Matt Sheppard's Official Web Site

Sheppard wins #5 at Land of Legends in 2009

Super Matt” Matt Sheppard treated fans to an exhilarating run in Saturday night’s Big Block Modifieds feature as the Xtreme Lubricants sponsored #9s of Sheppard fought off a 16th place start to claim yet another feature win here at Canandaigua Speedway.

Within five laps of the DC Motorsports 35 lap feature Sheppard advanced an astounding 11 spots to break into the top five with Shannon Whaley aboard the #44 leading the 19 car field. As Whaley and Charlie Donk, currently running in second, separated themselves from the field Sheppard dispensed of Eldon Payne and Chad Homan to assume the number three spot.

By lap 14, the trio would spar for top positioning with Sheppard coming out on top as Donk and Whaley fell in line. Five circuits later, Gary Tomkins aboard the Rochester American #84 found his sweet spot on the high side cruising around both Donk and Whaley to now end up on the heels of Sheppard.

As the pair weaved in and out of traffic Tomkins began chopping down Sheppard’s lead with every lap’s completion. In the feature’s remaining five laps, Sheppard’s 1.289 second lead was cut in half by Tomkins as he appeared to only get faster in turns three and four. However, the current point’s leader Sheppard maintained his line around the half-miler cruising in to victory lane once more. Top Five: Matt Sheppard, Gary Tomkins, Steve Paine, Charlie Donk, and Chad Homan

Big Block Modifieds – (1) Matt Sheppard, (2) Gary Tomkins, (3) Steve Paine, (4) Charlie Donk, (5) Chad Homan, (6) Justin Hears, (7) Jeff Brownell Jr, (8) Dave Rauscher, (9) Shannon Whaley, (10) Eldon Payne Jr, (11) Paul Habeck, (12) Del Rougeux Jr, (13) Paul Guerierri, (14) Rob Bellinger, (15) Rich Rutski, (16) Danny Johnson, (17) Brian Swarthout, (18) Derrick Podsiadlo, (19) Don Slover

Sheppard Takes Show To the High Banks To Score Victory At The Valley

West Lebanon, NY — June 6, 2009 – By Tom Skibinski, Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series PR Direct

