Sheppard Captures Win; Friesen STSS South Title at Georgetown’s Mid-Atlantic Championships & Pit Notes

The Short Track Super Series and Georgetown Speedway started the afternoon out with Treat or Treating in the pits and then after darkness set-in turned to the business of determining  STSS South Region Champions and Georgetown Point Champions all in the same night at the Mid-Atlantic Championships.

The 44 lap modified feature was led to green by Stewart Friesen and Rick Laubach with Laubach leading the first 20 laps.  Several cautions bunched the field and Friesen took the led off of a restart on lap 21. The story wasn’t so much what the front row starters were doing but more so what was going on in the back of the pack.  Matt Sheppard had a flat on lap 6 and went to the back of the field but a succession of 5 cautions and resulting restarts allowed Sheppard to rip back through the field and on a lap 21 restart Sheppard went from 9^th to 4^th in one lap.  By lap 24 Sheppard was in second place and stalking Friesen until he made the pass for the lead on lap 31.  Despite a rough track that was evident by 13 cautions and cars dropping out of the top 10 on every caution due to attrition; Sheppard proceeded to check out on the field while the remainder of the top 10 battled each other for every position on every lap.  Sheppard took over a two second lead into victory lane for his first ever Georgetown feature win.      

In victory lane Sheppard commented “The car was unreal tonight.  I hated to get the flat tire early but knew we had a really good car. Georgetown has always been a thorn in my side and it was great to get the first win here by coming from the back and also getting the Georgetown monkey off my back.  2020 has been a rough season and not great for us.  Tonight we got win # 20 and now I won’t be grumpy all winter.  This one tonight for Tom Perrego and I will miss him coming in to our trailer.”

The top ten was rounded out with Billy Pauch Jr., Anthony Perrego, Stewart Friesen, Tyler Dipple, Dan Creeden, Rick Laubach, Mike Gular, Ryan Watt and Matt Stangle.

Heat winner were Anthony Perrego, Andy Bachetti, Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard.  Consolation winners were Ryan Watt and Tyler Siri.

STSS South Region Event No. 8 Georgetown Speedway – 10/31/20 Feature Finish (44 laps): 

1. MATT SHEPPARD, 2. Billy Pauch Jr., 3. Anthony Perrego, 4. Stewart Friesen, 5. Tyler Dippel, 6. Danny Creeden, 7. Rick Laubach, 8. Mike Gular, 9. Ryan Watt, 10. Matt Stangle, 11. David Van Horn, 12. J.R. McGinley, 13. Matt Peck, 14. Joseph Watson, 15. Andy Bachetti, 16. Kevin Sockriter, 17. Ryan Krachun, 18. Michael Maresca, 19. Neal Williams, 20. Richie Pratt, Jr., 21. Scott Hitchens, 22. Tyler Siri, 23. Jordan Watson, 24. Brandon Grosso, 25. H.J. Bunting, 26. Jordan Justice, 27. Carson Wright, 28. Danny Bouc, 29. Jimmy Horton.

Did Not Qualify: Ryan Riddle, Clay Tatman, James Hill, Brett Ballard, Skylar Sheriff, Eric Williams, John Willman, Steve Young, Danny Hieber, and Tom Moore Jr.

MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP MODIFIED PIT NOTES

Matt Sheppard won for the first time in his career at Georgetown.  Sheppard had a flat tire on lap 6 and went to the pits and the rear of the field.  By the halfway mark of the race Sheppard was up to 4^th place and just continued to cruise through the field and take the lead on lap 31 and open up a 2 second lead right into victory lane.  Sheppard had opted for the gambler’s fee so his winning was increased from 5,000 to 7,000 for the win.

Stewart Friesen came into the 8^th and final South Region STSS point’s event leading Billy Pauch Jr by only 20 points.  By virtue of Friesen’s 4^th place finish he was able to win the South Region Point’s championship by a mere 10 points over Billy Pauch Jr. for the $10,000 point championship.  Friesen also won the North region point title earlier this year by a mere 2 points over Mike Gular.   Friesen sweeps both the north and south 2020 STSS point championships and is the STSS 2020 Grand Champion.   Matt Sheppard also won both the North and South titles in 2019 to be the first STSS grand champion and is now joined by Stewart Friesen.

