Matt Sheppard is starting to show why he has been so very good for so very long.
Sheppard scored his second win in as many weeks at Land of Legends Raceway, the final tune-up ahead of the SummerFAST Mini Series that will race at Land of Legends Raceway Aug. 13 while book-ended by Brewerton Speedway (Aug. 12) and Fulton Speedway (Aug. 14).
With three wins, and two coming in the last two starts, Sheppard (487 points) is now fourth overall and 26 points behind weekly leader Mat Williamson (513 points), who has won twice. Alex Payne, with three wins, is second (490, 23 behind), Peter Britten (1 win, 489 points) is third.
Land of Legends Raceway will have one more weekly points night (Aug. 24) for the Modifieds, crowning the track champion the week before honoring all the other weekly divisions on Aug. 31. Modifieds will be on the card Aug. 31 but will not be chasing weekly point rewards.
Sheppard scored a win in the King of the North finale at Autodrome Drummond last month. He was second in Granby to David Hebert, racing a Short Track Super Series 60-lap event. In more action with the STSS, Sheppard started 12th and won the 50-lap main at Mohawk International Raceway (Aug. 6), and backed that up with a win in Cornwall Motor Speedway (Aug. 7), taking $10,055 in the 75-lap feature. With races at Georgetown (Del.), Utica-Rome and Fonda speedways coming up Aug. 27, Sept. 1 and Sept. 12, Sheppard is a thin 21 points behind Stewart Friesen in the STSS North Region Standings and leads the STSS Overall standings by 39 over Friesen.
The winning streak comes full-circle as Sheppard returns to two ovals where he’s won more Super DIRTcar Series features than any other driver. The 10-time Super DIRTcar Series champion has won six SDS events at Brewerton, and eight at Land of Legends Raceway.
He is the two-time and defending SummerFAST champion, and comes into the week with a 27-point edge over current SDS runner-up Mat Williamson. With Sheppard catching fire, good fortunes have not been smiling on Williamson. After five podium showings and a string of wins early in the Super DIRTcar Series season (Weedsport, Albany-Saratoga and Land of Legends), Williamson has finished outside the top five in two of his last three SDS outings, including a rough 23rd at Weedsport that helped Sheppard leapfrog into the point standings lead.
Combined with Sheppard, the two account for the last eight SDS wins at Brewerton; with Williamson winning seven of his last eight starts at Brewerton, including last year’s SummerFAST opener. He levied the win with a thrilling last-lap pass on Sheppard.
Sheppard held Peter Britten at bay to win Saturday night at Land of Legends. Alex Payne, who leads the SDS Rookie of the Year standings, was third ahead of Williamson and Justin Haers. Kasey Coffey tallied a career first win in the Sportsman ranks, winning over Dave Conant Jr. and James Henry. Zach Sobotka was fourth and Matt Guererri took fifth.
Dillon Paddock scored the 305 sprint win over Darryl Ruggles and Lance Dusett. Matt Rotz and Timmy Lotz filled the top five. Jimmy Grant was back in victory lane again, with Mike Welch staring over the hood of his No. 00 and seeing — again — the back of the No. 36. Grant has been nothing short of dominant in his Street Stock program this year, finishing no worse than second and amassing six wins. Marc Minutolo was third ahead of Rick Crego and CJ Guererri. Justin Eldredge picked up his third win in four starts as he is making a late-summer run in the Hobby Stock ranks. Nathan Peckham was second ahead of Tyler Burnell, Marc Minutolo and Eddie Stevens. Kyle Ridley banked his first victory in a full-size car, taking the New Legends Sportsman feature over Chase Spoor.
SATURDAY
At Fulton Speedway, Andrew Buff tallied the Modified win, holding off Larry Wight. The 35-lap main saw some big movers in the feature; Buff won after starting 11th while Wight stormed to the runner-up spot from 20th on the initial grid. Tim Sears Jr. was third ahead of Dave Marcuccilli and Billy Dunn. No driver in the racy feature event started better than 10th. Teddy Clayton powered to a win in the DIRTcar Sportsman 25-lap feature, holding off Cody Manitta, Jimmy Moyer, Brett Sears and Emmett Waldron. Clayton also bagged the make-up feature from June 8, winning over Waldron, Clayton Brewer III, Manitta and Jason Parkhurst. The IMCA STARS Beast of the East Mod Lite 25-lap main went in favor of Kyle Demo, who held off Zack Babcock and Dylan Evans for the win. Joe Isabell was next, with Justin Williams finishing the top five. In all, 30 Mod Lites started the feature. Brandon Barron won the Hobby Stock feature, besting John Pietrowicz after 15 laps of work; Ron Hawker, Aidan Galvin and Adam Hunt earned top fives. Camdin Cook won the Novice Sportsman feature (15 laps) and the make-up event from June 22 went to Cale Gareau.
