If anyone was doubting Matt Sheppard at the beginning of this racing season, they certainly are not now. With more feature wins in one season than any other driver, Sheppard has put himself in the record books. Records that were previously held by Brett Hearn, and most recently Billy Decker.
Sheppard, who was leading the point’s race going into Friday night’s event at the Bad Boy Buggies World finals, had a 218 point lead over Stewart Friesen. Sheppard had racked up 10 series race wins, 19 top five’s, 20 top ten’s and Not to mention his titles at his home track of Canandaigua and Utica Rome. It was truly a remarkable season. The icing on the cake came Friday night and Saturday night in Charlotte as Sheppard swept the weekend, putting his number 9 in victory lane both nights. Clinching his 5th Super Dirt Car Series Title and breaking the overall series win record with 12 feature wins. Sheppard was all smiles in victory lane Saturday night as he explained what an honour it was to be standing there this time with his own team and such amazing people behind him making it all possible. A total of 29 wins for Sheppard on the season.
“It was quite a way for Matt to end his first season as a car owner, team manager, and driver”. Says Bob Slack, part owner of Bicknell Racing Products. “Hats off to Matt and his guys, that’s a pretty big accomplishment and we were glad to see him do it with BRP cars”. I think what was also really special was the majority of the cars in the top 10 were ours. Guys like Justin and Pat, they all had pretty hot cars down there. That’s really awesome to see.
If all of that was not great enough, heading into Friday night, Bicknell Racing Products had a recorded 799 feature wins for the 2016 racing season. It was looking like number 800 was going to be near as Sheppard and Justin Haers were having spectacular performances and had been the ones to be beat on Thursday night during qualifying. Winning their heats and Haers laying down the fastest time in qualifying. Sheppard’s dominating performance though, was enough to get him into victory lane and secure Bicknell Racing Products 800th feature win.
“I’m really proud of all the drivers and teams that pull this off for us every year” explains Slack. “I know the guys in the shop are all proud to be a part of it too, and I’m really proud of those guys. They work hard to meet deadlines for customers and produce a really great product. I know that everyone one of us here aren’t going to sit around and be happy with 800, we want 810, maybe 820 next year”.
Of course, it was great to see that all our customers are doing so great. “I think what was really special was the majority of the cars in the top 10 were ours” says Slack, “ Guys like Justin and Pat, they all had pretty hot cars down there. That’s really awesome to see”.
Congratulations to all of our customers on a great weekend and a great 2016 season.
For a complete list of season winners you can check out Bicknell Racing Products.com