Matt Pritiko Wraps Up NASCAR Late Model Season Second in Championship

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Nov 01, 2011 11:46 pm

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November 1, 2011

Matt Pritiko Wraps Up NASCAR Late Model Season Second in Championship

(London, ON) - Matt Pritiko wrapped up his second season of competition at Delaware Speedway in September, as he was able to develop consistency during the season, and drove his Global Warranty / Burwell Auto Body / NAPA Certified Body Shops / Hype Energy Chevrolet Impala to a silver medal performance at ‘Canada’s Finest Short Track’. The FT Garage NASCAR Late Model division at the historic half-mile is one of the toughest in the country, and has become a hot bed for future Canadian Stock Car stars, and after his 2010 campaign Pritiko seems like he could be the next in line.

The first half of the season didn’t go as planned, as Pritiko failed to finish a number of events, but he did run well in one of the highest profile Late Model events in the province on Victoria Day weekend in the Great Canadian 200. After qualifying third, and running solidly in the top-five the entire day, Matt was able to bring his #21 machine home with a solid second-place finish. Pritiko spoke about the day, “That was a really cool afternoon. My teammate Jon Urlin and I raced for the lead for a lot of the day, and we were all set to finish third until Jon got a flat tire at the end. The rest of the first half of the year was a struggle. We kept coming home with a wrecked car every week. A lot of times it was just a case of being in the wrong spot at the wrong time and getting caught up in someone else’s mess.”

Pritiko was able to post a couple of other top-fives in the first half of the season, as the championship battle saw Andrew Gresel well in front of a group that included Pritiko, Matt Robblee, Matt Box, and Shawn Thompson. They closed the first half of the year at Canada Day for the Maple City Tire 100, and even though some additional tough competition was in town for the special event, Pritiko was able to only muster decent results, qualifying ninth before finishing eighth and fourth in the twin-bill. But even those finishes weren’t a true indication of what the team would unleash on the competition in the second half of the season.

NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Kyle and Kurt Busch came to town on July 13th, and Pritiko qualified a pedestrian 13th. He failed to qualify for the feature through his heat race and was forced to run the B-Main to make his way into the exclusive field. He finished seventh, good enough for a 19th starting position in the main event. Matt drove through the field of elite talent from his deep starting position in the 50-lap affair in front of a packed house, finishing second to Jesse Kennedy.

The following week netted another second-place finish, before he came home third and 11th in an August fifth pair of features. After a sixth-place result, Pritiko found his way to victory lane on August 26th. He kicked off the night with a second-place qualifying run, and picked up the bronze medal in the first feature. In the second feature, Matt stalked and passed both Box and Thompson on his way to the front and his first feature win of the season.

On Labour Day weekend Matt qualified fourth, finishing third and fifth in the pair of features before closing the season out with a seventh-place result and another runner-up finish on championship night. In the second half of the season no one scored more points than Pritiko, as he distanced himself from the rest of the battle for second in points, but couldn’t overcome the huge lead that Gresel had in the standings.

Pritiko was very thrilled with his Delaware season, “It was a great year, and we were able to run well at the biggest events. After winning at the tail end of last year, I thought we would’ve got a few more this year, after we overcame our slow start, we were in the hunt every night during the second half of the season.”

The team would continue to race again after the Delaware schedule was over, competing at Sunset Speedway in late September. Matt qualified sixth, and was running fourth at the half-time break. In the second half of the event he fell back as far as eighth, but worked his way to just outside the top-five when the checkers flew. Pritiko enjoyed his out of town experience, “We ran well, and it’s such a really nice track to race at. We also went to Sauble Speedway this year for the first time, and finished fourth. It was nice to get to some other tracks this year, and run well when we were there.”