RPW Exclusive: Problems At The Scales Derail Matt Sheppard’s Night At Albany-Saratoga

Column By: DYLAN FRIEBEL / RPW – MALTA, NY – When the Short Track Super Series rolled into the Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Wednesday night, the odds-on favorite had to be defending event winner, Matt Sheppard.

Sheppard gave everyone reason to think he was going to take home the $5,000 first place prize from the moment his car was unloaded. He was fast in hot laps as well as his heat race, starting fifth place starting spot and methodically picking his way through to take the win. It was just what you’d expect from Sheppard.

However that’s where the Waterloo, NY driver’s night took a detour. After the checkered flag, Sheppard went to scales as you are required to do. Only one problem…his care came up light. The fans in the stands didn’t hear about the infraction until the third heat race, via the track’s announcers, and everyone’s ears perked up. They all knew they were now in for a show.

However, Sheppard had a different version of what transpired, other than just being ‘light.’

“It’s unfortunate when you go over to the scales before the races and try to weigh your car and they say they aren’t working,” he said. “That makes it tough to know if you weigh enough or not. We didn’t know we were light till after the heat.”

Sheppard, who races for a profession, always likes to be prepared when he goes to a track to race.

“I feel that it’s shame on you if you show up to a racetrack and you’re light and you don’t drive your car over the scales,” he said. “But, when you try to see if you make weight and they tell you the scales aren’t working, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

However, Short Track Super Series tech officials Eric Kormann and Dave Pace have a different story.

“The scales were working after hot laps and we allowed the guys to come over and see if they had made weight,” both officials commented. “When Matt came over after his heat, he was light. The scales were working. He was just light. If he wanted to know, he should have come after hot laps like Brett Hearn and everyone else did…not after his heat.”

With the setback, Sheppard and the Sweetners Plus team went to work. He had to start scratch for the consolation (11th), but moved to ninth after Bodie Bellinger and Keith Flach loading up. It was still a big hill to climb as they were only taking three to make the feature.

Sheppard, once again, worked his way through the field, picking off cars with the precision we’ve come to know, but he fell one position short.

With a full-paying B-Main on tap for the Short Track Super Series, Sheppard went to work and won it, but decided to start the feature instead.

With the 50-lap main event coming to the track, Matt knew what work he had to do. He picked his way through the field. Using a few timely cautions, he was fifth with 20-to-go and, outside of Marc Johnson, seemed to be the only one who could roll the bottom and pass cars.

With 10 laps to go, you could throw a blanket over the top 5 and Sheppard, once again, showed us why he’s one of the best in the business. He picked off two cars with roughly five to go and set his sights on the battle for the lead between Marc and Ronnie Johnson.

That was as high as he would get though, as Matt brought the 92s home in third.

“We had a good car tonight,” he said. “If wasn’t for the scale mishap, we would of had the car to beat I believe. It shouldn’t of come down to that, but our guys worked very hard and put a good piece under me. I have no reason to believe we couldn’t of passed 10 cars tonight when passed almost 24 of them. We just got there a little too late.”

Despite the scales controversy and everything that put Matt Sheppard behind the eight ball Wednesday night at Albany-Saratoga, he still put on a show for the fans, just like he did in last year’s ‘Stampede At Toga.’