Oswego, NY - Pistol Pete Brittain of Oakhurst, NJ led all 100 laps Saturday night at the Oswego Speedway to claim the Race of Champions ( RoC ) Dart Asphalt Modified Tour win in the annual Richie Evans Memorial race.

By no means was it an easy win for Brittain as he had to hold off the relentless challenges of four different drivers over the distance of the feature. The final challenger over the final two laps was Jan Leaty who fell four feet short at the checkers. With a near photo finish taking place for the win and even closer finish took place behind the leading duo. Tony Hirschman who challenged for the lead late in the race held on to third with Lee Sherwood nipping Bill Hebing at the line for fourth in the hotly contested feature. 

"Finishing second is nothing to complain about" said second place finisher Jan Leaty. " I was just talking to Tony and we ran a lot of laps together today around here just like we did plenty of times before, it was fun racing like that tonight. As we raced each other hard and we didn’t touch at all racing."

Jan started in 11th and raced like a veteran early in the race as he let the young drivers charge to the front. Just after the halfway mark was shown Jan said it was time to go as he bolted into fifth. Jan stayed right in the mix for the lead as he moved into fourth on lap 55 and into third on lap 83. With two laps to go Jan jumped to the outside to pass Tony Hirschman for second and tried to pass Brittain for the lead but feel four feet short at the line.

After the race Jan spoke about the technical aspect of the feature. "It’s a 100 laps, all green flag laps and you can only change one tire if you want to " said Jan. "I have found over time that changing one tire will sometimes hurt the car more than it helps it balance wise. I set out to make all 100 laps on one set of tires."

"You have to race the track, save the tires, same old, same old, be really careful and save something there for the end," answered Jan to his strategy at Oswego. " My brother kept asking me early if I wanted to come in and put a tire on. I told him that you have to trust me as the car is good, we’re going to be fine and I was going to wait for the right time to go. Truthfully I probably waited a little too long but you have to wait for everyone to soften up before you can go to the front."

"I would have loved to had a chance to mix it up a few laps more there at the end with Pete " recalled Jan. "I knew it was going to be really difficult there at the end racing Pete for the win. But I didn’t want to wreck the car again as we just got it put back together after wrecking it in early May.