MALTA, N.Y. — Peter Britten’s new Bicknell chassis works just fine, thank you.
A Troyer loyalist since emigrating from Queensland, Australia, Britten switched chassis manufacturers this season and got his mojo back.
After lining up 13th, the former Albany-Saratoga champion charged steadily through the field, showing eighth at lap ten and then fifth at the halfway point of Friday night’s 35-lap DIRTcar modified feature that ran green to checkers.
Britten had Todd Stone, early leader Rich Ronca, Keith Flach and Neil Stratton ahead of him when Stone caught the tail of the field just after halfway and picked them off one by one, much to the large crowd’s pleasure.
It took the third starting Stone five laps to take command from polesitter Ronca and from then on, he looked like a winner if there were no cautions to close up the field. But traffic would be his undoing, as Britten repeatedly put his No. 21 in places it didn’t look like it would fit, in the process moving to second on lap 27.
It then took him five laps to get to Stone’s rear bumper and when they caught another gaggle of lappers between turns three and four, Britten dove to the inside and squeezed between a lapper and the concrete to steal the lead.
“I didn’t even know Todd was leading,” admitted the jubilant winner. I thought it was Ronca and I was just trying to maintain my lead. It’s been a while. It’s been a journey to get here again but now I have a checkered flag for my daughter.”
Positions changed so fast in the last two laps that it was hard to keep track of who was where but Stone held on to second with Flach, Stratton, Anthony Perrego, Jessey Mueller, Ronca, 20th-starting Mike Mahaney and Kenny Tremont Jr. rounding out the top 10.
Ronca edged Perrego in the modified dash while Matt Mosher bested Al Relyea in the Street Stock finale. Pro Stock action saw Josh Coonradt prevail over Jason Metz, Chad Jeseo, Jay Casey and Rob Yetman.