BRIGHTON, Ont. (June 27, 2016) – Phil Potts rallied from an eighth-place starting position to earn a second-place finish in his second start of the season with the Go Nuclear Late Model Series at Brighton Speedway.
Potts was making his second start of the season with the Go Nuclear tour after finishing sixth in the season-opening race at Utica-Rome Speedway in April. Potts started the night by qualifying fourth in his group which earned him the pole starting position for the third heat. He utilized it to his advantage and drove to a third-place finish and a spot in the redraw.
Potts was the final driver to pull a number in the redraw, leaving him with the eighth-place spot in the 21-car field.
The driver of the Fowl Mood Racing team’s Vanderlaan/Brighton Recycling No.29 wasted little time making a move forward as he drove to fourth by the time of a lap six caution.
Potts maintained a spot in the top-five until the final restart of the race on lap 34 when he took off. In a matter of four laps, Potts passed both Brandon Mowat and Steve Baldwin for second and third, respectively. Charlie Sandercock’s lead was too large for Potts to overcome in the final 10 laps as he earned a second-place finish.
“My goal was to stay in the top-five the first half then go in the second half and then the last 15 laps drive as hard as I could. I should have gone harder sooner, but I can’t complain about a second-place finish with no damage on the car,” Potts explained. “I’d like to have had the chance to bang doors with Charlie, but all in all the team’s happy and I’m happy.”
Potts was again satisfied not only with his finish but the high level of racing demonstrated by both Brighton’s regular and series drivers.
“It was good racing. The Late Models have been good racing at Brighton. It was slick on the long run and I got good heat in my tires. I was able to run right in the slick when I needed to,” Potts commented.
The Brighton native also praised the work of track owner/promoter Mark Rinaldi and his team for their track preparation so far this season.
“That’s two weeks in a row where it’s been a slick track, but there’s two grooves. I have to give it to the track guys, Mark, Junior (French) and everybody else,” Potts said. “They’re working really hard on giving us a good racing surface and it’s been real good.”
The team now gets set for a pair of time trial events. Double points are on the line Saturday, July 2 at Brighton’s Canada Day Mid-Season Championships before round four of the Go Nuclear Late Model Series at Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday.
“We’ll play with it again and make some more part changes. We have a couple of more tricks up our sleeve. Hopefully we can get the time trial down a better. If we can’t we’ll get them back in he feature with any luck,” Potts said of his time trial strategy for Saturday’s big event.
Continue Potts: “I’m looking forward to Cornwall. I think it will be fun. I don’t find it hardly any different than Brighton. It’s usually slicker than Brighton, so I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to get this car on that track. I’m going to love it come the feature.”
Complete event information for both races will be available at www.brightonspeedway.ca and www.gonuclearlatemodelseries.com.
SEASON STATS
Phil Potts – 11 Starts: 1 Win, 8 Top-5s, 10 Top-10s
FOWL MOOD MEDIA
Website: www.fowlmoodracing.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/FowlMoodRaceTeam
Twitter: @FowlMoodRacing.
The Fowl Mood Race Team’s 2016 season is supported by several dedicated corporate sponsors, including Vanderlaan Building Products, Brighton Recycling, Indewey Excavating and Crow Design.
Prepared By Clayton Johns Media (@cjohnsmedia)
