Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – It was a big night at the Orange County Fair Speedway as racing returned for the first time in 2024.
Plus it was Nostalgia Night, an event that is treasured by fans, drivers and owners alike.
Peter Britten from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, picked up his first ever Orange County Fair Speedway Modified win as he outraced Alex Yankowski and Anthony Perrego to the checkered flag.
The win was not without some controversy.
On a lap 16 restart, Britten made contact with leader Dillon Steuer that saw Steuer drift high and lose several positions, ending his hopes of a feature win.
In Victory Lane, Britten did acknowledge that there was contact and he was apologetic.
“I want to start off by apologizing to Dillon, I have to see the video to see exactly how it played out. I thought that I had enough of a run to clear him and obviously I got a little tight and we made contact. I feel bad about that. I would have liked to have stuck it out with him for the rest of the race. But we ended up here.”
A disappointed Steuer had some words for Britten in Victory Lane before Peter got out of his car and Dillon had the unmistakable look of a driver that was not too happy.
Early on in the feature, Steuer was blazing away on the historic 5/8th Hard Clay. He blasted his way to the lead and easily stretched it out to a straightaway. When Jim Spellmon rolled to a stop on lap 16, it set up the fateful restart.
With Britten now in the lead, it was Yankowski in 2nd and he definitely made Britten work to stay in front.
“I knew Alex was quick,” Britten said. “I really wasn’t sure where to be on the racetrack, to be honest. I really didn’t know how close he was, I could feel like I was hearing someone sometimes.”
At the finish, Britten was the winner by a little under a 1/2 second over Yankowski. Following Perrego in 3rd were Marc Johnson in 4th and Billy VanInwegen 5th.
Tanner VanDoren was 6th, David Schilling 7th, Billy Pauch Jr. 8th, Danny Creeden 9th and Steuer ended up 10th.
Britten had been wavering on whether to come to Middletown to race, but with the uncertain future of the track and fairgrounds, he made the decision to race on Sunday.
“I really wanted to come down and support the event. We know that the future of this place is rocky,’ Britten said. “It was good to see a good car count in the pits. More people here tonight than I’ve seen in a long time here. That’s refreshing. Hey, who knows, maybe we can get a miracle.”
It was a good finish for 2nd place Yankowski.
“We’ve had some speed here and there’s been night’s where I couldn’t get out of my own way. Tonight was a very good night for us. I thought that we were able to keep pace with Peter,” Alex said. “But he did a really good job being where he needed to be. It was good to come to Orange County and have a really good racetrack. Hats off to Brett. It’s a historic place and I’m really glad to have been here tonight.”
In the Sportsman division, it was Joey Bruning taking the lead at the drop of the green and putting on a dominating drive, pulling away with ease on a couple of restarts and going on to a 4 second plus win over Michael Sabia.
“This is the greatest place on Earth, Orange County Fair Speedway. I love this place,” said Bruinig post race. “The car was great and I’m so happy that my family was here. We finished strong here last year and we want to keep it going.”
While Bruning was way out front, Sabia was having a good race with Jared LaBagh for 2nd for the first 2/3rds of the race until Sabia was able to put some distance between them. LaBagh finished 3rd, Travis Green 4th and Dominic Roselli Jr. 5th.
Completing the top 10 were Jeff Higham 6th, John Kendall 7th, Nick Giardini 8th, Joey Conklin 9th and Jimmy Leiby 10th.
The Sleight family has a long history at OCFS of wins and championships. And on Sunday, Jayden Sleight added his name to the Street Stock win list as he rolled to an easy looking victory over Jack Beaumont.
“It’s great winning for the first time here,” said the happy winner in Victory Lane. “Flat tires and you name it, I’ve had it happen here. So it’s great to finally get this win.”
Beaumont was fast, just a tick off of Sleight’s time. But after driving into 2nd, he just couldn’t make up any ground on Sleight. Bob Sleight finished 3rd, Ray Tarantino 4th and J.B. Morris 5th.
OCFS Big Series Notes
Car counts were 41 Modifieds, 49 Sportsmen and 13 Street Stocks.
It was another stellar job done by the OCFS Nostalgia Night team, led by Doug Dulgarian. So many guest drivers/owners in attendance and many cars on display in the midway. The line for the autographs was huge and it was great to see the smiles and the racing stories being told at this historic venue.
This was the first event by the Brett Hearn/Doug Dulgarian promotional team and Brett was quite happy with the outcome.
“It was a great night. Nostalgia Night is always a favorite and we had a great crowd,” Hearn said. “The racing was good, the track had several grooves, you could race in many places. We still have work to do on the track to make it better.”
All in all, a great job done by the team in their first outing.
Danny Creeden and Joey Conklin sported throwback schemes on their cars. Danny’s was a scheme that his father, Rusty Creeden raced with back in the early 80’s and Joey had one from his grandfather’s time in racing.
The next event in The Big Series occurs on Sunday, August 4th when the Modifieds, Sportsman and Street Stocks return to action at the House of Power.
American Flat Track motorcycles (AFT) make a return to OCFS this coming Saturday, June 15th. The 2023 event was a great one.
Support your local track whatever way you can!!!