‘Super Matt’ Sheppard continued his winning ways Saturday night at Lebanon Valley Speedway, leading flag-to-flag to score his first Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series victory of the season in the headline Abele Tractor & Greylock Federal Credit Union 100 for Big-Block Modifieds.
With track points leader Andy Bachetti in quest of his second straight Advance Series win on the high banks, Sheppard staved off every challenge from the Massachusetts favorite over the final 30 laps to capture his first tour triumph at the valley of speed and earn the $6,000 top prize.
“If it looked like I was comfortable out there, I was anything but after Andy got alongside me a couple times,” remarked Sheppard, 26, after posting his sixth career series win at a fifth different track. “Andy had a better car than me and I could see him under me at the end. I was struggling with some brake issues and I was throwing everything I could at it just trying to hold on.”
After crashing out and finishing dead-last (30th) in the ’09 Advance Series opener at Big Diamond Raceway in April, Sheppard vaulted into second in the point standings behind only third-place finisher Brett Hearn and Central New York standout Jimmy Phelps. Rounding out the top-five at in the Saturday showdown were Lebanon Valley locals Brian Berger and Mark Flach Jr.
Filling up the top-10 were Donnie Corellis, Phelps, Guy Sheldon, Dale Planck and Michael Storms, while Justin Haers climbed to 12th one to garner the Bert/KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award after improving from 25th spot.
“The problem here is when you try to go fast you actually end up getting around slower. And sometimes when you think you’re going slow you turn laps even quicker. Most of the time I ran about three-quarters speed, the rest of the way was as fast as I could make it,” noted Sheppard, who now tops the entire DIRTcar Northeast Modified circuit with seven feature wins, already just one checkered flag shy of matching his single-season best of eight Big-Block victories logged in 2007.
A strong field of 42 racers signed in the first Saturday of the month, requiring four heat races and a pair of consolation rounds to create the 30-car starting grid. Despite time trialing 11th fastest overall, Sheppard was the quickest in his group for the second heat yet settled for a runner-up finish behind Capital District veteran Donnie Ackner. However, luck of the draw put him on the pole for the 100-lap finale while Ackner selected 11th; first time Integra Shocks Fast Time award winner Keith Flach was even less fortunate as the third-generation driver from Ravena, New York lined up outside row six after drawing the highest (12th) position from those locked into the customary pre-race draw.
At the drop of the initial green flag, Sheppard not only put the JB Motorsports no. 9s Xtreme Lubricants-Seneca Auto Sales/Bicknell out front, the Waterloo, New York speedster opened up a six car-length advantage after just a half-mile. Front row partner Berger and Bachetti teammate Steve Hough jockeyed for second ahead of Hearn and Hector Stratton in the early stages, and with just five laps complete all-time Valley winner Kenny Tremont was the first casualty as recurring motor problems sidelined him for the remainder of the night.
Sheppard continued to set a blistering pace, finally reaching traffic on lap 16. Hearn was hoping to gain ground, ducking under third-place runner Hough between turns three and four on lap 13 and following a similar path low in the second corner to overtake Berger at the same time eighth-place starter Bachetti cracked the front-five. Forced to qualifier through the consolation round, defending Hoosier Tire-VP Racing Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Champion Billy Decker moved from 22nd to 13th through 20 laps as ‘Super Matt’ extended his advantage to three-quarters of a straightaway.
The leaders continued to weave their way around the West Lebanon oval, finally slowing for the first time on lap 45 when Hough slapped the outside wall high in turns three-four. With Sheppard’s comfortable 3.0-second margin suddenly evaporated, Hearn crept up to his bumper under caution and the restart four laps later included Bachetti, Berger and Mark Flach to set up the second half run.
Back under green, it took Bachetti until lap 67 to wrestle second spot from Hearn yet only a half-dozen more circuits to reel in the leader. Sheppard was forced to hit the binders on lap 74 when a two-wide battle between Ackner and Ryan Phelps directly in front stopped his momentum and allowed Bachetti to dramatically close the gap.
Caution lights flashed for the second and final time on lap 79 when the LDL Racing no. 91 Gypsum mount of Decker suffered a shredded right-rear tire. The stage was set for one last showdown, with Bachetti making up ground high in turns three/four and low in turns one/two although Sheppard was able to pull away on both straightaways. Bachetti shadowed Sheppard and with five laps still to go switched lanes to bring his machine alongside low out of turn four. But Sheppard was just as quick to slam the door closed, leaving Bachetti to fall in six car-lengths back as the leaders crossed the stripe.
“I can’t say enough about the car and this team, to come in here and get a win is a pretty big accomplishment,” beamed Sheppard, after becoming the 15th different winner in 48 Advance Series events held at Lebanon Valley since 1980. He registered his first tour triumph at Autodrome Drummond in 2004, sandwiching victories at Canandaigua and New Egypt (2) speedways between his ’08 season-opening win last year at Virginia Motor Speedway. “You probably can’t count the guys that came in that haven’t run here regularly and won a race on two hands.”