At Oswego Speedway, Otto Sitterly scored the 75-lap Supermodified victory over Dave Shullick Jr. Shullick charged from 12th to take second ahead of Jeff Abold, to rolled off 11th. Dave Danzer and Mike Ordway earned top five honors. Josh Sokolic won the 350 Supers 25-lapper over Nick Barzee and Talen Hawksby. Brendan Young and Vern LaFave earned top five credits. Shaun Gosselin won the 35-lap Small Block Supers feature from fourth, besting Alex Hoag by one spot. Hoag started fifth. Tony DeStevens was next, followed by Brad Haynes and Rob Wirth.
This event sets the stage for the penultimate event of Oswego’s season, with one final weekly program scheduled for Aug. 17 before the 68th running of the International Classic 200 during Classic Weekend, Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
FRIDAY
Friday night, all local speedway programs were lost to rain carried in by the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby.
Brewerton Speedway, after their rain out on Friday, raced again Monday night as part of the SummerFAST mini-series. The track is back to their regular Friday plans Aug. 16, welcoming all weekly divisions in addition to the 600cc Modifieds and Kids Powerwheel Races. Adult admission is $15, and grandstand gates open at 5:30 p.m. The track has two programs after this week, Aug. 16 and 23, before their points finale the first weekend of September.
First Responders night at Can-Am went down early; the track now has two events left in August ahead of their season-ending two-day program Sept. 6-7. This weekend will be Family Autograph Night, featuring the headline DIRTcar 358 Modifieds, along with DIRTcar Sportsman, 602 Crate Sprint Cars, ThunderCars and Limited Sportsman. Admission gates open at 5 p.m. and adult admission is $15.
Outlaw Speedway dropped their second event in a row due to weather. This Friday, the CRSA Sprints will make up their rained out event, in addition to the regular menu of Modified, Sportsman, Hobby Stock, Street Stock, Four-Cylinder and Youth Four-Cylinder racing. This will be the final points night before the double-point Championship night at Outlaw; the track is scheduled to be off on Aug. 23. Grandstands open at 5:30 p.m., and adult admission is $20.
Utica-Rome was affected by a pair of intense weather patterns, sitting on the fringe of the tornado that struck Rome a few weeks back before Tropical Storm Debby found the half-mile oval. Utica-Rome will move their racing to Saturday this week, as scheduled, hosting the $5,000-to-win Cole Cup Aug. 17. Stewart Friesen won the lone sprint car feature contest at Utica-Rome this year, taking the July 4 Bill Shea Memorial. That will also be the finale for the Thunder on the Thruway Series, offering $4,000 to the Modified feature winner. The Crate Sportsman Feature will pay $1,500 to win, and the Pro Stocks will chase a $1,000 winner’s prize. Adult admission is $25, and gates are scheduled to open at 4 p.m..
THURSDAY
Erick Rudolph won the $4,000-to-win Big Block/Small Block event at Genesee Speedway, the second and final visit of 2024 for the big/small block competitors. Phil Vigneri was second ahead of Andrew Smith. Byron Dewitt won the Street Stock 20-lap main. Paige Gayton scored a win in the Youth Four-Cylinder feature. Zain Harvey took the RUSH Pro Mod 20-lapper, and Phil Vigneri won the 20-lap Sportsman feature. James Gayton took the checkers in the four-cylinder mini stock feature (15 laps).
Genesee Speedway, in Batavia, is on the Genesee County Fairgrounds. They did not race Aug. 10, and their schedule goes all the way to the end of September. Racing is scheduled for every Saturday the rest of the month, on Sept. 7 and Championship night is set for Sept. 21. A break is built in on Sept. 14, with Topless Weekend caping the season Sept. 27-28.
Matt Sheppard is starting to show why he has been so very good for so very long.
