LONDON, Ont. (July 23, 2018) – Matt Pritiko’s Saturday at Flamboro Speedway was more eventful and labour-intensive than the London, Ont. driver would have liked. Pritiko was back at the Millgrove, Ont. 1/3-mile oval on Saturday, July 21 for round five of the APC United Late Model Series schedule. When the checkered flag waved though, he came away with a fourth-place finish and his second top-five result of the season.
Early in the day, Pritiko’s Global Warranty/Toyota Town No.21 Camry suffered a broken clutch. The team was forced to miss most of the afternoon practice session while making the repairs and had little track time before hitting the speedway for qualifying. Pritiko timed in 13th fastest, an uncharacteristic position for the driver used to being in the top-five.
“Qualifying 13th was just the result of not a lot of practice,” Pritiko said. “We only had one short practice session. We found out Sunday the motor is broken too, so it was an eventful night.”
In the early going, Pritiko moved his way forward to ninth before restarting in eighth and getting pinned in the outside lane on Flamboro’s narrow confines where the bottom line is the clear preferred lane.
“I got stuck on the outside for two or three restarts,” Pritiko explained. “We went up to ninth at halfway and fell back to 13th again after we got stuck outside, but then there were a couple of cautions and we avoided a few wrecks in front of us. We used that to help get to the front.”
With five laps to go, Pritiko found himself in fourth and pressuring Treyten Lapcevich for third before the final caution of the race with two laps to go set up a green-white-checkered finish.
“On the last green-white-checkered restart, we were on the outside with the No.32 of Lapcevich beside us,” Pritiko said. “We were side-by-side pretty much until the final corner and he just got a better run out of the corner on the bottom.”
Overall, Pritiko was happy to come away with a top-five finish after mechanical problems resulted in a 20th-place finish at Delaware three weeks ago. The fourth-place result at Flamboro was certainly the result of a hard day’s worked.
“We were really lucky to finish where we did this week with our issues, but it’s good to have some luck back on our side,” Pritiko said. “We definitely earned it. We’ll take a fourth any day, especially with what we had.”
Now Pritiko’s team shifts their focus to the next series race, the Spira Beat the Heat 100 at Sauble Speedway on August 4. Pritiko’s lone series win came at the Sauble Beach, Ont. track on June 25, 2016 and he also finished second there in 2017.
“We had a top-three car even with the issues we had at Flamboro, so I’m looking forward to getting all the issues sorted out for next race,” Pritiko said. “We’ll be good for next race at Sauble. We’ve won there before. We’re quick there and we’ll be good again.”
Up Next
Matt Pritiko will return to action in just under two weeks time on Saturday, August 4 at Sauble Speedway for round 6 of the APC United Late Model Series in the Spira Fire Protection Beat the Heat 100. Keep up to date with the latest news on Matt Pritiko online at www.mattpritiko.com or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the links below.
2018 SEASON STATS
Matt Pritiko – 5 Starts: 0 Wins, 2 Top-5s, 3 Top-10s
MATT PRITIKO MEDIA
Website: www.mattpritiko.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/MattPritiko
Twitter: @MattPritiko
Instagram: @MattPritiko21
PRITIKO’S PARTNERS
Matt Pritiko is proud to partner with several dedicated marketing partners for the 2018 race season, including Global Warranty, NAPA Certified Bodyshops, Burwell Autobody Ltd., Cadillac Industrial Cleaning, Glencoe Auto Recyclers, SellToWin.com, Wix Filters, Toyota-Town.com and Palasad of London.
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