Britten Scores Best Finish of The Season With Super DIRTcar Series

Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / PETER BRITTEN RACING – WEEDSPORT, NY – Peter Britten is coming off his best performance of the season with the Super DIRTcar Series by earning a fifth-place finish Tuesday night for the Hall of Fame 100 at Weedsport Speedway.

“I was pretty happy with our results considering the way the Series has been going for us this year between wrecks and lacking on speed,” Britten said.

The competition began last Friday at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y.

“We had all sorts of troubles on Friday,” he said. “That was the first race since the Big Show in that car because we rained out last week. We fell out of that race thinking it was the fuel pump.”

After the Big Show at Albany the team went over the car and thought they had fixed the problem going into Friday nights race.

“We went out for hot laps Friday night and the motor still wouldn’t run,” he said. “We came in, changed fuel pumps again, pulled the fuel cell apart and tried to find out what was wrong. I put it all back together, went out for the heat race, the motor still wouldn’t run. At that point it starts to get pretty discouraging.”

Britten only made one lap in the heat race and pulled off.

“We get a second set of hot laps before the feature,” Britten noted. “The same thing happened again. Finally we threw a couple more things at it that we didn’t think would really fix it. We knew we had to try something.”

Britten lined up 31st for the 35-lap main event.

“I didn’t even do my tear-offs because I didn’t think I was going to be out there very long.”

Whatever changes the team made prier to the feature finally did the trick.

“The first couple of laps the motor actually ran good,” he said. “I was like ‘alright I guess I get to race now.’”

Britten went on a tear and drove his way from the back of the pack to cap off the night with a fourth-place finish.

“It started out to be a night where I thought I was going to lose the point lead by a big margin,” he said. “We ended up extending the point lead.”

Britten currently leads the championship point standings by 12 points at Albany over Keith Flach.

The team was slated to compete on Sunday at Cornwall Speedway but weather washed the event out.

Britten competed at Weedsport Speedway Tuesday evening with the Super DIRTcar Series for the Hall of Fame 100 in the No.21a Big Block Modified.

Britten timed third in his group, placing him third in the heat race. Britten finished where he started, in third, which put him in the top-12 redraw for the 100-lap main event.

“I felt we were competitive,” noted Britten. “We definitely weren’t the fastest car out there but we were in the ballpark.”

After a pre-race redraw, Britten lined up on the outside pole for the main event.

“We were a little tight at the start of the race,” he said. “It took me a couple of laps to get going. I slipped back a couple of spots initially but spent most of the race in sixth.”

A late race caution gave Britten the advantage to tighten back up to the field.

“We set up to be a little bit tighter so the longer the race went on the faster we got,” he said. “The final restart I was able to get by Tim Fuller for fifth.”

Tuesday night’s fifth-place finish was Britten’s best results on the Super DIRTcar Series this season.

“I had been waiting on this new car,” he said. Britten mentioned the No.21a being a brand new Troyer with a new C.C. Performance motor under the hood.

“Now that we have those pieces in I feel like it’s definitely helped me turn the corner a little bit. Even at Utica-Rome last week I finished tenth with the new car. I don’t really run well there. I was happy with that and now a top five at Weedsport. Both times I’ve had this car out I’ve been in the top ten. It’s good especially now that we’re getting busy with the Series.”

Britten has a very busy week ahead of him. He will be at Albany-Saratoga this Friday then will head West for the Ohio swing with the Super DIRTcar Series and run Eldora Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday then to Sharon Speedway on Thursday and then back to Albany-Saratoga on Friday.