-field-advantage-to-score-series-win-at-ransomville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/superdirtcarseries.com\/recap\/right-at-home-erick-rudolphhh-uses-home-field-advantage-to-score-series-win-at-ransomville\/","title":{"rendered":"RIGHT AT HOME: Erick Rudolph uses home field advantage to score Series win at Ransomville"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rudolph passes Matt Sheppard for the lead on the way to <\/span>1<\/span>0th<\/span> career Series win<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Erick Rudolph looked right at home Tuesday night at Ransomville Speedway as he cruised to his second Super DIRTcar Series victory of the season in front of his home fans.<\/p>\n To start, the Ransomville, NY native joined SRI\/Stock Car Steel Performance pole winner Jimmy Phelps on the front row. As the green flag dropped, nine-time and defending Series champion Matt Sheppard shot up two positions to second from fourth, making an aggressive play for the lead.<\/p>\n Rudolph on the other hand played it safe to start off the 75-lap matchup, staying in third place for the first 24 laps.<\/p>\n With one third of the race completed, and Sheppard in the lead after passing Phelps on the inside on the first of many restarts, Rudolph gradually and incrementally began to make a move. He maneuvered passed Phelps, dropping the pole sitter back into third place. He stayed patient, not forcing his #25R machine into performing, and steadily follow the leader.<\/p>\n As the front runners passed the half-way point and approached the final third of the matchup, tire durability became a contributing factor in determining the end result. Sheppard began to lose steam and Rudolph was ready for the challenge, inching closer and closer to the #9s. Rudolph saw the opening and passed the Waterloo, NY driver on the inside around Turn 1 and 2, moving into the lead on Lap 50.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first bit we were kind of settled in for third,\u201d Rudolph said. \u201cI knew with the package we had; we might be getting stronger at the end. I got patient. His car seemed like it might have been fading a little bit or mine was coming on. Either way, we were able to close in on him and got by him in lapped traffic. After that we were just focused on trying to run a smooth race.\u201d<\/p>\n Running a smooth race was exactly how he finished, driving through lapped traffic with no problem, seeing his lead increase as they neared the finish line. Rudolph crossed the finish line first, capturing his second Series victory in less than a month. His last victory came at Autodrome Drummond on July 31. His Ransomville win is his first with the Series at the track and 10th career Series victory.<\/p>\n \u201cI was able to keep running my line (after passing Sheppard) and just picked off lapped cars,putting cars between me and him,\u201d Rudolph said. \u201cWe\u2019ve ran (Ransomville Speedway) a handful of times this year, so we had a familiarity with the track surface and how races are normally run here. I\u2019m sure it played a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheppard held on to finish in second place, his sixth runner-up finish this season during his campaign for a historic 10th Series title. He attributed his loss of speed in the second half of the race to setup decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went with a little bit of a softer tire than he did,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cIt got us the lead, but it just didn\u2019t hold on. Erick (Rudolph) was very good. He drove by us and drove away at the end. It\u2019s one of his home tracks and he\u2019s won a lot of races here. Congrats to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Defending Ransomville Speedway track champion and current track points leader Mat Williamson was also busy charging his way through the field after starting in eighth place. The St. Catharines, ON driver was the winner during last year\u2019s Series visit and aimed to repeat again this time. But with a handful of mid-race cautions and mechanical issues, he settled for a third-place podium finish.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were really good on the original start,\u201d Williamson said. \u00a0\u201cI drove down into Turn 3, got up to sixth from eighth, and then the bottom of the right-side frame railed out and I just started hopping up into the wall. I couldn\u2019t really control anything. It was a good run, considering. We went with a harder tire. It just seemed like all the restarts in the middle of the race killed us. There\u2019s things I probably would have done differently, but third isn\u2019t bad and we\u2019re not going to hang our heads about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam Pierson finished in fourth place \u2013\u00a0his second top five of the year \u2013 and Tim Sears Jr. finished in fifth for his third top-five finish of the season. Nineteen-year-old Rookie of the Year frontrunner Felix Roy scored his second top-10 finish in a row.<\/p>\n UP NEXT:<\/span><\/strong> The Super DIRTcar Series Big Blocks travel to Lebanon Valley on Saturday, Sept. 2, for Mr. DIRT Track USA.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Summer Nationals <\/span>Results:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n 1. 25R-Erick Rudolph[2]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[4]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson[8]; 4. 215-Adam Pierson[3]; 5. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[13]; 6. 35-Mike Mahaney[6]; 7. 37S-Gary Lindberg[25]; 8. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[1]; 9. 91-Felix Roy[14]; 10. 27J-Danny Johnson[10]; 11. 42-Pete Bicknell[26]; 12. 5H-Chris Hile[19]; 13. 54-Steve Bernard[27]; 14. 2-Jack Lehner[5]; 15. 3RS-Dalton Slack[12]; 16. 8H-Max McLaughlin[20]; 17. 12-Darren Smith[11]; 18. 14-CG Morey[22]; 19. 99L-Larry Wight[17]; 20. 18R-Brad Rouse[23]; 21. 17-Marcus Dinkins[15]; 22. 11N-Ricky Newton[21]; 23. (DNF) 70A-Alex Payne[16]; 24. (DNF) 22-Noah Walker[7]; 25. (DNF) 3-Chad Brachmann[9]; 26. (DNF) 1-Andrew Smith[18]; 27. (DNF) 678-John Smith[24]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rudolph passes Matt Sheppard for the lead on the way to 10th career Series win Erick Rudolph looked right at home Tuesday night at Ransomville Speedway as he cruised to his second Super DIRTcar Series victory of the season in front of his home fans. To start, the Ransomville, NY native joined SRI\/Stock Car Steel … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":14217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,650],"tags":[902,665,98,828,129,131,162,737,826],"class_list":["post-14209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recap","category-super-dirt-car-series","tag-902","tag-adam-pierson","tag-erick-rudolph","tag-felix-roy","tag-mat-williamson","tag-matt-sheppard","tag-ransomville-speedway","tag-summer-nationals","tag-tim-sears-jr-2","has-post-video"],"yoast_head":"\n