September 15, 2006 - Canandaigua, NY
Tom Skibinski, DIRT NorthEast PR Director

Matt Sheppard waited all summer to win his first big-block Modified feature of the season at Canandaigua Speedway. There was literally no stopping the talented 24 year-old driver from Waterloo, New York on Friday night as he collected his second straight Canandaigua trophy in the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series season finale. Sheppard broke a rear pan hard bar midway through the 22nd Annual Original Pizza Logs 100 Finger Lakes Championship, then lost the brakes in the no. 44s BKS/G-U Hardware-Currier Pastics-Adam Ross Cut Stone/Bicknell entry before outlasting Brett Hearn to score the $6,000 victory.

Sheppard’s second win of the season at the historic Ontario County Fairgrounds oval was his first of the year in Super DIRT series competition, pushing his Advance Auto Parts SDS career total to three. The most recent 100-lap tour triumph was his first recorded in New York State with initial wins registered at Autodrome Drummond (Quebec, 2004) and New Egypt Speedway (New Jersey, 2005). Current overall Hoosier Tire-Sunoco Race Fuels Mr. DIRT points leader Alan Johnson settled for the third-place while open-wheel veteran Pat Ward and second-year Series follower Jimmy Phelps rounded out the top-five. Local favorite Charlie Donk rebounded from an early race flat tire to finish ninth and earn an automatic starting spot in the Eckerd 200 at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse during Super DIRT Week XXXV, Oct. 4-8.