By: Matt Pritiko Motorsports
July 18 2017
London, Ontario – Matt Pritiko continues to gain momentum is his Global Warranty No.21 Toyota Camry as the London, Ont. driver earned his second podium finish of the season during APC United Late Model Series competition at Flamboro Speedway on Saturday night.
Pritiko, a multi-time winner at Flamboro, unloaded a fast car once again at Flamboro. The team had speed right away, but did have to battle through some mechanical issues in practice.
“We had some issues in practice,” Pritiko said. “We thought we had a battery issue, which we did because the alternator wasn’t pumping any juice to the battery. We put a new alternator on, went out again and it didn’t really solve the issue. Then we played with the carburetor a little bit and found out it had an issue. We put on the spare carb in practice not knowing if that would fix the issue or not, but it worked pretty well.”
The crew tuned the No.21 perfectly for qualifying time trials and Pritiko laid down the fastest lap to earn his first Quick Time award of the season. In the top-five redraw that followed qualifying, Pritiko pulled the third starting spot for the 100-lap London Recreational Racing 100.
“I rode around in third for quite a while,” Pritiko said. “Then, Brandon (Watson) kind of pulled out of line and got a little loose coming out of the corner. I think he was possibly overheating because I know we were overheating since we were running nose to tail for the whole race. He pulled out and I got under him. We made a little contact, but I was able to get around him and hold on to second for a lap or two until a caution came out.”
The ensuing restart forced Pritiko to the outside lane that had considerably less grip. He fought with leader Andy Kamrath to take the point, but was weary of slipping back further in the treacherous top groove.
“I got stuck on the outside on the restart and wasn’t able to hold a good line,” Pritiko said. “I was able to dip back down to third when the spotter cleared me. We more or less ran nose to tail the rest of the race. I was really expecting Brandon to give Kamrath a little nudge on the last lap. I could have easily dove down and got under them if they made contact.”
Pritiko settled for a third-place finish, which was a welcome result to close the first half of a tumultuous season to date. Despite the mechanical problems that plagued Pritiko in the first half, he has remained in the championship conversation and sits seventh in APC Series points with five races remaining.
“In the first half we had some mechanical issues and everybody knows that,” Pritiko said. “When we’re on, we’re on and we definitely show that in our performances and with our pole positions. We’re back where we want to be in the top-three. The last half of the season, we’re looking for nothing less than a top-three. I’m looking forward to continuing the momentum in a couple of weeks at Sauble Beach.”
Pritiko is excited to head to ‘The Beach’ for the Spira Beat the Heat 100 on August 5. Pritiko is the current time trial track record holder at Sauble and earned an APC Series win at the track in 2015. For additional event information, visit www.apcracingseries.com.
2017 SEASON STATS
Matt Pritiko – 5 Starts: 0 Wins, 2 Top-5, 4 Top-10s
MATT PRITIKO MEDIA
Website: www.mattpritiko.com
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Twitter: @MattPritiko
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PRITIKO’S PARTNERS
Matt Pritiko is proud to partner with several dedicated marketing partners for the 2017 race season, including Global Warranty, NAPA Certfied Bodyshops, Burwell Autobody Ltd., Cadillac Industrial Cleaning, Glencoe Auto Recyclers, SellToWin.com, Aquahydrate and Palasad of London.