June 21, 2013

Pritiko Bags First Feature Win of Season at Delaware Speedway

(London, ON) – Matt Pritiko and his Global Warranty / Toyota-Town Toyota Camry finally shook the monkey off their back on Friday, June 14th as they found their way to victory lane at Delaware Speedway for the first time this season.

Pritiko started the night with practice and was the fastest FT Garage Late Model when the session came to an end.  In heat race competition Matt started fourth, but by the time just two laps were on the board he had passed everyone, including making a thrilling three-wide move, before he passed Mat Box for the lead.  After getting out front, Pritiko and his Toyota started to stretch it out en route to his third heat race win of the season.  He explained, “The car was great. We had some damage from the week before but we fixed it, and the car was fast.”

The feature was the nightcap, and Pritiko rolled off seventh before climbing into the top-five in a mere two laps.  On lap five he was able to follow Box through a hole and pass Tyler Hendricks before getting around Box for second on lap six.  Pritiko started to pressure leader Doug Stewart, and on lap 11 took command before stretching out a small lead.  Box was able to move to second, and he would challenge Pritiko on restarts.  Through the final 30 laps of the event, the field would be slowed by one yellow flag and three red flags, but on every restart Pritiko was able to hold serve.  “The breaks in the action came at good times.  Our Global Warranty Toyota great on the restarts, but would get loose on longer runs.  The red flags helped us a lot, and the tires would cool down before we had to go racing again.  That really seemed to help.”

For Pritiko it was his first feature win of the season, and helped him close to within eight points of the championship leader Jamie Cox.  “It feels good to get back to victory lane, and we had a perfect night.  We won the heat, won the feature, led the most laps, and cut the point lead from 20 points to eighth.  It also starts to make up for the first two nights when we led for a while in one race, and spun out trying to take the lead in the other.”

1.      Matt Pritiko, 2. Jay Doerr, 3. Cox, 4. Box, 5. Stewart.

Pritiko was also in action on June seventh, and rolled off the trailer fifth-fastest in practice. 

The first shot at competition came in the heat race and Pritiko started fourth.  He quickly climbed to third and started to put pressure on Doerr, who was chasing leader J.R. Fitzpatrick.  On lap eighth he was involved in a mix-up with Doerr, and Shawn Thompson, and while the car suffered some damage he was still able to bring it home with a third-place result.

After rolling off ninth he was involved in a lap three altercation and would be forced to pit road, and restarted at the back of the field in 13th.  When the green came out, Pritiko was able to pick his way forward and found himself as high as eighth nine.  For the remainder of the race, Matt found himself shuttling between eighth and ninth before winding up with a ninth-place result.  “We damaged the right rear of the car, as well as the exhaust, and the hot exhaust was leaking right onto the right rear tire and cooking it.  Between that, and just getting stuck in heavy race traffic, we just couldn’t move up.  It was a tough race for us, and not what we looking for.”

Jay Doerr captured his first feature win of the season, taking the lead from Adam Quarrie, and then holding off Cox for the win.

1.      Doerr, 2. Cox, 3. Quarrie, 4. Thompson, 5. Steve Richmond, 9. Matt Pritiko.

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This Saturday night, Pritiko will be part of a special event at Delaware Speedway, called the ‘High School Challenge’.  The event was originally scheduled earlier in the year, but was rained out.  A number of FT Garage Late Model stars have been teamed with London and area high-schools, as the students have built the racers over the past months.  Pritiko will be representing Thames Secondary School in his four cylinder Bone Stock.

The Global Warranty Toyota will be on display and Matt will be at the Lexus of London Golf Classic, Sunday June 23rd, and Monday, June 24th to be held at The Oaks Golf and Country Club.  The team will be auctioning off a variety of prizes, including Track Days, Ride-alongs, and Karting packages.

For more information on Matt Pritiko, Global Warranty/ Global Warranty Racing, Toyota-Town, Delaware Speedway, please visit www.mattpritiko.com, www.globalwarranty.com, www.toyota-town.com, www.delawarespeedway.com, or matt@mattpritiko.com.  Or follow us on Twitter @mattpritiko

Release and photos by www.maudsleymotorsports.com.

Victory Lane photo courtesy of Delaware Speedway.