RPW Exclusive: Tricky Central PA Surface, Short Track Super Series Field Can’t Match Historic Level Matt Sheppard & Stewart Friesen Battle At; Sheppard Wins At BAPS

Column By: RUSTY RHOADES / RPW – NEWBERRYTOWN, PA – Brett Deyo’s Short Track Super Series modified tour boasts some of the deepest driver rosters around on a consistent basis. And his annual reunion-like return to BAPS Motor Speedway, once a modified stronghold but now right in the heart of Pennsylvania Posse 410 sprint car territory, has yet to show the fans anything less than spectacular features filled with multi-lane physicality, slide jobs galore and ever changing track conditions in what’s now their third straight mid-Summer appearance at the facility.

However, as is the case basically anywhere you’ll find them both in attendance, “Super” Matt Sheppard and Stewart Friesen were the absolute best in show once again last night in Newberrytown, and particularly Sheppard’s amazing exploits. He quickly picked his way through the field from the opening green flag, made it to the front ahead of Friesen, only to hand the lead over to Stewart as he pulled off to the pits with a tire issue before the halfway point. But that was just the beginning.

Super Matt barely made it out in time to tag the rear for the next green flag, then proceeded to blast his way up through the field using all lanes on the track, as well as several caution flags which brought everyone back together for him to expedite his charge, and almost inexplicably had the entire field covered in 19 laps when he blew by Friesen’s Halmar 44 to retake the lead on another restart! From that point on he held firm through several more caution.periods, and stayed consistent when Friesen looked to be gaining ground during one of the late race segments, going on to win the 50-lap feature and the huge $10,000 payday in one of the more impressive feats many fans have seen in a long while, even for an all-timer the likes of Sheppard.

“I could kind of float the thing through the corner, and once it would hook up I could just lay it out coming off turn 2 and it had really good forward bite, and that made a big difference” Sheppard commented at his hauler post-race.

I got further into specifics with him about the tire issue that sent him pitside early. “It’s funny, before the issue I saw a mud plug laying up in turn two, I kind of wondered if it was mine. Two laps later I found out when the right rear packed full of mud. It wasn’t even drivable it was vibrating so bad. They got the mud out in time, I told them to have a right rear ready to swap when another caution came out, it did on the next lap and I went back in and we switched it. I’m glad the guys and I stuck with it there, it was just time to move to the front after that.”

This is Matt’s first full-blown attempt at running the South Region of Deyo’s STSS tour for points and revisiting some places not on his track radar for some time, although that hasn’t seemed to hamper the powerhouse pilot. “We’ve been fortunate, the two tracks I haven’t been to in 15 years (BAPS and Delaware Int.), we came out of both with wins!” This York County Nationals win will help extend his points lead in the South Region.

For Friesen, who came to Pennsylvania a few days prior and garnered another top 5 at Pocono in his breakout run for the NASCAR Truck Series title, it still had to be somewhat bittersweet, if only based on someone with his immense talent always striving for Victory Lane. But even more so with this being his second consecutive runner-up performance in this event, having come up a bit short to Erick Rudolph last year. “We had a great race car tonight, but Matt’s just got some serious smoke in that car right now. So we have a little bit of work to do on the power front, but when you have a problem or go to the pits and come all the way through like he did, hats off to Matt and the track guys. It’s cool coming down here in sprint car country too.”

Friesen also touched on the seemingly constant fixture he encounters in Sheppard when arriving to the front of so many dirt modified races, past and present. “Matt sets the bar high, he’s a great mechanic along with an awesome race car driver. We’ve been chasing him the last couple years, now we have our big block program rolling good and were able to beat him a couple times. But he’s top notch, I know he’ll always set the bar high and we’ll do our best to match it, and we’ll have a couple beers together at the banquet at the end of the year either way.”

Likewise, Sheppard was a class act when describing the “rivalry” and constant clean encounters and battles at the front with Friesen over the years. “Stewie’s on top of his game right now, and he’s making us step our game up again because of that. We have tracks where I might run better at or he might run better at and there’s a lot of tracks that we both run really good at. I guess if you’re going to race somebody that much for wins all the time, you gotta give each other a little respect you know, there’s no sense in running each other over and taking each other out night after night.” He added, “I think the fans make it more of a rivalry in terms of thinking we don’t like each other or something, but in reality I think it’s just a a couple of guys that like to race hard and really like to win.”

SUNOCO RACE FUELS/INSINGER PERFORMANCE YORK COUNTY NATIONALS RACE SUMMARY – BAPS MOTOR SPEEDWAY JULY 29, 2018

Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series Fueled By Sunoco Velocita-USA South Region Event No. 4 Modified Feature Finish (50 laps): MATT SHEPPARD ($10,000), Stewart Friesen, Ryan Watt, Ryan Godown, Andy Bachetti, Jeff Strunk, David Van Horn, Craig Von Dohren, Joseph Watson, Billy Pauch Jr., Danny Bouc, Jordan Watson, Duane Howard, Jim Britt, Billy Decker, Jeremy Smith, Frank Cozze, Anthony Perrego, Rick Laubach, Jimmy Horton, Wade Hendrickson, Dan Creeden, Mike Maresca, Mike Gular, Jared Umbenhauer, Brett Kressley, Doug Manmiller.

Did Not Qualify: Kevin Beach, Richie Pratt Jr, Kevin Sockriter, Steve Davis, Brandon Grosso, Brian Hitz, Justin Grim, Ryan Anderson