Mat Williamson Makes It Two for Two at Port Royal with STSS Speed Showcase Win

The Short Track Super Series moved down the road overnight from Selinsgrove to Port Royal for the second leg of the Central PA Takeover weekend.  49 STSS modifieds made the trip to Port Royal for the 3^rd round of the South Region Point Series and another rare afternoon feature.

The 40 lap feature started as an all Friesen and Halmar front row with Jessica Friesen on the pole and her husband Stewart Friesen on the outside pole.  Stewart Friesen took the lead for the first 5 laps while Matt Williamson moved from 8^th to 2^nd in the first 5 laps to set up the battle for first.  Mahaney joined the fray on lap 24 with a pass of Jessica to take 3^rd and as the trio approached lapped traffic on the bottom dominate track then the cat and mouse games began.  On lap 29 Stewart Friesen moved to the middle which opened up the bottom for Williamson who quickly took advantage and the lead on lap 30.  On only the 2^nd caution of the day and the lap 33 restart Mahaney made the pass of Friesen for second place while Williamson asserted his dominate car and sped off to nearly a 3 second margin of victory for his 2^nd Port Royal win in two Port Royal Starts.

From victory lane Mat Williamson stated “He (Stewart Friesen) had the better car but he got into lapped traffic and I ended up with the preferred lane and we got pretty lucky there.  We have been sitting home watching Stewart win a lot of races and he’s certainly one of the best right now but it stinks when we are sitting on the coach and everyone is talking about how good Stew and Matt are and we are just sitting there unappreciated.  I think now that we’ve won a few races we can put our name in with those guys.  It felt like ice out there and I knew I had to stay on the bottom.  We’ll take them any way we can get them.”

2^nd place Mike Mahaney noted “Lapped traffic played to my favor but a caution came out just when I didn’t need it and we finally had a 3 wide run going and was ready to put a show on for the fans or send it into the fence.  It was a good race but locked down in the end.  For 30 laps we had something on top and were making it work.”

3^rd place Stewart Friesen commented “Getting the pole is like the kiss of death for drawing so well.  Williamson rolled the top and snuck by and I just lost my head and got inpatient with the lapped cars.  Congrads to those guys and it was just a tough afternoon track and would like to thank the guys from Port Royal for having us.”   

A strong top ten was rounded out by Mat Williamson, Mike Mahaney, Stewart Friesen, Jessica Friesen, Larry Wight, Tyler Dipple, Matt Stangle, Max McLaughlin, Ryan Godown and Billy Decker in 10^th place.

Short Track Super Series Modified South Region Race No. 3 @ Port Royal Speedway on 3/21/21 Feature Finish (40 laps):

 1.)MAT WILLIAMSON, 2. Mike Mahaney, 3. Stewart Friesen, 4. Jessica Friesen, 5. Larry Wight, 6. Tyler Dippel, 7. Matt Stangle, 8. Max McLaughlin, 9. Ryan Godown, 10. Billy Decker, 11. Craig Von Dohren, 12. Frank Cozze, 13. Erick Rudolph, 14. Billy Pauch Jr., 15. Peter Britten, 16. Michael Maresca, 17. Alex Yankowski, 18. Duane Howard, 19. Dominick Buffalino, 20. Joseph Watson,    21. Matt Sheppard, 22. J.R. Heffner, 23. David Van Horn, 24. Kyle Coffey, 25. John Willman, 26. Ryan Watt, 27. Andy Bachetti, 28. Brandon Grosso, 29. Jimmy Horton, 30. Anthony Perrego, 31. Danny Bouc

Did Not Qualify:

 Dan Creeden, Dillon Groover, Tim Buckwalter, Mike Gular, Joe Judge, Billy Van Pelt, Kailee Dimorier, Marshall Hurd, James Sweeting, Justin Wright, Danny Johnson, Jeff Taylor, Cale Ross, Steve Slater, Jake Dgien, Chad Brachmann, Brandon Hightower, Ryan Riddle.

The Short Track Super Series next stop is at Delaware International Raceway in Delmar, DE for the Diamond State 50 on Tuesday April 27^th.