The 3rd winner of the night in modified was Billy Pauch Jr. winning the Georgetown modified track championship over 2^nd place Ryan Watt.  Billy Jr. stated “This may be the only thing that my dad hasn’t won is a championship in the state of Delaware so this is really cool to have one up on dad in the state of Delaware.”  This year is full of woulda, shoulda, coulda wins and championships that we should have won but didn’t.”  The STSS South points championship which Pauch missed winning today by a mere 10 points to Stewart Friesen is example of one of the championships that he felt he should have won but just missed by a mere 10 points and ended up in 2^nd place for the STSS South season points.  

Tyler Dipple had a strong 5^th place finish from a 27^th provisional starting position and earned a 544 bonus in honor of Tom Perrego for hard charging forward 22 positions.  In additional Dipple finished 4^th in the point standing of the South Region and 4^th in the point standings in the North Region for a solid season in both regions.

Danny Creeden made his trip from New York worthwhile with a solid 6^th place finish from a 20^th starting position despite a trip to the pits for a flat tire.

Rick Laubach led the first 20 laps but a flat tire on lap 27 sent Laubach to the rear of the field.  Laubach was able to work his way back to a 7^th place finish.  In the heat races Laubach was able to overcome a 9^th place draw and starting position to finish 2^nd and capture a redraw position for the feature.  Laubach had both his #7 big block and 1K open small block on hand but opted for his 1k open small block entry for the open modified 44 lap feature.

Matt Stangle qualified for the feature in the last transfer spot in the consolation.  Stangle managed to work his way through the field to a 10^th place finish from a 26^th starting position for a quality top 10 finish.

Matt Peck jumped in the rarely seen Richie Pratt owned #28 entry.  Peck finished on the lead lap with a 13^th place finish in his first time in a modified entry.

The 3 inches of rain during the week made the track very tricky as it was rough in turn 1 & 2 and perfectly slick in 3 & 4 which presented a challenge to teams as they adjusted their setups to work on the diverse track conditions.  There were 13 cautions for flat tires and various other mechanical failures.

Mike Maresca was running in 5^th place on lap 32 when the rear or driveline broke sending him into Ryan Krachun and to the pits to end his night.  Krachun continued to lap 35 and was running in 5^th when his axle broke and ended his night.

J.R. McGinley’s night ended on lap 5 with broken front suspension while running in the top 10.  McGinley had a 6 hour tow to Georgetown from his hometown of Fairmont City, PA and things started out well for the western PA # 18 entry with a 3^rd place finish in his heat race and a redraw of a 7^th place starting position in the feature only to retire to the pits early.

Danny Bouc had engine troubles in his Craig & Leslie Pondish # 6 entry during hot laps and was able to jump into Matt Stangle’s backup # 6 for the remainder of the event as he was currently 5^th in STSS points.  Bouc was able to qualify for the feature with a 2^nd place finish in last chance consolation # 1.  In the feature Bouc had a driveline failure end his night on lap 6 and his 28^th place finish dropped Bouc to 11^th place in the final STSS South region point’s standings.

Richie Pratt was running strong a top 10 in the # 51 entry when a broken rear ended his nigh on lap 29.

Danny Hieber took a hard end over end tumble down the front straight away during the heat races after contact with another car as they were taking the checkered flag.  Hieber was not injured but the 11 entry was heavily damaged and retired to the pits for the remainder of the event.  Hieber received the $444 Tom Perrego hard luck memorial award.

 Next up for the Short Track Super Series is the inaugural ‘Cajun Swing’ through Louisiana November 11-14 with two nights of racing at Ark-La-Tex Speedway in Vivian, La., (Wednesday, Nov. 11 and Thursday, Nov. 12) and Qualifying Night for the ‘Mods in the Marsh 75’ paying $20,000 to win on Friday, Nov. 13 at Chatham (La.) Speedway followed by the main event on Saturday, Nov. 14.