BRITTAIN WAITS OUT THE COMPETITION TO CLAIM CHEMUNG RoC DART MODIFIED WIN
Veteran asphalt Modified racer Pete Brittain of Oakhurst, NJ used his many years of racing experience on Saturday afternoon at the Chemung Speedrome. Realizing that by racing during the heat of the day the longer the race wore on the tighter your car was going to get. Brittain purposely went out with a loose race car and after 30 laps of the 75 lap feature his car was perfect.
Brittain made his winning move coming down to complete lap 36 as he ducked under leader Bobby Holmes coming out of turn four. Once in the lead Brittain was never seriously challenged as he went on to the $2,800 win. Holmes in his first race back since suffering a concussion on June 21st at Oswego finished a strong second. TJ Potrzebowski made three trips from the rear to finish a fast closing third with early race leader Lee Sherwood finishing fourth and Rusty Smith rounding out the top five.
“ We noticed in warm ups with this heat the car was getting tighter and tighter in the long runs “ said the driver nicknamed “ The Jersey Outlaw. “ “ So Terry ( crew chief Zacharias ) decided to set the car up a little bit loose in the beginning of the race and I didn't want to beat it up running with those guys. So I just laid there and ran where I had to and then about 30 laps into the race the stagger got to where we wanted it to and then the car was perfect. Bobby slipped up a little bit and we moved right into the hole he left. “
Pete started in third dropped back to fourth on the opening lap and dropped back to fifth on lap two. But “ Pistol Pete “ got back to fourth on lap three and into third on a lap four restart. Pete hung in third while Bobby Holmes and Lee Sherwood exchanged lead on every double file restart.
When Holmes got a slight jump on the lap 25 restart Brittain was able to get under Sherwood to finally grab second on lap 29 and six laps later Holmes made basically his only mistake of the race by slipping out of the groove coming out of turn four. Once in the lead Brittain was never seriously challenged for the win.
Holmes did think that Brittain was getting loose at the end, but Pete responded by saying. “ No I wasn't as I was trying to protect the right rear as my spotter kept telling me that TJ was coming, TJ was coming. I know TJ runs super good here and I just wanted to save something for him just in case I needed it at the end if he got into second and we had a yellow. From mid point of the race on the car was perfect as I could open up as big a lead as I wanted to. “
Pete spoke about how racy some of his competition was early in the feature. “ I think those two guys ( Holmes and Sherwood ) had it in their mind that whoever got to the front first was going to be important. So I think they tried to determine between the two of them who was going to get it and I think they hurt themselves by doing it. “
Another key point for Pete this year on the RoC Dart Tour is the use of only one car compared to years prior when Pete would use several cars in these races. “ We've been pretty fast no matter where we've gone, but have had some bad luck. We decided this year just to run the one car and not switch back and forth with cars and I think that has helped us a lot. I'm really comfortable in this car, it's a great car, and I think it has helped us a lot this year. “
“ I'm really happy with a second, we got a good draw, started second, led some laps, got some good seat time here, and got beat by the best here “ said second place finisher Bobby Holmes.
Holmes led the race on three different occasions with each time Bobby was in the outside groove on a restart to get the lead. Bobby spoke about why the outside groove was so good on this afternoon. “ The starts on the bottom here are tough because of the bumps down there ( pointing at turns three and four ) play with your head. I actually missed a shift one time because of the bumps, I was lucky I didn't pile anybody up because I didn't take off right away. “
In the last RoC Dart race back on July 21st at Oswego Bobby took a hard hit to the driver's side door in turn three at Oswego. This gave the second generation driver a concussion which he spoke about. “ I'm feeling fine, I had a concussion, I had a headache the next day and I went to the doctors just to be safe. Like Jan Leaty said racing is just for fun as life is the real race. Better be safe than sorry and it worked out and I can't complain. “
“ I needed to make the pass the first time ( lap 52 ) I was under Sherwood “ said third place finisher TJ Potrzebowski. “ If I had to do it all over again I would have just drove it in deeper and made the pass. “
TJ felt that another point in the race cost him a shot at the win. “ That incident on lap 35 cost us the win as I had to go back to scratch once again and come all the way back up through. But I felt good as I knew that I had the fastest car here today. “ What TJ was talking about was when he and Rick Kluth got together coming out of turn two while racing for fourth.
TJ was also involved in a lap five turn four melee which took out George Kent, Billy Putney, and Phil Slater. TJ pitted and returned to race his way back up through the field the first time. TJ was real proud of what he was able to do today with a backup motor. “ I blew my good motor up last week at Spencer so I had to use a backup engine today. I'll have the good engine back for the Race of Champions in September. “
Qualifying was run back on June 2nd before rains pushed the feature until this afternoon. No new cars were added to the field and only two cars Matt Hirschman and Mike Leaty didn't return for today.
CHEMUNG NOTES; $450 in bonus money was raised for this show which saw 11 of the 16 cars receive some sort of bonus money. Matt Hirschman surrendered his North Region point lead with the absence due to his commitment to the Whelen Tour which was rained out at Stafford on Friday night and were running on this day. No word on why Mike Leaty didn't make the trip this time around. Marilyn Toal announced the command for “ gentlemen start your engines. “ Daren Scherer deserved a better finish as he was running fourth when the engine overheated and had to pit on lap 65. With his sixth place finish Erick Rudolph unofficially took over the North Region point lead with one race left in the Region. The final North Region race is September 1st at Oswego.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR NORTH REGION RACE # 4
FINISH; Pete Brittain, Bobby Holmes, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sherwood, Rusty Smith, Erick Rudolph, Mark Tychoniewicz, Doug Reaume, Daren Scherer, Rick Kluth, John Markovic, Matt Clemens, Phil Slater, Billy Putney, Rick Zacharias, George Kent.
DNS; Matt Hirschman, Mike Leaty.
LAP LEADERS; Holmes ( 1 - 3 ), Sherwood ( 4 - 5 ), Holmes ( 6 - 9 ) Sherwood ( 10 - 24 ), Holmes ( 25 - 35 ), Brittain ( 36 - 75 )
GATER RACING NEWS DRIVER BONUS DRAW $500; Brittain
DART MACHINERY AWARD SET OF HEADS $1,200 VALUE; Smith
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Potrzebowski ( 12th to 3rd )
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; Kent ( 5th to 16th )
NEXT RoC DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR EVENT; Saturday August 18th - Mahoning Valley Speedway - South Region Final Race # 5 - 6 p.m. Start
JR KENNERUP/ RoC DART MODIFIED PR
