Britten Blasts “Batmobile” To 17th Career LOLR Big-Block Win

COLUMN BY: Steven Ovens / LAND OF LEGENDS RACEWAY – CANANDAIGUA, NY –  Geneva Club Beverage-Pepsi, Ferris Commercial Mowers/American Equipment and Research Financial Group all presented the action as the first event of three scheduled to take place in eight days at the Ontario County Fairgrounds facility. Elevated temperatures led to elevated excitement in each division with multiple grooves of racing.

In the Pepsi Big-Block Modifieds it would be the Australian-born driver, sponsored by Geneva Club Beverage-Pepsi Zero Sugar, who would take top honors after 30 exciting laps at the Land of Legends. It was exciting right from the drop of Scott Hixson’s green flag as Britten lined up the front row of Gil Tegg Jr. and Marcus Dinkins in Turn 1 and shot the gap to take the race lead down the backstretch.

With Britten pacing the field, Jimmy Phelps, Matt Sheppard, Alex Payne, Zach Payne, Mat Williamson and Tim Fuller would spend a majority of the race dicing for positions in and around the top five. Phelps and Sheppard seemingly traded the same two to three car lengths for much of the first 15 green flag laps. The first yellow flag of the event flew at the halfway point and drew the field together.

On the restart, Alex Payne and Williamson started their march forward, at one point battling for fourth and fifth before Payne jettisoned ahead finding the outside line. Williamson’s run would stall there as the brakes would fail after that restart, forcing him to hold on for the last spot in the top five.

As Payne worked past both Sheppard and Phelps to move into second, the final caution flag would fall with four laps remaining. Payne would press the issue with the outside groove, setting up a drag race to the checkers off the fourth turn but Britten would come out victorious with his sponsor supporters in the house and a huge ovation from the crowd.

“This feels really good,” said Britten after dousing his No. 21a with a Pepsi shower.

“We’ve definitely been off a little bit here this year and we had a good starting spot but there’s a lot of hungry dogs behind us. The field here is stout.”
Britten will try to carry some of that momentum into the upcoming visit by the Big-Block Modified Super DIRTcar Series this Thursday night.

In Stirling Lubricants Sportsman competition, Richard Murtaugh only needed a one-lap shootout style restart to lead the money lap and claim his first victory of 2026. Timmy Borden Jr. and Dylan Woodworth would lead the field to green with Borden out of Interlaken, NY leading the first circuit. He and Woodworth would put on a good battle with Woodworth taking the lead away on lap two and leading through lap eight.

Filmore, NY pilot Evan Nugent started tenth in the initial lineup but made very quick work to get to third behind the leaders. Nugent made his move to capture the lead on lap nine and appeared to be one of if not the fastest car on the track, drawing out to a straightaway advantage before a late race yellow would impact the finish.

Murtaugh and Nick Cooper had life once more in the event and restarted nose to tail with four laps remaining. Murtaugh immediately went to the outside on the restart and lit the tires up, losing ground to Nugent. Another yellow with one lap remaining gave Murtaugh one more chance.

During the one-lap dash, Murtaugh again went to the outside and held ground with Nugent to set up for the final corners. Murtaugh took the long way around while Nugent protected the bottom lane. The two drivers drag raced off the fourth turn with Murtaugh eclipsing Nugent at the stripe by half a car-length.

“I tried it there on the one restart and found a little something there,” said Murtaugh to fill-in pit reporter Zac Case. “Sent it in a little harder (on the final restart) and wow, what a track that was phenomenal. I’m amped up after that one.”

The DisBatch Brewing Company 305 Sprints also had a mid-race caution flag that looked to potentially regroup the field and set up for a thrilling finish. However, it didn’t play out that way as Lance Dusett rocketed away from the rest of the field over the final nine lap run to win their 20-lap main by some 3.444 seconds over Ethan Gray, Spencer Burley, Adam Depuy and Scott Wagner.
While the excitement for the lead may not have been there, Burley was worth the price of general admission over the final nine laps. At the end of the event, Burley went from his nineteenth starting position to the bottom step of the podium in third.