Sheppard scored his second win in as many weeks at Land of Legends Raceway, the final tune-up ahead of the SummerFAST Mini Series that will race at Land of Legends Raceway Aug. 13 while book-ended by Brewerton Speedway (Aug. 12) and Fulton Speedway (Aug. 14).
With three wins, and two coming in the last two starts, Sheppard (487 points) is now fourth overall and 26 points behind weekly leader Mat Williamson (513 points), who has won twice. Alex Payne, with three wins, is second (490, 23 behind), Peter Britten (1 win, 489 points) is third.
Land of Legends Raceway will have one more weekly points night (Aug. 24) for the Modifieds, crowning the track champion the week before honoring all the other weekly divisions on Aug. 31. Modifieds will be on the card Aug. 31 but will not be chasing weekly point rewards.
Sheppard scored a win in the King of the North finale at Autodrome Drummond last month. He was second in Granby to David Hebert, racing a Short Track Super Series 60-lap event. In more action with the STSS, Sheppard started 12th and won the 50-lap main at Mohawk International Raceway (Aug. 6), and backed that up with a win in Cornwall Motor Speedway (Aug. 7), taking $10,055 in the 75-lap feature. With races at Georgetown (Del.), Utica-Rome and Fonda speedways coming up Aug. 27, Sept. 1 and Sept. 12, Sheppard is a thin 21 points behind Stewart Friesen in the STSS North Region Standings and leads the STSS Overall standings by 39 over Friesen.
The winning streak comes full-circle as Sheppard returns to two ovals where he’s won more Super DIRTcar Series features than any other driver. The 10-time Super DIRTcar Series champion has won six SDS events at Brewerton, and eight at Land of Legends Raceway.
He is the two-time and defending SummerFAST champion, and comes into the week with a 27-point edge over current SDS runner-up Mat Williamson. With Sheppard catching fire, good fortunes have not been smiling on Williamson. After five podium showings and a string of wins early in the Super DIRTcar Series season (Weedsport, Albany-Saratoga and Land of Legends), Williamson has finished outside the top five in two of his last three SDS outings, including a rough 23rd at Weedsport that helped Sheppard leapfrog into the point standings lead.
Combined with Sheppard, the two account for the last eight SDS wins at Brewerton; with Williamson winning seven of his last eight starts at Brewerton, including last year’s SummerFAST opener. He levied the win with a thrilling last-lap pass on Sheppard.
Sheppard held Peter Britten at bay to win Saturday night at Land of Legends. Alex Payne, who leads the SDS Rookie of the Year standings, was third ahead of Williamson and Justin Haers. Kasey Coffey tallied a career first win in the Sportsman ranks, winning over Dave Conant Jr. and James Henry. Zach Sobotka was fourth and Matt Guererri took fifth.
Dillon Paddock scored the 305 sprint win over Darryl Ruggles and Lance Dusett. Matt Rotz and Timmy Lotz filled the top five. Jimmy Grant was back in victory lane again, with Mike Welch staring over the hood of his No. 00 and seeing — again — the back of the No. 36. Grant has been nothing short of dominant in his Street Stock program this year, finishing no worse than second and amassing six wins. Marc Minutolo was third ahead of Rick Crego and CJ Guererri. Justin Eldredge picked up his third win in four starts as he is making a late-summer run in the Hobby Stock ranks. Nathan Peckham was second ahead of Tyler Burnell, Marc Minutolo and Eddie Stevens. Kyle Ridley banked his first victory in a full-size car, taking the New Legends Sportsman feature over Chase Spoor.
SATURDAY
At Fulton Speedway, Andrew Buff tallied the Modified win, holding off Larry Wight. The 35-lap main saw some big movers in the feature; Buff won after starting 11th while Wight stormed to the runner-up spot from 20th on the initial grid. Tim Sears Jr. was third ahead of Dave Marcuccilli and Billy Dunn. No driver in the racy feature event started better than 10th. Teddy Clayton powered to a win in the DIRTcar Sportsman 25-lap feature, holding off Cody Manitta, Jimmy Moyer, Brett Sears and Emmett Waldron. Clayton also bagged the make-up feature from June 8, winning over Waldron, Clayton Brewer III, Manitta and Jason Parkhurst. The IMCA STARS Beast of the East Mod Lite 25-lap main went in favor of Kyle Demo, who held off Zack Babcock and Dylan Evans for the win. Joe Isabell was next, with Justin Williams finishing the top five. In all, 30 Mod Lites started the feature. Brandon Barron won the Hobby Stock feature, besting John Pietrowicz after 15 laps of work; Ron Hawker, Aidan Galvin and Adam Hunt earned top fives. Camdin Cook won the Novice Sportsman feature (15 laps) and the make-up event from June 22 went to Cale Gareau.
