M.A.T. Williams Racing

Sept 6, 2008

We made it back to the Bullring for testing and setup Friday night but we could not get the car to rotate through the middle of the corners as well as the Vegas regulars. The 2008 Bullring Track Champion, Scott Gaforini, offered advice on the setup and drive-line which did help some.

 

On Saturday, Mathew qualified the worst he ever has, 22 out of 24 cars. Before the main event, we through another change at the car and the green flag flew. The car definitely was better and by lap 14 Mathew was up to 12th place. A caution brought the cars back together for another start. After one lap, a car in front of Mathew blew their engine and laid oil all over the track. Mathew was 1 of 5 cars that got caught up in the carnage. His car spun backwards into turn 1 and our night was over.

 

The car is back in Tucson with extensive rear-end repair under way at Big Larry’s. It will be back together for sure for Friday’s Casino Night at Beaudry RV sponsored by Tucson’s Duck’s Unlimited. (DU will auction off the rear quarter panel from the AMVETS Late Model that was smashed off in the wreck.)

 

Thanks to AMVETS Post 770, High Performance Exhaust Works (HPE), Townsend’s Performance and Speed, NAPA, Big Larry at I got Race Parts, Koerner Race Engines, Duane Burmeister and Bryan Nation (all of Tucson) for making the Las Vegas race possible!

 

Aug 30, 2008

Race was postponed until next weekend (Sept 6) due to power failure at the track. We’ll make the trek back to Vegas and give it a go again!

 

June 8, 2008

Last night was some hard racing at Tucson Raceway Park. Like always, we tried some new procedure on race setup...some were good, others not so good.

Mathew took his car out in the heat race with sticker tires for the first time ever. Instead of scrubbing them in during a practice then ensuring they went to the correct size afterwards, we put fresh tires on the right size and raced them. The car was fast but very loose on the exit. Mathew usually likes a looser car but this was too loose. He did win the heat race but we felt the car would not be good enough for the longer 50 lap main event.

We made some adjustments to the front spring and also decided to adjust the front sway bar to tighten the car. The adjustments were either too much or by not scrubbing tires and stretching like we always have done in the past, the car was waaaaay too tight for the main event.

Mathew started in the back of the grid and made his way to 5th place by the 10th lap. However, he knew as soon as he started the 50 laps was going to feel like 500 because of  how the car was handling. He past another car or two but eventually the #25 and #63 car past him and raced forward for the lead. Mathew settled in at the 4th position and raced side by side with the #44 of Rick Butler for many laps. At one point Mathew pushed up into Rick exiting turn 2 and tore off his own left front fender. It didn’t affect the car much but resolved Mathew to stay in 4th where he finished the night.

All in all it was great being out at the Saturday Night Races! Thanks again to all of our sponsors. Special thanks to the Arizona Southern Chapter of Ducks Unlimited who raffled off another shotgun with proceeds going to MAT Williams Racing this past week.

2008 Race Results

Got To Have Wheels To Race!