“I just tried to hit my marks there and not pay attention to who was behind me because I didn’t want to know,” said Dusett, with a smile after scoring victories in back-to-back seasons.
With point leader Jimmy Grant suffering problems in the heat race and struggling in the feature, defending track champion C.J. Guererri was primed to dominate the Proctor Enterprises Street Stocks division. Guererri took the lead away from John Burritt on lap four, who was having a career night to that point.

With Guererri’s nose out in the wind in clean air, last race’s winner Marc Minutolo was clawing his way forward from his fifth place starting spot. As the race wore on, the handle seemed to start fading away from Guererri’s car. This allowed Minutolo to close the gap and steal the lead away on lucky lap thirteen. From there it was all Minutolo in his No. 25b over Guererri, Aksel Jensen after a two-year hiatus, Grant and Rick Crego the top five.

“I’m kind of speechless as I didn’t expect to be here,” noted a surprised Minutolo, who captured his fourteenth Street Stock win and combined 80th full-fender win of his LOLR career.
“CJ has a good car and once he gets out front he’s usually gone. I kind of figured out Turn 1 and went from there. Appreciate all the work from the people that stand behind me.”

In the Smith Drywall Hobby Stocks it was once again the Bubba and Marc show as Bubba Burnell and Minutolo found themselves locked into another battle for full-fender supremacy. Burnell quickly grabbed the lead of the race on lap two following some daring three and four-wide moves on the opening lap.

Minutolo was a little more calculated in his march to the front of the pack and caught Burnell by halfway. A barrel full of yellow flags slowed the event and didn’t allow for drivers to get in much of a rhythm. While Minutolo was very good in the lower lane over the final laps, Burnell used the middle to high groove to get the perfect exit and keep Minutolo at bay.

It was the first victory of the season for Burnell in his title defense, Minutolo was second followed by Grant, Tyler Burnell and Justin Eldredge.

“Feels like this has been forever after we started out on fire last year,” said a relieved Burnell, after claiming his 41st full fender win and eclipsing Wall of Famer Jipp Ortiz.
“We made a lot of changes this morning to all three of our team cars and to have them all in the top-five at one point was amazing.”

The nightcap on this night was the MighTea Boba New Legends Sportsman division and while all of the events so far have been the Preston Trautschold invitational- Trautschold had a surprise challenger to win his fourth of the year.

Parker Ridley and Mitchell Hyde led the field to green for twelve long laps. Hyde would lead the first lap but a quick restart put Ridley on the front row with him. Ridley took the race lead in turn one on the restart and put together the best nine laps of his brief full size racecar career- at one point gapping Trautschold by nearly half a straightaway.

As the laps counted down, Ridley had a few bobbles in turn four which allowed the 10-year-old phenom to close in and eventually make the pass for the lead on lap 11. Though Ridley saw the driver of the No. 20 race by, these were the best laps to date for the driver known in the pit area as “The Mayor”.

“It was a really good battle with Ridley and even though the track (had character) I kind of liked figuring it out,” noted the calm, collected youngster out of Roscoe, NY.
“It was a fun night and just glad we were able to get our engine fixed after last night at Utica.”

Land of Legends Raceway Event Summary – June 27, 2026
Pepsi / Geneva Club Beverage, Ferris Mowers and Research Financial Group present Saturday Spectacular

Pepsi Big-Block Modified
Feature (30 laps): 1. 21a-Peter Britten ($2,000), 2. 70a-Alex Payne, 3. 98h-Jimmy Phelps, 4. 9s-Matt Sheppard, 5. 6-Mat Williamson, 6. 7z-Zach Payne, 7. 19-Tim Fuller, 8. 3-Justin Haers, 9. 11j-James Sweeting, 10. 30-Nick Root, 11. 28-Mike Trautschold, 12. 19w-Justin Wright, 13. 27z-Dylan Zacharias, 14. 22g-Gil Tegg Jr., 15. 1-Billy Paine, 16. 17-Marcus Dinkins, 17. 23c-Kasey Coffey, 18. 9g-Doug Gavette.

