Mat Williamson Captures the 15th Annual Lou Blaney Memorial
By: Pam Baker
7/8/2023……..Marble, PA. Mat Williamson made the tow from Canada, survived a two-hour rain delay for the running of the BRP Modified Tour event for the Lou Blaney Memorial race at Sharon Speedway and captured the feature win and the $2,500 top prize money.
Forty cars entered the pit area for the 15th Annual Lou Blaney Memorial at Sharon Speedway on Saturday night. Some of the greatest Big Block drivers from Canada, New York and Pennsylvania were on hand such as Mat Williamson, Gary Lindberg, Jimmy Phelps, Max McLaughlin and current BRP Modified Tour points leader Eric Rudolph.
Mat Williamson and Garrett Krummert brought the twenty-five-car field to the drop of the green flag with Williamson powering past Krummert on the first lap. Eric Rudolph, who started sixth in the feature had already made his way into third on lap three and was working his way to the front using the bottom side of the speedway.
Rudolph had company though and after a restart for a spinning Will Thomas, III Jimmy Phelps and Max McLaughlin passed both Krummert and Rudoph to take second and third on lap five.
Williamson was holding the pace at the front of the field while Rudolph got back up on the wheel and passed both Phelps and McLaughlin to work his way into second again. Then the battle was on and both Williamson and Rudolph ran side-by- side for several laps with Rudolph taking away the lead on lap twenty-six. A restart on lap twenty-seven found Williamson retake the lead and lead the final eight laps with Rudolph staying right there with him but was not able to regain the lead. Williamson went on to pick up his first Lou Blaney Memorial win and first ever win at Sharon Speedway.
In victory lane Williamson commented, “hats off to the track crew for doing a wonderful job to get the track back to what it was. I don’t think if the rain hadn’t came the race would have been that good. The track was really good, and you could race all over it. It kept me on my toes because I didn’t know where to be. Thankfully he (Rudolph) left me a lane on the top for those restarts and it was great race together. Hopefully we put on a great show for the fans.”
The fans definitely got their monies worth throughout the entire 35-lap event despite the rain delay. Finishing a close second was Eric Rudolph who stretched his lead in the points battle a little over Garrett Krummert. This place went to Max McLaughlin with Jimmy Phelps fourth and Rex King, Jr. fifth.
There were four heat races run and the winners were Phelps, Krummert, Rudolph and King, Jr. There were two B-Mains and those winners were Chad Brachmann and Justin Shea.