A SECOND CONSECUTIVE OUTLAW 2oo WIN FOR MAT WILLIAMSON
(9th October 2025 BLOG)
After another midweek spent relaxing, the weekend was soon upon me .
One of my favorite annual events was taking place at the Fulton Speedway, New York. It was the 49th staging of their big 200 lapper that traditionally kick starts the nearby SUPER DIRT WEEK.
My first visit to the 200, was back in 2003 when it was known as the Victoria 200.
Alan Johnson was the winner that day , who’d also won, the previous year.
The title rights to the race got moved to another track , and for a couple of years, Fultons big 200 lapper had different titles. The Schneider Brothers 200 in 2008 and the Suny Canton 20o in 2009.
In 2010, it became known as the OUTLAW 200 and the title has remained, ever since.
Brett Hearn was the winner of the inaugural race.
Billy Decker was second and Stewart Friesen was third .
I remember that day well, I’d been chatting with ‘Stewey’ earlier .
He was driving the Pizza Logs car that day and he put one of my Rick At The Races stickers on the car.
Fulton’s big race before SUPER DIRT WEEK used to be ‘sacred’ , but these days, things have changed, and events have popped up elsewhere that take place on the same day. One such place is my local Cornwall Motor Speedway , who had a ‘Race Fest’ special weekend going on for the minor divisions of dirt racing .
Although the Cornwall track is just a ten minute drive from my house, I couldn’t miss the ‘200’ , so I got the regular ‘togs’ that help out each week to cover me for Saturday.
The 2025 Out Law Weekend began on Thursday , starting with minor divisions.
On Friday night the main attraction was the Sportsman Qualifying heats , with Saturday being the main event day , for both big races for the Modifieds and Sportsman.
So, instead of having to pay the cost of a hotel , I decided to go on Saturday only.
I left Cornwall at 8-30 in the morning and after a few stops along the way , was pulling into the Fulton parking lot soon after mid day.
Pit gates opened at 1-00 pm .
I spent time chatting to , long time ‘tog’ friends, Ken Dippel , and Alex and Helen Bruce. Alex was playing around with a new program he’d got on his phone, and within a few minutes he came up with this.
I then snoozed in the car for a while until it got nearer to the drivers pre-race meeting . I always like listening in to that.
As I walked in the pit gate the first car I spotted was the 42P of veteran racer Pat Ward. He was busy doing some final prep to his car
Back in 2012 he was the winner of the event.
The Drivers meeting was held in the seats below the grandstand , where they drew for grid positions. There were 65 Modifieds in attendance so it was a great chance for me to put ‘faces to names’ . Even after all these years, there are still many drivers that I’m not familiar with , especially the new ones.
After listening in, and watching the draw , I moved to my usual shooting spot on turn three and four and waited for things to begin. . Taking pics at Fulton has been more challenging in recent years , since they made designated shooting spots as a safety precaution.
At one point there were about a dozen of us , Here’s a few of the ‘gang’ .
Left to Right , Brady Hauser , John Meloling , AJ Yarboady , Duane Van Gelder ‘yours truly’ Jim Clarke , Alex Bruce and Ken Dippell .
Oh and I must’nt forget John Clifford who took the first shot .
There was a lot of racing to be done before the main events . The Sportsman Consi’s from the previous night took place first, which included a couple of my locals.
Dylan Kirkland 88k from Brockville, and Yamaska , Quebec’s Jacob Nadeau 95JR .
We then had six heat races for the Modifieds .
When they were completed, there was a 7 Lap ‘Dale Planck Dash’ which was won by Pat Ward.
Then it was time for the Modified Consi’s and Last Chance Qualifiers.
Once they were all done , it was intermission time, before the nights two big races got under way.
This was my cue to , take some unnecessary camera equipment back to the car (so I had less stuff to carry at the end of the night) .
I was just locking up the car when I heard “hey Rick how are you”
It was the voices of three friends I hadn’t seen for a long while. Debby Morenus Kisacky and her two daughters Kyla and Shayla.
Debby is the wife of Matt Shepherds long time crew chief Randy Kisacky . I’ve known them all for quite a few years. Shayla recently became Mrs Maresca after marrying another race driver friend of mine, Mike Maresca.
Mike is a past winner of the OutLaw 200 and was racing that night in his familiar # 7mm .
We chatted for a bit and learned from the ladies, that Mike would be racing at Cornwall, a week Sunday , so they’d be back in my part of the world again,
After our little chat , I resumed my position on the infield
The 50 lap Sportsman feature was up first.
Once things got settled down after a number of cautions , it was Brett Sears who dominated and went on to win the race .
Joining him on the podium were , Cody Manitta 2nd and Emett Waldron in third.
The Modifieds then entered the track and staged themselves on the front stretch for the driver intro’s .
After those famous words’ Gentlemen Start Your Engines’ they took off for one rolling lap before the white flag was given. There was no four wide appreciation lap which was a pleasant change. There’s too many ‘4 Wides’ happening these days .It takes place in all sorts of divisions , so it no longer feels ‘special’
Early leader was Pat Ward , but was soon being badgered by Tim Sears .
Sears got past and started building a lead, but Peter Britten and Mat Williamson were homing in fast.
It was just a matter of time before Williamson got to the front, and he stayed there right up to the 100 lap point , when the ‘half way’ controlled race stoppage took place . The Cars returned to the pits for a 15 minute pit stop,
On the restart Williamson took the lead and once again started pulling away from the field.
There wasn’t much happening at the front of the pack, during those final 100 laps . The best excitement, came from watching what was goings on behind with the next six cars.
Sears and Britten both looked good but Felix Roy, Matt Sheppard and Ronnie Davis III, had moved into contention as Larry Wight made up lots of ground using the top cushion .
As Williamson made easy work up front , lapping back markers, plenty of position changing was going on for the final six places.
Wight went by many as he circulated the high groove picking them off , while Davis made progress on the bottom .
As the checkers came out , Williamson was still at the front, with Wight coming home second .
Davis got himself up to third to complete the podium.
Zach Sobotka was given the Rookie of the race award.
Victory Lane pictures were done soon after 11-30 pm, so before mid night I was leaving the track .
With no hotel hotel booked , I was driving home through the night.
Once I’d crossed the border and back in Canada I made a quick stop for a coffee on the 401 at the Mallory Town ‘Tim’s’ , and was back home in Cornwall about 3-15 am.
I awoke at 10-00 am on Sunday morning and began preparing for the days racing.
It was day two of the Cornwall Motor Speedway Race Fest Weekend .
As mentioned , earlier , it was a weekend featuring the minor divisions of dirt racing , with the exception of Sunday’s show, where DirtCar Sportsman were included. The stipulation being , that it was only open to drivers who had not won a feature race anywhere this year.
The program also consisted of Vintage Mods,
Slingshots ,
Mini Mods,
STR’s ,
Lightening Sprints ,
Crate Sprints
Street Stocks,
and Mod Lites
Quite a large schedule, so things got started earlier than normal to compensate.
It was a beautiful sunny day and the track was in great shape. Things moved along quickly with no major delays.
There were too many feature winners for me to mention them all by name
so, I’ll concentrate on the DIRTCAR Sportsman .
Dylan Moore won this one after making the pass on long time leader David Rogers.
With so much going on, the staff and management must be congratulated on such a swift turn around of events with the show being over before 10-00pm .
An early finish was just what I wanted .
VVV