“We took notes from the past with Randy (Ross, former car owner) and came here … Jeff (Brownell, current owner) just gives me an awesome race car. Every time I go out I know I’ve got the best of everything underneath me so I can’t thank him enough.”
“Everything just fell our way today. We had some brake trouble early in the night and were able to qualify good enough to get into the redraw. Of course drawing the no. 1 spot is real important out here, and you also have to have a car good enough to stay up there for 100 laps. You know you’re having a good season when you win a bunch of races, you can even come to a place like the Valley and sneak out of here with a win. Things are definitely going our way right now,” added Sheppard, who finished sixth in the overall Mr. DIRTcar points chase last season.
Fresh off his first win of the season at Lebanon the previous Saturday in a regular 30-lapper, Bachetti was in prime position to post his fourth career Advance Series victory on home soil in his potent Albraeda Waste no. 34 Steve Hough Motors-Garrity Asphalt/PMC entry before time ran out in the century grind.
“The car, the motor … this whole team, all the sponsors … everybody that’s part of this deal, they worked real hard for us,” said Bachetti, 33, who owns 18 first-place trophies at Lebanon, with all three series wins taken since 2004. “The car was really, really good tonight.”
“I made a bunch of changes. The (crew) guys kinda looked at me and said ‘ya, let’s do it.’ We didn’t win but I think the best part of the whole night was passing Brett,” smiled Bachetti, a weekly contender against Hearn at both Lebanon Valley and Orange County Fair Speedway for well over a decade.
Despite Hearn charging from fifth to second early on, the ‘Jet’ was unable to keep the Madsen Motorsports no. 20 Wentworth Custom Homes-Kruger-WLR-BPG/TEO machine up front in his attempt for an unprecedented 15th Advance Series win at Lebanon Valley.
“The way Andy went by me I thought for sure he was going to the front,” figured Hearn, 50, who holds a 28-point lead over Phelps in the point standings after the season-opening two series stops. Teammates Sheppard and Jeff Brownell Jr. are more than 40 markers back while Dale Planck ranks fifth on the chart. “We all kinda evened out there a little after that.”
“Not sure, my car’s normally really good the second half of the race. I mean I just lost the grip completely, both front and rear. I don’t really know why, we all had the same tires on. I guess we just missed the set-up a little bit. I had to let the front end go right to the cushion before I could get any side bite. Just did the best I could with what I had. Third-place is still good for the series and points and all that good stuff, our goal is still to win the (Mr. DIRTcar) championship,” stated New Jersey all-star Hearn.
The ground-pounding Advance Auto Parts Series Big-Block Modifieds close out the weekend Sunday with the second half of the dirt-asphalt doubleheader at Airborne Speedway. The winner of the “Battle of Plattsburgh 100” at Airborne stands to collect $6,000 along with valuable points towards the overall Hoosier Tire-VP Racing Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Championship.
Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series Race #2 – Lebanon Valley Speedway, June 6, 2009 Abele Tractor & Greylock Federal Credit Union 100 Big-Block Modified Event Summary
FIN STR CAR# DRIVER
1 1 9s Matt Sheppard/Waterloo,NY ($6,000)
2 8 34b Andy Bachetti/Sheffield,MA
3 5 20h Brett Hearn/Sussex,NJ
4 2 60 Brian Berger/Castleton,NY
5 10 77f Mark Flach Jr./Selkirk,NY
6 9 57 Donnie Corellis/Averill Park,NY
7 18 98h Jimmy Phelps/Baldwinsville,NY
8 7 42 Guy Sheldon/Nassau,NY
9 17 77x Dale Planck/Cortland,NY
10 13 4s Michael Storms/Wantage,NJ
11 12 43 Keith Flach/Ravena,NY
12 25 3 Justin Haers/Phelps,NY
13 14 98 Eddie Marshall/Ridgefield,CT
14 11 64 Donnie Ackner/West Sand Lake,NY
15 19 88 Kory Sandstedt/Canaan,NY
16 28 84 Gary Tomkins/Clifton Springs,NY
17 20 49 Billy Dunn/Watertown,NY
18 22 91 Billy Decker/Unadilla,NY
19 16 55 Mike King/Nassau,NY
20 15 29 Jeff Brownell Jr./Waterloo,NY
21 27 99L Larry Wight/Phoenix,NY
22 29 99 Ryan Phelps/Fulton,NY
23 4 87 Hector Stratton/Bennington,VT
24 24 87x Paul Gilardi/Pittsfield,MA
25 23 1h Tim Hindley/Monticello,NY
26 3 34 Steve Hough/East Greenbush,NY
27 26 39 Ryan Larkin/Alford,MA
28 21 66 Danny Johnson/Rochester,NY
29 30 66w Alan Johnson/Middlesex,NY
30 6 115 Kenny Tremont/West Sand Lake,NY
GATER RACING NEWS LAP LEADER: Sheppard (1-100).
CAUTIONS: 2 for 8 laps.
HEAT WINNERS: K.Flach, Hough, Ackner, Bachetti.
DIG SAFELY NEW YORK LAST CHANCE RACE WINNERS: D.Johnson, Decker.
BICKNELL RACING PRODUCTS WINNER AWARD: Matt Sheppard.
RISLONE OIL STABILIZER & TREATMENT WINNER AWARD: Matt Sheppard.
BARS LEAKS RUNNER-UP AWARD: Andy Bachetti.
SYRACUSE RITE AID 200 QUALIFIER: Matt Sheppard.
ALL-STAR WEEKEND EXEMPTION DASH QUALIFIER: Matt Sheppard.
HALFWAY LEADER: Matt Sheppard.
BERT/KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER AWARD: Justin Haers.
XTREME LUBRICANTS SLICK MOVE OF THE RACE AWARD: Andy Bachetti.
PENSKE POWER POSITION AWARD (7th): Jimmy Phelps.
INTEGRA SHOCKS FAST TIME AWARD: Keith Flach (19.765sec/91.070mph).
TOTAL PURSE: $27,750.
CARS ENTERED: 42.
NEXT EVENT: Airborne Speedway "Battle of Plattsburgh 100" - June 7, 2009.

