Hoots comes out on top of thrilling side by side battle with Stetsen Todd
By Alex Nieten
Last year Mattison Hoots came within two spots of an SRI Performance MMSA Monster Thunder Bomber victory at the World Short Track Championship, forced to watch as Luke Doggett celebrated. But this time it was Hoots’ turn to make the coveted trip to The Dirt Track at Charlotte Victory Lane.
Hoots lined up fourth for the Feature and quickly ripped to the lead by Lap 3 before driving away to his first Charlotte victory.
An emotional Victory Lane followed as he arose victorious on the grandest stage. Hoots was choked up as family and friends surrounded him and the confetti flew. A winner at Charlotte. An honor every competitor at the event covets.
Mark Towell and Stetsen Todd led the field to green, and Stetsen used the outside line to grab the top spot on Lap 1. Right behind him, Hoots went from fourth to second on the opening circuit and set his sights on Todd.
Hoots jumped to Todd’s outside when he saw an opening. The two then gave the fans a multi-lap show as they rolled around the entire 4/10 mile side by side for multiple laps. Both fought hard but clean to get the advantage as they never touched fenders. Finally, Hoots managed to muscle ahead of Todd and clear him to secure the lead.
That proved to be the winning move as Hoots never looked back. He put together consistent laps and grew his advantage north of two seconds by the time the 15-lapper concluded as Hoots crossed the finish line with a comfortable lead.
“I knew watching the previous races that it might get cut short for the cautions and the time, so I knew I kind of had to make a move really fast to get up front,” Hoots explained. “I found some moisture up top really fast and really good, and I was able to make the pass for the lead and hold them off.”
Todd held on for second after leading the first two laps. He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at coming up short with what he felt was the quickest machine on property.
“It sucks because we were the fastest car all weekend,” Todd said. “I didn’t know the groove would be that high, and I didn’t want to get up there and get freight-trained on the bottom. So, I just moved up too late. Then on the last restart, we got kind of moved a little bit. So, he (Hoots) got a big lead, and I just couldn’t reel him in after that.”
Rounding out the podium with a charge from seventh was Tyler Guice.
“This place is so crazy. You don’t ever know what the track is going to be,” Guice said. “We really just come down here to have fun as a team as kind of an end of the year deal.”
RESULTS:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 41-Mattison Hoots[4]; 2. 19-Stetsen Todd[2]; 3. 47-Tyler Guice[7]; 4. 21J-Nate Jackson[11]; 5. 97T-Mark Towell[1]; 6. 51C-Luke Clements[3]; 7. 28-Rod Tucker[18]; 8. 97-Luke Doggett[5]; 9. 43-Jacob Funderburke[12]; 10. G41-Grant Burton[27]; 11. G1-Greg Carroll[20]; 12. 135-Travis Jamieson[23]; 13. 98-Isaiah Parker[24]; 14. 05-Cruz Mattison[16]; 15. 78-Hunter Funderburke[21]; 16. 119-Jason Edmonds[26]; 17. 22W-Walt Waddell[14]; 18. S1-Bryson Sweatt[15]; 19. S2-Garrett Sweatt[22]; 20. 32-Brandon Greene[19]; 21. 16-Benny Peeler[25]; 22. 483-Hannah Wall[28]; 23. 28G-Bryson Guice[8]; 24. S4-Tyler Smith[9]; 25. 4H-Jonathan Hinson[6]; 26. 4-Cory Skipper[17]; 27. 83-Ricky Bogan[10]; 28. P8-Christopher Patterson[13]
