LONDON, ON (July 4, 2019)- – Hours after securing a fourth place finish in Round 4 of the APC United Late Model Series season at Delaware Speedway last Saturday, Matt Pritiko was all smiles.
The gutsy performance kept Pritiko within three markers of current point leader Shae Gemmell. And, while he understandably would have preferred to leave Delaware with another series victory, it remained clear just how much the first-generation racer is appreciating the experience as a whole.
“Championships are built on nights like this one,” offered Pritiko in reference to his evening. “The nights where you lead a ton of laps and win the race make for a better story – but it’s the armful of top-five finishes that usually make or break your season when it comes to the standings”
“It’s not possible to win every night on this tour – there’s just too much talent out there,” continued the London, ON native. “But, you can absolutely push yourself to be good every night. You can do everything you can to run in the top-five every night. That’s within reach. And that’s what you have to do to win a championship”
Thus far in 2019, Pritiko has been the picture of consistency. And, with a victory in Round 2 at Flamboro Speedway coupled with the fourth-place finish in Round 4 at Delaware, it would seem as though the former road course standout is heating up at the right time.
“You can’t slip up even for one night on this tour because of how tight the competition is,” said Pritiko. “If you make any type of mistake, you’re going to be putting your team at a huge disadvantage. It’s that simple”
“The guys on this team all want this (championship) as badly as I do. We’re all in as far as chasing this points deal. But, we know that there’s a lot of calendar spots between now and the end of September. Anything can happen still and we can’t stop working towards where we know we need to be”
Next Saturday, the tour will return to Flamboro Speedway for Round 5 of the schedule. After a dramatic victory in his last tour appearance at Flamboro, Pritiko will be ready to double down.
“It’s not enough to say that we’re going into Flamboro with motivation because I don’t think there’s a single team on this roster that’s lacking in motivation,” quipped Pritiko. “We want to go there and win again because we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we’re good enough to do it”
“We’re in a good place right now as far as the (points) standings go but we need to keep helping ourselves. We need to keep running up front. And a win would absolutely do a lot for our push for a championship”
“There’s still half of the season left – and that’s a lot of time to either have some good nights and take over the top spot in the standings or have a bad night and fall backwards,” added the well-spoken standout. “When you look up and down this roster there’s easily a dozen guys that could win on any given night. It’s up to us to find out how to outrun them.”
Pritiko’s next appearance will come July 13th at Flamboro Speedway for the fifth round of the APC United Late Model Series’ 2019 schedule.
For more information on the London Recreational 100 at Flamboro Speedway, visit www.flamborospeedway.ca and www.apcracingseries.com
Website: www.mattpritiko.com
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