Sheppard Storms from 19th to dominate Modified Short Track Super Series Opener at Georgetown & Pit Notes

The Short Track Super Series opened their 2021 South Region Championship season at Georgetown Speedway with the best near perfect weather conditions in the past five years and record setting car counts with 54 modified and 75 Crate modifieds.

The 49 lap $10,049 to win modified feature was lead for 28 laps by Stewart Friesen who started the race from the pole position.  On lap 29 it was Super Matt Sheppard making an impressive pass for the lead on the high side of the track after coming from a 19^th starting position on the grid.  Sheppard extended his lead only to have lapped traffic bring him back to the field but in the last five laps he pulled away from Friesen and took a comfortable $10,049 win to open up the 2021 STSS season and take the Short Track Super Series points lead.

The top ten was rounded out by Stewart Friesen in second place followed by Mike Mahaney, Tyler Dippel, Anthony Perrego, Mike Maresca, HJ Bunting, Ryan Godown, Brandon Grosso and Erik Rudolph.

The heat races were won by Stewart Friesen, Matt Stangle, Mike Mahaney, JR Heffner and Cale Ross.  The two last chance consolations were won by HJ Bunting and Duane Howard.

In victory lane Matt Sheppard commented “Stuey has been on fire.  Anyone who beats Stuey had a very good night and his guys are definitely on top of their game.  It was kind of strange my car worked in the middle and the top and a lot guys I raced with tonight were better on the bottom.  I could go places were other guys couldn’t and while guys were glued to the bottom I was able to drive around them on the outside.  If you want to be fast at Georgetown you better be able to haul the mail around the top.  Maybe we have finally figured out how to do that.  I couldn’t ask for a better night for the team.”

Stewart Friesen noted “When Matt hits it he hits it out of the park for sure.  We might have missed on the tires.  Matt’s right rear looks in pretty good shape while Mike’s and my right rear tire were pretty smoked.”

Mike Mahaney stated “These two guys (Sheppard & Friesen) are awesome and tough to beat.  If we can race with them maybe we can better and finish one off one of these days.  Matt made the outside groove work while Stuey and I were on the bottom and I think that was the key for Matt.”

Short Track Super Series Melvin Joseph Memorial – Georgetown Speedway Modified Results – Saturday March 13, 2021

1. MATT SHEPPARD, 2. Stewart Friesen, 3. Mike Mahaney, 4. Tyler Dippel, 5. Anthony Perrego, 6. Michael Maresca, 7. H.J. Bunting, 8. Ryan Godown, 9. Brandon Grosso, 10. Erick Rudolph,   11. Max McLaughlin, 12. Danny Bouc, 13. Ryan Watt, 14. Dominick Buffalino, 15. Joseph Watson, 16. Billy Pauch Jr., 17. Tim Buckwalter, 18. Matt Stangle, 19. Rick Laubach, 20. Jordan Watson, 21. Andy Bachetti, 22. Cale Ross, 23. Craig Von Dohren, 24. Demetrios Drellos, 25. Neal Williams, 26. Mike Gular, 27. Larry Wight, 28. Duane Howard, 29. J.R. Heffner, 30. Richie Pratt Jr.

Did Not Qualify: Alex Yankowski, Kevin Sockriter, Rocky Warner, Ryan Krachun, Jimmy Horton, Dan Creeden, Danny Hieber, David Van Horn, John Willman, Marshall Hurd, Carson Wright, Derrick McGrew Jr., Brandon Hightower, Jeff Taylor, Mike Franz, Allison Ricci, Ryan Riddle, David Schilling , Ron Roberts, Jr., Brett Haas, Danny Tyler, Stan Frankenfield, Norman Short, Brad Trice.

PIT NOTES – Big Block Modified – Georgetown Speedway March 13, 2021

Matt Sheppard’s night started the hard way with 9^th starting position in his heat race but managed to move forward 5 positions and finish 4^th in his heat and grab the last transfer spot which put Sheppard in the 19^th starting position in the feature.  Sheppard used both bottom and the top on his way to the front of the field during the feature.

Stewart Friesen and Jo Jo Watson qualified on Friday night by virtue of their quick times during 3 sessions of timed hot laps but would be drawing 11^th and 12^th.  Friesen wanted to improve his re-draw position so he drew for his heat race and got the # 1 starting position for the first heat race which he won and moved him into the first pill draw position where he proceeded to draw the pole position for the feature.

