Story By: BOBBY CHALMERS / PETER BRITTEN RACING – WEEDSPORT, NY – On the strength of two second-place finishes at his home tracks and an eighth-place run on the Super DIRTcar Series at Merrittville Speedway Monday, Peter Britten is hoping his luck is turning around.
Britten started out his weekend with a solid second-place run at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, but feels like he let one slip away.
“We had the lead but the top side of the track just wasn’t good for our set-up,” Britten said. “We fell back to fifth and found the bottom. We got back to second but maybe if it had been a 100-lapper, we could have lapped the field. Congrats to Mike (Mahaney) though on the win. He needed that.”
On Saturday night, after a fierce battle with Kyle Armstrong, Brian Berger and Kenny Tremont for the lead, Britten worked to the runner-up position, finishing second to the ‘King of the Valley’ Tremont on a track that was super tacky from rain early in the day.
“We had a super car for the track conditions tonight,” he said. “We’re working on some set-up ideas with our Troyer car that hopefully has us headed in the right direction again. Kyle was fast as was Berger and Ken. However, the breaks fell the way of the 115. We just came up one spot short.
On Monday, Britten and team headed north to the Merrittville Speedway for the next stop on the Super DIRTcar Series tour. He finished third in his heat race, started the feature third after the redraw and brought his Integra Shocks, Beyea Headers #21a home in eighth to keep him near the top five in series standings.
“Our car was good but it’s always difficult at Merrittville because you’re racing against the Small Block regulars,” he said. “However, we were in the fight, and that means we’re still on the right path.”
Tuesday’s event at Ransomville, the annual Summer Nationals, was rained out. This week sees stops at Peter’s two weekly tracks, the Albany-Saratoga Speedway and Lebanon Valley Speedway, on the agenda. Peter sits fourth in points at the Malta, NY race track, just 44 behind leader Matt Delorenzo and is tied for second at the Valley with Andy Bachetti. Both are 24 points behind leader Kenny Tremont with just a handful of races left to determine the champion.