Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Peter Britten never had much success at the Orange County Fair Speedway prior to 2024.
His only victory had come during an Eastern States Weekend 358 Small Block Modified race.
In Victory Lane, Britten admitted that he wasn’t always a fan of racing at Middletown.
“I used to hate this place with a passion. I’d get my butt kicked every time I would come down here,” the popular Britten said. “But it’s turned into one of my favorite places now.”
But in 2024, Britten has certainly turned around his fortunes at the historic 5/8th oval. He won for the 2nd time in the 3 race Big Series events and ended up the overall Modified champion.
Billy VanInwewgen had led from the drop of the green of the Henry Sharp Memorial and looked impressive and looked to be on his way to a possible win. Britten trailed Billy V. for all the laps, close, but never able to make a pass. And as the race passed halfway, VanInwegen increased his lead.
But on a lap 21 restart, Britten got the run and made the pass and went on to get the win and the championship.
“Billy V. ran a heck of a race. I really didn’t think I was good enough to get him. I think I had lady luck on my side tonight. I finally nailed a restart. It’s an awesome feeling and to also win the championship as well.”
After the key restart, Britten had to contend with Anthony Perrego, who had moved into 2nd.
“The restart was the pivotal deal. I saw Perrego coming up and I said, ut oh, here we go,” Britten said. “I really had to dig deep and find something. He’s a heck of a competitor and to beat a guy like Anthony, who is so good here, is a cool deal.”
Following Perrego was Alex Yankowski. Yankowski lost some positions early in the feature, but came back strong late in the race to finish 3rd. VanInwegen finished 4th and Tyler Dippel 5th.
Rounding out the top 10 Sunday were Dominic Roselli Jr. 6th, Billy Pauch Jr. 7th, Tyler Boniface 8th, Danny Creeden 9th and Ryan Godown 10th.
Steve Davis, racing for Howie Finch, won his first ever feature at Orange County, triumphing in the Sportsman feature.
“This is the first time, I’ve never had good luck here. To be truthful, Howie was going to drive his own car,” Davis said. “But he talked me into this yesterday and I was against it, but good thing we are here.”
It wasn’t until lap 18 of the 20 lap contest that Davis was able to wrest the lead from a strong running Ryan Neiger, who had led from the drop of the green.
But Davis kept the pressure on and made the pass to go on to win with a 1.1 second margin of victory.
Michael Sabia started 13th, but late in the race was able to get into 2nd and win the Big Series Sportsman championship.
“There is a lot of good competition here. I’ve not had good luck here. Some mechanical difficulties and some bad draws. We’ve had to come a far way every event this season,” Sabia said.
Hunter Lapp finished 3rd as Neiger was 4th and Nick Giardini 5th. Completing the top 10 were Jesse Leiby 6th, John Farissier 7th, Joey Bruning 8th, Jeff Higham 9th and Jimmy Leiby 10th.
After 9 editions, the Marky Traverse Memorial had it’s final race on Sunday night. Bob Sleight took advantage of a late race restart and went on to take his 3 win in the memorial race over Jack Beaumont.
“Jack’s the man this year, He’s got this place figured out. He got by me and I was alright, we’re going to finish 2nd,’ Sleight said “Then the caution came out and I was like, cautions are your friend. I was hoping for the best and it worked out. It’s an honor to win this race for Marky and the Traverse family. It’s bigger than Eastern States, it really is.”
Beaumont had taken the lead from Sleight, but the restart sealed his fate. Jack did however capture the Big Series Street Stock championship.
“I gave him the top on the restart,” Beaumont said. “I know he’s really good on the bottom and there wasn’t a whole lot out there, so I figured I’d take his line. It didn’t work out, but we’re the champions.”
Walt Henry finished 3rd with Anthony Tarantino 4th and JB Morris 5th. Tom Cilurso finished 6th with Mike Vigiletti 7th, Wayne Taylor 8th, Kurt Hunderland 9th and Kevin Ward, driving for an injured Tyler Romer, was 10th.
Beaumont, a racer who has really come into his own at Middletown the last couple of years, was the winner in the Mark Rutherford Dash for Cash, the richest full fender dash in track history.
The next racing event at OCFS will be the Eastern States Weekend from October 24-27. Stay tuned to the OCFS social media pages to stay abreast for the upcoming ESW.