Mike Mahaney had a stellar weekend with a 2^nd on Friday in his spec 358 and a 3^rd on Saturday with his big block behind Sheppard and Friesen.  On Friday night Mahaney got passed in the last turn on the last lap by Friesen.  The only drivers finishing in front of Mahaney all weekend long was Sheppard and Friesen which puts Mahaney in top 3 company with the best of the best with over 50 modifieds on the grounds.  A pretty good neighborhood to be moving into Mr. Mahaney.

Tyler Dipple also had a strong weekend of racing with a 5^th on Friday and a 4^th on Saturday.  Dipple had consistent top 5 runs during 2020 and is continuing his success right into 2021.  Dipple finished 4^th in South region points and 4^th in North region points in 2020.

Long time Delaware driver H J Bunting had solid run in the Blades team #65 scoring a strong 7^th place finish from a 22^nd starting position.

Ryan Godown was another south region driver that was able to break into the top 10 that was filled with the drivers from the North Country.  Godown finished 8^th from a 14^th place starting position.

Brandon Grosso also got off to a good start to the 2021 season with a 9^th place finish and high expectations for his 2021 campaign.  Grosso returns to Port Royal which was the scene of one of his finest runs a few years ago when he nearly beat Ryan Watt in an epic battle with both drivers running hard and high.

Jordan Watson got in a heat race tangle with Rick Laubach and ended up on his lid and being towed back to the pits with a DNF in his heat race.  Watson couldn’t make the call for the last chance consolation but did get the car back on the track in the feature using a provisional starting position and finished 20^th in the feature.  No quit in the gritty home town Delaware team.

It was a tough weekend for Billy Pauch Jr who is usually in contention for win at his second home track and is the defending 2020 Georgetown point champion.  Pauch qualified in the last chance consolation in the 27^th starting position worked his way up to a 16^th place finish in his #96 entry.  On Friday night his family owned #15 entry was in a qualifying position when motor issues ended his night and weekend for their small block entry.  Don’t count Pauch out yet for the STSS championship; the 96 team has a stout STSS motor package that is strong no matter where they go and with the Central PA swing coming up next weekend he’ll have two opportunities to get back into the top of the points chase.

JR Heffner made the trip from New York and won the 4^th heat race from the pole and started the 49 lap feature on the outside pole.  On lap 1 of the feature Heffner had the misfortune of spinning in turn 2 in front of the field and the resulting damage ended his night early.

Matt Stangle continued his great runs with both his small block and big block entries only to have his run of bad racing luck follow him from 2020 to 2021.  Stangle won his heat race and started 3^rd in the feature.  He stayed in the top 10 until a flat tire on lap 45 took him back to an 18^th place finish.  On Friday night in his heat race Stangle had another flat tire DNF while running in the front of the field that put him at the back of the last consolation race were he had a strong 3^rd place finish from a 10^th place starting position and qualified for the feature.   Once the bad luck cloud moves on Stangle is poised to be a driver in the front week in and week out.    

Neal Williams continues to carry his strong outings from the fall of 2020 into his 2021 season opener only to have bad luck and a freak false start incident end his night.  Williams started the weekend running in the top 10 in all three of the timed hot lap sessions on Friday and rolled his strong setup to a 2^nd place finish in his heat race.  Williams ran in the top ten for 45 laps in the feature only to get tangled in a botched restart which put him on the hook with front end damage that ended his night.

The same lap 45 restart chain reaction jingle that ended top 10 runs for Matt Stangle and Neal Williams also ended the night for Demetrios Drellos with a broken front end and a flat tire.  Drellos was also in and around the top ten all night until the botched restart jingle took out Williams, Stangle and Drellos.

A strong contingent of modifieds was on hand at Georgetown with 43 small block entries on Friday and 54 Open modifieds on Saturday.  The DNQ list on Saturday included the likes of Jimmy Horton, Alex Yankowski, Rocky Warner, Dan Creeden, Ryan Krachun, David Van Horn, Allison Ricci, David Schilling and many others.   

The Short Track Super Series modifieds and Crates will visit Selinsgrove Speedway on Saturday March 20^th for “Icebreaker” which is Selinsgrove’s season opener with racing starting at 2:00 PM.