FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PISTOL PETE BRITTAIN GIVES HIMSELF AN EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT WITH A DOMINATING CHEMUNG RoC WIN.

BY JR KENNERUP ( RoC Asphalt Media )
Chemung, NY .. Pete Brittain of Oakhurst, NJ certainly lived up to his nickname of “ Pistol Pete “ on Saturday night at the Chemung Speedrome. Once getting the lead on lap nine of the 75 lap feature when leader Rick Kluth pushed up the track in turn one. Pete was never seriously challenged for the remaining 66 laps and went on to his first Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour win of then season.
Eric Beers who moved into second on lap 71 ran out of time to catch Brittain and settled for second. Brittain’s teammate Tony Hanbury ran second for most of the race before being passed by Beers late. He went on to finish third. Ninth place starting Matt Hirschman ended up fourth with Lee Sherwood getting his career best Chemung finish with a fifth.
“We’ve been coming on strong as we found some stuff with the car that I really like,“ said the veteran driver who turned 53 on Sunday. “We had a great run at Oswego last week ( third ) and tonight the car was on rails. From the beginning of the race to the end of the race I never really ran it hard except for a couple of laps after a restart I would run it hard for a couple of laps and then try to save the tires.“
Brittain who started third moved into second at the drop of the green. From laps six to eight he and Eric Beers ran side by side exchanging the second place position. Just after the duo completed lap eight Beers had the advantage going into turn one. At the same time leader Kluth pushed up right in front of Beers and that was all Brittain needed as he motored into the lead.
Pete who won the 2004 RoC Central Region championship loved having the feeling that the car was that good on this night. “The car was awesome, we had good guys behind us the entire race and we could stretch it out on them pretty much at will. I would get two to three car lengths on them and then I could just ride.“
Still Pete while lighting up the front brakes as he entered the corners during the long stretches of green flag racing. “We were obviously on the brakes a lot especially through the middle of the corners.  Actually I had more rear brake in the car than I did front brakes. The car was just awesome as we found some stuff here this afternoon when we practiced. We tried some things and it worked as it made the car just awesome.“
Pete spoke about the tight point battle as he sits in second, one point out of the lead. “Mahoning you know anything can happen there,” said Pete. “ We have a good setup for Mahoning, we have a great setup for Wall and we ran real well at Thompson the last time we were there. I’m real excited about our chances.”
“Preparation is the key,” summed up Pete when talking about what it is going to take to win the championship. “These guys (Terry Zacharias, Tony Hanbury and his dad) do such a great job along with the whole crew. That is what it takes to win is a complete team effort.“
Pete had a little bit of a lucky charm on his side this night and he spoke about that. “Bobby Dillner and I have been friends for years. I haven’t seen him in a while and he came over to the car just before the feature and said to me you’re going to win tonight, good luck. He was a good luck charm for me tonight.“
“Yes I ran out of laps,“ said Eric Beers. “The crew gave me a good car tonight. George Kent helped me out there after the heat. I’ve only run here three or four times and George gave me some advice how to get the car around the turns. It went around the turns like crazy after that. George definitely gave me the right advice. If I had one more practice session because we only got one practice session today I could have tightened it up more.“
Beers who started fifth jumped to the outside groove at the start of the race and was up to second until leader Rick Kluth pushed up the track in turn one. This blocked Beers and allowed Pete Brittain to go from third to first with Beers ducking under Kluth on the same lap. Beers lost second to Tony Hanbury on lap 14 and challenged Hanbury for the spot for a few laps before settling in behind him.