At Oswego Speedway, Otto Sitterly scored the 75-lap Supermodified victory over Dave Shullick Jr. Shullick charged from 12th to take second ahead of Jeff Abold, to rolled off 11th. Dave Danzer and Mike Ordway earned top five honors. Josh Sokolic won the 350 Supers 25-lapper over Nick Barzee and Talen Hawksby. Brendan Young and Vern LaFave earned top five credits. Shaun Gosselin won the 35-lap Small Block Supers feature from fourth, besting Alex Hoag by one spot. Hoag started fifth. Tony DeStevens was next, followed by Brad Haynes and Rob Wirth.
This event sets the stage for the penultimate event of Oswego’s season, with one final weekly program scheduled for Aug. 17 before the 68th running of the International Classic 200 during Classic Weekend, Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
FRIDAY
Friday night, all local speedway programs were lost to rain carried in by the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby.
Brewerton Speedway, after their rain out on Friday, raced again Monday night as part of the SummerFAST mini-series. The track is back to their regular Friday plans Aug. 16, welcoming all weekly divisions in addition to the 600cc Modifieds and Kids Powerwheel Races. Adult admission is $15, and grandstand gates open at 5:30 p.m. The track has two programs after this week, Aug. 16 and 23, before their points finale the first weekend of September.
First Responders night at Can-Am went down early; the track now has two events left in August ahead of their season-ending two-day program Sept. 6-7. This weekend will be Family Autograph Night, featuring the headline DIRTcar 358 Modifieds, along with DIRTcar Sportsman, 602 Crate Sprint Cars, ThunderCars and Limited Sportsman. Admission gates open at 5 p.m. and adult admission is $15.
Outlaw Speedway dropped their second event in a row due to weather. This Friday, the CRSA Sprints will make up their rained out event, in addition to the regular menu of Modified, Sportsman, Hobby Stock, Street Stock, Four-Cylinder and Youth Four-Cylinder racing. This will be the final points night before the double-point Championship night at Outlaw; the track is scheduled to be off on Aug. 23. Grandstands open at 5:30 p.m., and adult admission is $20.
Utica-Rome was affected by a pair of intense weather patterns, sitting on the fringe of the tornado that struck Rome a few weeks back before Tropical Storm Debby found the half-mile oval. Utica-Rome will move their racing to Saturday this week, as scheduled, hosting the $5,000-to-win Cole Cup Aug. 17. Stewart Friesen won the lone sprint car feature contest at Utica-Rome this year, taking the July 4 Bill Shea Memorial. That will also be the finale for the Thunder on the Thruway Series, offering $4,000 to the Modified feature winner. The Crate Sportsman Feature will pay $1,500 to win, and the Pro Stocks will chase a $1,000 winner’s prize. Adult admission is $25, and gates are scheduled to open at 4 p.m..
THURSDAY
Erick Rudolph won the $4,000-to-win Big Block/Small Block event at Genesee Speedway, the second and final visit of 2024 for the big/small block competitors. Phil Vigneri was second ahead of Andrew Smith. Byron Dewitt won the Street Stock 20-lap main. Paige Gayton scored a win in the Youth Four-Cylinder feature. Zain Harvey took the RUSH Pro Mod 20-lapper, and Phil Vigneri won the 20-lap Sportsman feature. James Gayton took the checkers in the four-cylinder mini stock feature (15 laps).
Genesee Speedway, in Batavia, is on the Genesee County Fairgrounds. They did not race Aug. 10, and their schedule goes all the way to the end of September. Racing is scheduled for every Saturday the rest of the month, on Sept. 7 and Championship night is set for Sept. 21. A break is built in on Sept. 14, with Topless Weekend caping the season Sept. 27-28.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2024/08/13/image-98d73ac8-bdc0-4f99-9c8a-eedb4ca417b5-85-2560-1440.jpeg?w=75&resize=75,75&ssl=1 "Chris Woakes: England withdraw star from remainder of The Hundred season over fitness fears following Ben Stokes injury")
