Auto racing has taught many drivers to expect the unexpected and you won’t be disappointed.

At the recent Lernerville Banquet, track announcer Eric Westendorf shared that three-time-consecutive Modified Track Champion Mat Williamson would not be regular at the Sarver oval this year. He planned to run near his hometown in Canada.

Although he a popular guy in the pits, Williamson is their fiercest competitor on the track.

Westendorf said: “This will give you guys a lot more victories.”

Well, last Friday Williamson came to Lernerville and won. Garrett Krummert, who finished second, would have nabbed that main event had Williamson stayed in Canada.

Krummert laughed and said: “He makes us better! It’s kind of funny, we all try to figure out what we can do to beat one guy!”

Krummert has a Bicknell Chassis and Williamson’s dad is part of the group that owns that business. They do help drivers that purchase their Chassis but Mat seems to have the edge with three championships in his pocket and 28 career Lernerville feature wins.

Starting early

Krummert started racing quads when he was five-years-old. He met Sprint driver Arnie Kent and the team purchases one of his motors.

Krummert and his dad started going to Hickory Speedway to watch Kent race. At nine years old, Krummert started racing Go-Carts for about six years.

The team purchased a small block Modified and Andy Priest helped them set up the car. When Krummert was 15, Mike Graham, former owner of Tri City, permitted him to race with the Big Block Modifieds.

The next year (2005), he competed with the 358 Modifieds at Mercer Speedway. Changing divisions in 2007, Krummert bought a Late Model from John Flinner.

He wanted to race at more tracks near home that ran his class. He was successful, but as the years rolled by, the Late Model division became more expensive and set ups and suspensions turned out to be more complicated.

In 2014, he sold his car and all the spare parts. The following year, Krummert bought a complete V-8 Big block Modified from Brian Swartzlander.

“We had fun again and it was financially less expensive to run this division,” Krummert said. He also combined forces with Jerry Schaffer and maintains and drives a Crate Modified for him.

His crew consists of his wife Jo, dad Larry, and Ryan Haney. Krummert enjoys working with his in-laws, the Murdicks.

Jo’s grandfather, Carl Murdick helps in the garage one night a week and then goes to help his son, Dave Murdick, on another evening. Krummert works for Columbia Gas, but if he hit the lottery, he wouldn’t change a thing. He is one guy who is happy with his life, wife and racing Modifieds!

Dietz in the groove

Tyler Dietz won three out of four Pro Stock races; once again Noah Brunell’s No. 31 finished second.

Dietz builds his own chassis. He worked a couple of years for Chris Schneider and decided to put his own spin on a chassis and develop one.

Presently, he has built a Modified in his garage and may debut it toward the end of the season for its owner.

Brunell is such a positive person. Although he has won seven heat races and had numerous seconds in the feature, he is still looking for the big win.

After racing three years, Brunell said: “Everyone says that it is coming, but I feel like it’s been forever!

“Running with such good drivers like Corey McPherson and Tyler is tough! I would be happy to just finish in the top five in points at the end of the season.”

Looking like Dad

Sye Lynch has repainted his Sprint car to nostalgically replicate the black 2L that his dad Ed drove. The paint job is exact.

When you come into the pits and see it, you think oh great, Ed Lynch Jr is here.

Since making the changes, Sye has not had a lot of success and seems to have a black cloud over the car. He is going back to his old scheme on the No. 42 for a while.

Sye has been a student at Indiana University for a year and a half, majoring in business. He took this past semester off and is working with his uncle Chad Hill in his lawn care business.

All-Star Sprints

The All Star Sprint Circuit of Champions will invade Lernerville Friday. The local drivers have a great chance of taking home the $5,000 prize money.

Aaron Reutzel tops the point standings. Area drivers that are in the rankings are Dave Blaney-5th, John Garvin-9th, Carl Bowser- 10th and Brandon Spithaler-11th.

Prom night

Recently, Sprint driver Sadie Siegel went to the prom on Friday evening and put a substitute driver behind the wheel of her pink No. 91.

She returned for the consolation race; however did not make the feature.

Multi-tasking

Sportsman chauffeur Todd Weldon is a junior at Penn State, Behrend, majoring in Mechanical Engineering Technology.

This summer, he has an internship with PennDOT. Having started in four cylinders, he is now in his eighth year of racing.

In 2014, with the help of his dad Pat, Todd got a Sportsman racer. He loves to watch Alex Ferree, Mike Norris and Jared Miley compete.

Since going to school near Erie, his roommate has taught him to fly fish, which he enjoys tremendously. If money were not an object, Weldon would like to have a Late Model and race against Scott Bloomquist and Billy Moyer.

Carol Gamble is a racing columnist for the Butler Eagle