Williamson Sweeps the Fall Nationals at BROCKVILLE (20th October 2025 BLOG)
Following last weekends CANADIAN SUPER DIRT WEEKEND at the Cornwall Motor Speedway, I had just a few days to recover before Brockville Ontario Speedway were holding their annual classic, the Fall Nationals.
Friday and Saturday (17th /18th ) of October.
My few days off were busy ones as I prepared for another big trip I have planned the following week . I wanted to get everything up to date , so I was ready to head out after the weekend.
On Thursday , the day before the Fall Nationals , I had a phone call from my Buddy Ron Morin the former owner/promoter at the Cornwall Motor Speedway. Although he sold the speedway to the Lavergne family over 10 years ago, he still lives next to the track and maintains the racing surface.
Just a few days after the season finale, he was putting down new clay in preparation for next year, and asked if I’d like to go along and take some pics.
I needed a break from what I was doing so went over to take a look .
Sure enough, there he was out on the grader , working in some new virgin clay.
The Friday night show at the B.O.S , had the 100 lap SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES for the Big Block Modifieds as the headline event.
They were supported , by the Mini Stocks, Vintage Modifieds and Crate Sprint Cars.
The pre race drivers meeting was scheduled for 4-30 pm .
I was at the B.O.S around 2-00pm in time for a snooze and a look around the pits before the meeting.
There were 40 mods in attendance for the SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES, plus a good number of Mini Stocks , Crate Sprints and Vintage in the back up divisions.
My old friend Dave Watchhorn , was there in his silver Toyota.
I took a few hot lap pics from the outside of turn four before moving to the middle.
Bobby Herrington was out in the Steve Polite backed 88z car , making a return to Modifieds after a long break . In the meantime, he’s been cleaning up in the Sportsman division .
Once the hot laps were done it was time for the heat races..
The running order for the features was originally to be, the Ministocks 25 lapper up first , with the SUPER DIRTCAR race to follow.
This got changed and the big race brought foreward to first , when a wet weather forecast for around 11-00pm was posted.
That was good news for me, as I intended to leave as soon as the Mods were done .
Track Prep and re-draws took place during the brief intermission.
Felix Roy was the lucky one , to draw the pole position.
Shortly after this , the Mods entered the track .
From the green , Roy took the early lead , but Mat Williamson who drew the #2 spot was soon in front .
This was how it stayed until Roy got a flat, and returned to the pits for a tire.
Darren Smith inherited second place with Alex Payne chasing him.
While all this was going on , Matt Sheppard , a regular SDS winner was having no luck at all , and came to grief with a marker tire .
Payne made the pass on Smith and it looked like he was gaining slightly on Williamson.
The laps were running out , so Williamson cruised on to yet another Victory.
He’s been having a great run, lately . I saw him win at the Brighton Apple Fest, which was followed a week later with a win in the OutLaw 200 at Fulton . The week after that he won both Big Block and Small Block races at the Oswego staged, Super Dirt Week .
Joining Mat and Alex on the podium, was Darren Smith who hung on to third.
It was 10-00 pm by the time the Victory Lane pics were done, so I made my exit , and was home by 11-30pm.
I managed to get all my editing done in the morning before heading back for day two of the Fall Nationals .
Saturdays show consisted of a DirtCar 358 series for both Modifieds and Sportsman. They were the headliners, with Vintage Modifieds and Street Stocks as back up divisions.
They were correct about imminent wet weather for the previous night, because as I was heading home, it began raining at the track towards the end of the Sprint Car feature.
The scheduled Vintage features never got in the books, so they were added to the start of the Saturday show (obviously making it run later)
For the hot laps , I shot a few pictures from the outside of turn one before moving to the middle.
Both Vintage Modified features that got postponed from Friday were up first .
Brian Comeau won the 70’s class
and Chris Wilson won in the 60’s
It was now time for the opening ceremonies for the scheduled Saturday show .
It was nice to see Abby Stewart back at the B.O.S singing the Anthems.
Abby , a local country music recording artist, is the daughter of former 358 Modified driver Todd Stewart.
The heat races for the Sportsman series then began .
The Modified heats then followed
We then had the Street Stocks on track for their heats
and then another dose of Vintage Modifieds for their heat races .
Before intermission the last chance qualifiers for the Modifieds and Sportsman took place .
During the break , and track prep , the re-draws were held on the front stretch.
Kalen Draper drew the pole for the Modifieds.
While we were gathered for the redraws , a presentation was made to Brian Hegarty , who after many years as a track official, was retiring .
HAPPY RETIREMENT , Brian.
Once this was done , it was feature time .
It was the Vintage Modifieds taking centre stage once again , for their big races that were being staged before the main events .
This gave Ian Gordon a win in the 70’s division .
as Chris Wilson got himself another 60’s win.
It was now time for the race I’d gone to see, the 100 lap, 358 DirtCar Series
Pole sitter Kalen Draper took the early lead , with Felix Roy sticking close to his tail .
After a few laps Roy made the pass.
While Felix pulled away into the lead , Mat Williamson who’d started seventh, was working his way up.
Meanwhile , Gary Lindberg was also moving up.
It wasn’t long before Williamson was catching up to the leading Roy.
That’s how it looked at about the three quarter mark of the race .
Then an incident happened further down the field when a bunch of cars came together and Jordan McCreadie did a scary flip.
The reds came out , and thankfully Jordon walked away unharmed.
After the re start the battle continued between Roy and Williamson.
Roy kept in front and that’s how it looked like staying.
Then some how , in the dying few laps, Williamson managed to get by and take it to the checkers .
So it was another big win for Mat Williamson , making it a sweep at the Fall Nationals and the continuation of the great roll he is on (I wonder if it will carry on next week when the action moves to the O.C.F.S EASTERN STATES)
Lindberg moved up to third to complete the podium
With a busy day ahead of me for Sunday, I ‘d already decided to take off after this race. So, missed the following Sportsman Series race.
In my absence , the present ‘hot shot’ in this division Richard Murtaugh got the win .
It was what I’d expected so was prepared , and took these shots earlier in the night.
While he was getting his win , I was on the 401 heading for home .
On Sunday, I’d been invited to the Retirement Party of long time racing flag-man, Kenny Marshall.
Kenny announced his retirement at the season finale of the Airborne Park Speedway, just a few weeks ago.
Over the years he’s flagged at numerous tracks in the North East and has decided to ‘hang up his flags’
Here he is on his perch at the Eastern States Weekend , at the Orange County Fair Speedway last year.
The lunch party in his honor was being held at the American Legion Post in Plattsburgh .
Ken , was a former Navy Vet , who once served on an aircraft carrier.
I was there for the scheduled 1-00 pm, start and met up with Airborne Park Speedway Official Track Photographer, Dave Brown.
We were joined by many others from the racing fraternity .
The party began with Ken saying a few words about his many years around the tracks before various friends came up to speak .
Dave Farney, the official flag man for the SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES was in attendance.
It was then time to eat , and oh boy ! what a great spread it was. A delicious buffet selection of Italian pasta.
Once the eating was over, Dave and I took a few pictures.
Here’s one of the ‘flagmen’ that were present ,
Left to right, Travis Bruno, Dave Farney , Ken Marshall and Wayne Bruno.
We got Ken’s wife to take a pic of Dave and me alongside Ken.
It was a lovely ‘get together’ and thanks to Ken for inviting me.
I made my exit at around 3-00pm and headed for home , where I had a pile of weekend editing to to.