Eric discussed his strategy during the middle portions of the feature when he was just riding it out. “I needed bite to get up off the corners and that is why I would slow down and save the right rear, then I would go after them pretty hard. I could feel the right rear greasing up and the last race here the longer we ran the looser the car became. I had to have something there at the end like we did tonight.“
“Pete had a good car tonight,“ said the new Central Region point leader. “ We had him passed, then Rick came up in front of us when we were battling for the lead and Pete made the pass.  Then when I got behind Tony I wanted to get past him quicker and the one time (lap 59 ) I got up alongside of him right here coming out of turn four and the right rear got out of the groove and I almost junked the car right here on the homestretch.“
“Then with nine to go I’m sitting there in fourth spot. I said I think I could pass all those guys, I was right almost as I needed a couple of more laps. We saved the tires in the middle of the race and had something there at the end,“ concluded Eric.
Eric is in the middle of a torrid Central Region point battle with three races to go. “Mahoning is like my home track and Wall is Pete’s home track. Thompson I have a little bit of an advantage because I run the tour there a lot. This is going to be interesting going to Mahoning after racing here as I race at a different track every week with my schedule. Mahoning is my home track, that is where I started racing and I’m looking forward to it.“
Part time RoC competitor Tony Hanbury drove the Mr. Jim car from the Zacharias Family racing stables to a third place finish. “Yes it was nice to get a good finish,“ said the 2004 overall RoC champion. “We were running behind Pete there for a while and I was just hanging out and saving my tires. When Eric got up along side me I said it’s time to go and when I got on it, the car became a little loose and that is how Eric got by me.“
While running second Tony was using an interesting line in turns one and two as he was running lower on the track than anybody else.  “I was seeing Pete running up a little higher down there and I tried it and my car didn’t feel good. So I arced the car a little more to get lower in the turns, it was a little looser but the car felt better coming off the turn to me.“
Qualifying for the 21 asphalt Modifieds in attendance saw heat races won by Brittain, Rusty Smith, and Hanbury.
DROME NOTES; For the first time in many years Zane Zeiner missed a RoC show. Zeiner couldn’t repair the car he wrecked last week at Oswego in time for this show. Plus his second car was deemed illegal by RoC officials due to questionable inner sheet metal and the legal repairs haven’t been made to this car yet. Brittain, Hanbury, Potrzebowski all raced in two divisions on the night while Scherer raced in three divisions.  Many drivers took advantage of the paid practice session that ran during the afternoon and this helped as it was a mostly wrecker free evening. Earl Paules lost a brake line in the heat race and this resulted in the car pounding the turn four outside wall. After the races Earl said it wasn’t that bad of a hit and was thankful the foam barriers were there to help curtail the damage. The car was repaired and Paules was the show in the feature as he was as high as third before settling for sixth in the end after starting 19th. Plus add in a rule infraction penalty incurred by Paules on lap 13 which saw him restart on the tail end of the field. Another RoC race, another awful evening for Rusty Smith as a smoking motor made him pull pit side early in the feature. Matt Clemens in the second John Markovic car while Kevin Lewis drove the second Rick Kluth car. Crew chief Terry Zacharias made his driving debut for the year as he ran the third Zacharias Racing entry on this night. With no racing at Mahoning Valley Rodney Gruber made the tow to Chemung. SPEED’s Bobby Dillner in attendance, as this was his first ever trip to the track.

RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR CENTRAL REGION RACE #3
FINISH; Pete Brittain, Eric Beers, Tony Hanbury, Matt Hirschman, Lee Sherwood, Earl Paules, Phil Slater, John Markovic, Bobby Holmes, TJ Potrzebowski, Dave Wollaber, Kory Rabenold, Rick Kluth, Daren Scherer, Chuck Frisbee, Rodney Gruber, Bill Chandler, Sr., Rusty Smith, Kevin Lewis, Matt Clemens, Terry Zacharias.
LAP LEADERS; Kluth ( 1 - 8 ), Britain ( 9 - 75 )
SUNOCO RACE FULES AWARD; Rabenold
GATER RACING NEWS $500 DRIVER BONUS DRAW; Wollaber
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Paules ( 19th to 6th )
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; Kluth ( 1st to 13th )
NEXT RoC RACE; Saturday August 19th Mahoning Valley Speedway Central Region Race # 4