Stirling Lubricants Sportsman Modified
Feature (25 laps): 1. 33-Richard Murtaugh III ($750), 2. 25n-Evan Nugent, 3. 35-Nick Cooper, 4. 113jr-Frank Guererri Jr., 5. 10g-Austin Germinio, 6. 21j-Justin Liechti, 7. 20-Nick Galusha, 8. 41s Chase Spoor, 9. 63-Dylan Woodworth, 10. 123-Dale Welty, 11. 23b-Tim Borden Jr., 12. 711-Nick Ventura, 13. 20k-Kyle Ridley, 14. 1f-AJ Lloyd, 15. 7g-Tyler Guzzardi, 16. 10h-Trevor Houghton, 17. 45-Michael Lupold, 18. 54-Sullivan Dickey, 19. 54h-Brady Howard, 20. 87-Brad Sawyer, 21. 88-Steve Lead, 22. 714-Chris Darling, 23. 10-Karl Comfort, 24. 28-Mark Potter, 25. 43j-Jayden Wust, 26. 23r-Jim Rushman, 27. 9-Tim Baker (DNS)
Lap Leaders: Borden Jr. 1, Woodworth 2-8, Nugent 9-24, Murtaugh 25

DisBatch Brewing Company 305 Sprints
*Feature (20 laps): 1. 14x-Lance Dusett ($600), 2. 17e-Ethan Gray, 3. 15b-Spencer Burley, 4. 99-Adam Depuy, 5. 21w-Scott Wagner, 6. 80-Bobby Parrow, 7. 2-Randy Years, 8. 48jr-Darryl Ruggles, 9. 25g-Tyler Graves, 10. 81k-Dalton Martin, 11. 47-Kyle Drum, 12. 121-Steve Glover, 13. 18c-Dan Craun, 14. 23-John Smith, 15. 36-Mike Stelter, 16. 9z-Zach Bobbett, 17. 25-Cameron Moss, 18. 31c-Maverick Coffey, 19. Z28-Tucker Donath, 20. 22-Gary Drum, 21. 3v- Zach Virkler, 22. 77-Matt Rotz (DNF), 23. 48a- Alysha Bay (DNF).

Proctor Enterprises Street Stocks
*Feature (20 laps): 1. 25b-Marc Minutolo ($500), 2. CJ1-CJ Guererri, 3. 9-Aksel Jensen, 4. 36-Jimmy Grant, 5. 5c-Rick Crego, 6. 00-Mike Welch, 7. 12-John Burritt, 8. 57j-Ely Mangiarelli.

Smith Brothers Drywall Hobby Stock
*Feature (15 laps): 1. 57b-Bubba Burnell, 2. 25b-Marc Minutolo, 3. 36-Jimmy Grant, 4. 57j-Tyler Burnell, 5. 25j-Justin Eldredge, 6. 55b-Blane Smith, 7. 36x-Brighton Grant, 8. 98t-Jack Terrell, 9. 97-Kevin Schrader, 10. 8j-Jeff Rex, 11. 9r-Roger Bush, 12. 00-Mike Charette, 13. 22j-Jon Johnson, 14. 18-Wayne Ellison, 15. 4m-Austin Mangiarelli, 16. 93-Jared Hill, 17. 24k-Kevin Lloyd, 18. 61-Danny Kerrick, 19. 90-Nate Peckham.

MighTea Boba New Legends Sportsman
*Feature (12 laps): 1. 20-Preston Trautschold, 2. 11-Parker Ridley, 3. 26-Mitchell Hyde, 4. 33b-Brianna Murtaugh, 5. 33z-Syd Wetherbee, 6. 57-Shawn Toland, 7. 01-Christian Soladay, 8. 19-Benny Wagner, 9. 17r-Trent Regan, 10. 18-Doug Rohr, 11. 87j-Joel Knudsen Jr.