Matt Sheppard and Rob Bellinger Go Wheel to Wheel for Photo Finish - CCFS
5-31-09 Weedsport, NY - In one of the most thrilling finishes at Cayuga County Fair Speedway to date, Matt Sheppard and Rob Bellinger put on a helluva show Sunday night as the duo went head to head for over 12 laps setting up a race to the checkered flag, leaving fans to wonder who would land in Victory Lane!

By the completion of lap one in the Big Block Modified feature Sunday night, it was quite evident that fans were in for a memorable race as Derrick Podsiadlo gambled with an inside move into turn 3 to take the lead from pole sitter Paul Habeck. As Podsiadlo began separating himself from the field, Matt Sheppard and Steve Paine began heating up as the two made their way into fifth and sixth position with just five laps recorded.

After a four car pile up on lap 14 sent the field to a two by two restart, the tires of Podsiadlo looked to have worn out leaving hot shot Rob Bellinger, currently riding in second, a perfect opportunity to take hold of the lead position. When action resumed, Bellinger quickly seized the leader spot courtesy of the outside lane as Sheppard set up shop behind Podsiadlo. Two circuits later, Sheppard had found his way behind Bellinger as the pair engaged in a heated battle for the premier spot.

With laps winding down the anticipation reached astronomical heights as both Sheppard and Bellinger held nothing back swapping paint multiple times as the two drivers fought for every inch of positioning on the track. Back and forth Sheppard and Bellinger exchanged the top two positions around the 3/8 miler like two thoroughbreds sparring seconds before crossing the finish line at the Kentucky Derby.

Five circuits around the famed track remained as Bellinger held the lead by just a nose but with three to go, Sheppard put the nail in the coffin as he cleared Bellinger for the last time… Sheppard would sweep Victory Lane, winning features at both Canandaigua and Cayuga County Fair Speedway this weekend. Top Five: Matt Sheppard, Rob Bellinger, Alan Johnson, Jimmy Phelps, and Steve Paine

Matt Sheppard Remains Atop the Throne at Canandaigua Speedway - CAN
5-30-09 Weedsport, NY – The #9s Xtreme Lubricants sponsored ride of Matt Sheppard remains untouchable once more, as Sheppard lands in victory lane for the fourth time this season at Canandaigua Speedway.

Pole sitter Paul Guererri and the “Big Show” Dave Rauscher would line up one and two at the fall of the green flag Saturday night, but by the completion of lap one it seemed as the “Big Show” was looking to take the spotlight away from Guererri as he nabbed the top spot.

With just five laps in the books, a caution flag brought out by Danny Johnson would send Rauscher, Charlie Donk, Justin Haers, and current point leader Matt Sheppard to the line two by two at the restart. When action resumed, Sheppard quickly stole the number two spot from the #99 of Donk exiting turn 2 and within two circuits, the 9s would be knocking on Rauscher’s door…

Sheppard didn’t seem to waste anytime canceling the “Big Show’s” number one run a top the leader board, as he slices his way past Rauscher with an inside move by lap 9. Just two laps later, it look as if Sheppard wouldn’t sail away with a victory quite yet as Gary Tomkins aboard the Rochester Americans #84 had a little bit more racing to do as he began to reel in Sheppard inch by inch.

The top two would enter into traffic by lap 13 and from there the duo weaved in and out, meticulously looking to gain ground with every car’s passing. Reminiscent to last week it became evident that Sheppard had just a little more torque left in the engine as he held onto the lead, claiming the checkered flag in the 35-lap feature. Top Five: Matt Sheppard, Gary Tomkins, Justin Haers, Jeff Brownell Jr, and Dave Rauscher

SUPER MATT SHEPPARD FINALLY BREAKS THROUGH FOR FIRST BREWERTON DIRTCAR MODIFIED WIN OF 2009
By Dave Medler

BREWERTON, NY - Throughout the 2009 season one of the fastest cars in the Big Block Modifieds at Brewerton Speedway has been Matt Sheppard behind the wheel of the Xtreme Lubricants, No.9 but with little to show for it in the victories. All that changed Friday night at the "D-Shaped Dirt Demon," as Sheppard grabbed the lead from Tom Sears Jr. on lap-16 and from there cruised to the win on Bradco Supply Night.
Shawn Donath out raced the field to lead the opening of the 35-lap DIRTcar Big Block Modified Feature. Just when it looked like Donath had control of the race Kevin Bates fought back and took the top spot on the third lap.
Tom Sears Jr who has been quick all season reeled in Bates and took the lead on lap-10, with Bates fighting back grabbing the lead back for one lap before Sears blasted back by on lap-13.
While the battle at the front was going on Matt Sheppard was on rails grabbing the lead from Sears with 15-laps to go. From there Sheppard went on to the win uncontested. Teammates Pat Ward and Billy Decker thrilled the crowd with Ward out running Decker for the runner up spot. Sears and Alan Johnson rounded out the top-five. Chad Phelps, Kevin Bates, Ryan Phelps, Shawn Donath and Chuck Bower completed the top-ten.