RPW Column: Again? Another Big Win For Mat Williamson, Tops Eastern States 200 At OCFS

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – It’s been a good month of October for Mat Williamson.

Last weekend, he was triumphant at the 2020 Speed Showcase event at Port Royal, Pa. Saturday, he raced to victory in the 59th running of the Eastern States 200.

Williamson’s second career OCFS Modified win makes him the 33rd different winner of this historic race. He survived a restart with 6 laps to go and finished 3.25 seconds of Stewart Friesen who just nipped Mike Mahaney at the finish.

“We weren’t very good in the beginning,” stated Williamson in Victory Lane. “We decided to take tires on the pitstop and that’s what won us the race.”

After the classic cars of the Batmobile, the Ferraiuolo 73, Will Cagle’s 24 Coupe and the Statewide 3 paced the field, the 4 wide salute followed and then it was time for the Big Blocks to roar one more time at the House Of Power in 2020..

After a first lap caution, Wight got the jump over outside polesitter Max McLaughlin and set up an extended period of green flag racing. Friesen, after losing a spot at the start began to make a charge to the front, finding the high groove to his liking. He passed Sears for 4th on lap 20. By lap 28, he had closed up on Tim Fuller for 3rd. By lap 34, he had caught 2nd place McLaughlin and after several side by side laps, Friesen made the pass on lap 39 and started to close the gap to Wight. By lap 44, Friesen had caught Wight and they had a tremendous race for the lead. Friesen finally cleared Wight for the lead on lap 58 as Williamson moved into the top 5 with a pass of Tyler Dippel.

Friesen pulled away from Wight at first, but Larry was able to close back in and threaten to retake the lead. Mahaney was moving towards the front from his 16th starting spot. By lap 70, he had raced his way into the top 5. After 80+ laps of green, the caution flag flew for Billy Decker with a flat. Under this caution, Wight got a push back to the pits and was done for the evening. All the leaders hit the pits for service. At halfway, it was Friesen leading over Fuller, Dippel and Pat Ward and Williamson.

Lap 114 saw Williamson advancing to 4th and Billy VanInwegen to 5th, dropping Ward to 6th.

Following a restart on lap 121, Williamson moved to 2nd. He patiently reeled Friesen in while Mahaney was closing up towards the top 2. Williamson really started putting the heat on Friesen and by lap 140, they were side by side for the lead. On lap 143, Williamson made the pass which would be the final pass for the lead at OCFS for 2020. Mahaney took 2nd from Friesen on lap 156 and started to close on Williamson.

Caution on lap 164 for Anthony Perrego’s flat tire inspired Friesen to head back to the pits for tires. Giving up the track position, he gambled on taking tires, a strategy that had worked in 2016 when he made a last lap pass of Brett Hearn to take his 200 win. And it almost paid off.

The green flag saw Williamson easily pull away from Mahaney while Friesen was storming through the pack moving into 3rd after a good race with Tim Sears Jr. Fuller’s top 5 run ended on lap 186 as he retired to the pits.

One final caution on lap 194 set up a 6 lap run to the finish. But Williamson was easily up to the task, pulling away from Mahaney and Friesen who had their own race for 2nd. Williamson completed the final 6 circuits without a challenge and collected another huge win at OCFS. Friesen just edged Mahaney at the line with Sears Jr and Dippel finishing 4th and 5th respectively. The 6th through 10th finishers were Jimmy Phelps, Ward, McLaughlin, VanInwegen and Jeff Heotzler. 11th place finisher Tommy Meier was the last car to finish the complete 200 laps.

Was Williamson concerned that Friesen was making a big charge with fresh rubber?

“We thought we were in good shape. We were aware what they did, but we felt that we were okay with what we had.”

Another big race and another big win for Mat Williamson and the Jeff Behrent team. Congratulations.

200 notes…

Three Big Block races races were held prior to the 200 to fill out the field. Andy Bachetti and Peter Britten took the Last Chance races and Marc Johnson won the Last, Last Chance race.

It was a very nice touch to see John Admansky driving the Cagle #24 in the pace laps. Until recently, John owned the 24, it was sold not too long ago. I could easily see how much that John was grateful to once again be back in the car he loved so much. Well done by whoever made this possible for John. Hoping you have great days ahead sir.

It was a very good day for Tim Sears Jr. With not too much OCFS experience, he brought home a 4th place in the 200 and finished 2nd in the Small Block race.

Allison Ricci made her first 200 with a 3rd place finish in her Last Chance race. Allison completed the distance, finishing 21st, 2 laps down.

And so ends the 2020 season of racing at the famed Orange County Fair Speedway. As with just about and type of business, 2020 was certainly a challenge for the racing industry. But there were events that the various tracks around the state put on, sometimes under the most difficult of circumstances. These events gave us something to look forward to after months of pretty much nothing. I am very grateful to the good folks at OCFS for giving us some racing when they could have easily opted not too. In fact all the tracks I made it to this year did an awesome job. It makes me proud to be just a tiny part of this great sport.

See you in 2021.