Money Man adds to 2020 earnings with 25K win
Another winning weekend in the northeastern United States, another successful Saturday night on a clay track.
And for the second time in as many weeks, a battle for bigblock bragging rights between two racers from Niagara — Mat Williamson, 30, of St. Catharines and Stewart Friesen, 37, originally from Niagara-onthe-Lake.
Williamson ended his season Saturday night in victory lane after taking the checkered flag in the US$25,000-to-win Eastern States 200 at Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y., northwest of New York City. He also set the pace the week before, with a victory in the US$53,000-to-win Speed Showcase 200 at Port Royal, Pa., northwest of Harrisburg.
Both big-block battles over 200 laps on dirt saw Friesen finishing the feature in second place. Originally from Niagaraon-the-Lake and now living in Sprakers, N.Y., northwest of Albany, Friesen trailed Williamson by 0.21.105 at Port Royal. On Saturday night, the margin of victory was 3.254
Adjustments in Saturday night’s plan were made on the fly, including changing two tires in his first pit stop.
“You like to be in a race car and not have to make decisions. You kind of want to leave it to the crew,” he said in post-race comments to Dirt Track Digest. “But I said to the crew on the radio, ‘Guys, we’re not going to be good enough to win this race the way we are. We have to do something.’”
“We have smart people who kind of played along with the way the race worked out. Here we are.”
Fulton 200 and Fonda 200 are big-money races on the to-do list for the driver nicknamed Money Man.
“They’re both big races. They both pay good money,” Williamson said. “Stew’s going to be really tough to beat (at Fonda) for the next decade or so, but maybe when he retires we will be able to sneak that one out in the end.”
The Eastern States 200 victory, while his second-biggest payday of the year, paled in comparison to the US$100,000 he earned at Orange County Fair Speedway last season as a driver for hire for Jeff Behrent.
“I’m not sure how this year has compared to last year,” he said in an interview. “I haven’t done my end-of-the-year books yet.”
His 16 victories, including nine in Canada, have come in three cars — the No. 3, the No. 6 and No. 88. Williamson didn’t have a favourite ride in 2020.
“The cars are essentially the same.”
The past two weekends “turned everything around” for the full-time driver. Williamson said he needed to win those bigmoney races “to make enough to get through the winter.”
“It’s been a very good year, but without fans a lot of these wins haven’t paid what they usually do.”
Williamson, a metal fabricator at Bicknell Racing Products in St. Catharines during the racing off-season, came into 2020 as the defending Super DIRTcar Series champion.
He had hoped to compete in 110 events, before the pandemic affected racing on both sides of the border.
In all, Williamson competed in 50 races, finishing in the top five in 35 and top 10 in all but seven of his starts.