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POTRZEBOWSKI WAITS OUT THE RAIN AND HOLDS OFF HIRSCHMAN FOR HOLLAND RoC WIN
BY JR KENNERUP ( RoC MEDIA )
Holland, NY He hasn’t won a feature in fifteen months so TJ Potrzebowski of Elmira, NY didn’t mind waiting out a 90 minute rain delay on Saturday night at the Holland Speedway. Running a car that was just about perfect TJ took the lead from Lee Sherwood on a lap six restart and looked in control of the race until the rains came down on lap eleven. After ninety minutes of rain and track drying TJ continued his quick pace by first holding off Tony Hanbury. Then finally holding off a fast closing Matt Hirschman over the final seven laps to win the Kayak Pools & Spa sponsored Race of Champions Modified Tour North Region 100 lap feature on Saturday night. Hirschman who pitted for a flat tire on lap 11 finished second with tenth place starter Tony Hanbury ending up third. Zane Zeiner finished fourth after starting 13th while the hard charger of the race Earl Paules finished fifth after starting 18th.
“ It’s back ( my smile ) as it’s been too long “ said the smiling TJ. “ We won one race last year at Spencer. We went from winning a minimum of five races a year, we won eight to eleven races a year for a couple of years in a row. Dropped right off and had a bad year last year, we’ve been consistent this year and we were hungry for a win. “
TJ who is nicknamed “ The Piranha “ started the 100 lap feature in third position and quickly moved into second by the second lap. TJ got the jump on a sixth lap restart to over take then leader Lee Sherwood for the lead he would never relinquish. Then after leading the next five laps the rains hit the speedway and this led to other concerns for Potrzebowski.
“ I was a little concerned about what the tires were going to do “ said TJ. “ They ( the tires ) got cold enough, they got enough water on them and they could change. Then the track could change too as I’ve seen it loosen up and I’ve seen it tighten up. You just didn’t know what was going to happen, we couldn’t do any adjustments. Everybody was in the same boat and we knew that too. “
Once the race restarted it looked as nothing changed for Potrzebowski as he reassumed his commanding lead. “ It was a good racecar right off the trailer today “ stated TJ. “ We only tweaked on it throughout the day, it was a fast racecar. “
During the middle stages of the feature Potrzebowski held nearly a full straightaway lead but the last 25 laps the big lead was almost non - existent. “ The caution before the last one I couldn’t get my front tires cleaned off enough cause the pace car wasn’t going fast enough “ said TJ. “ I figured that this wasn’t going to be nice. But I also figured that the guys behind me were in the same boat, but obviously they weren’t. I was picking it up first and I couldn’t get the front tires cleaned off so I slid up the track. I had to take it a little slow for a couple of laps to keep the lead and then it came right back to me. Then on that last restart we took off pretty good. “
TJ did have one hairy moment during the feature and it came on a restart just before the halfway point with Tony Hanbury along side. “ I don’t know “ said TJ when talking about what happened. “ Tony tried to get a jump on me, he’s trying to beat the rain. He swerved out and I swerved up, next thing I knew we were tangled and I said this is not good. We both just lifted and gathered things back up and they ( officials ) did the right thing by restarting, there was no harm done. “ 
The last restart of the race on lap 93 was the most important restart of the race for TJ and the second place car of Matt Hirschman. Matt who had a right rear tire go flat during the rain delay had to pit and restart at the rear of the field after pitting to replace the tire. Matt raced conservatively until lap 60 and then started to run the outside groove of the banked oval. Matt was passing cars at will until the final yellow appeared with seven laps to go.
“ I honestly knew it was going to be a handful in holding him off “ said TJ. “ I figured that he must have pitted for a new tire by the way he was coming on there at the end, by passing everyone on the outside. I figured that I was going to do everything that I could do to hold him off and not give it away. “
TJ was very complimentary of the way the second generation driver raced him the final seven laps battling for the lead. “ Matt’s a very good and clean driver, I’ll race him any day “ stated TJ.
“ We did consider it “ answered TJ when asked if stopping for a fresh right rear was in the plans. “ If we would have qualified poorly or had something happened during the night we were prepared to pit. Obviously Matt proved that you could pit and come back up through the field after pitting for a new tire. We were up front so we were going to be conservative and ride easy. But that went out the window when Tony got into second, he wasn’t going to let me do that.” 
Potrzebowski summed up his feelings of finally winning a feature after 15 months without a win. “ It gets the monkey off our backs finally “ said the relived smiling driver.
“ It did “ said Matt Hirschman when talking about the last caution of the race on lap 93. “ I think if it wasn’t for that we had a pretty good shot at it. I had them guys where I wanted them and the caution came out. It gave TJ a chance to think what he needed to do and they ( his crew ) was going to tell him what I was going to do. But he ( TJ ) did what he had to do, he ran a good race, he didn’t do nothing wrong. We came up just a little bit short, second’s a good finish. You can’t win them all, I’m hungry for a win, second is a good finish for us tonight. Get us some momentum as we’ve had a tough couple of weeks. We’re always a contender as we’ve been looking at some good finishes but something always happens at the end to cost us that good finish. Every week out we’ve been good but our finishes haven‘t shown how good we are. “
The joy of second was dimmed a little as a couple of drivers ( fourth & fifth ) in the top five accused Matt of not following the tire rules of the race. In all RoC events you are allowed to use six tires maximum, an additional tire is allowed in case a driver has multiple flat tires during the racing program. Matt was actually in good standing of the tire rule as when he changed his flat tire it was his sixth tire of the show that he was currently having placed on the car.
“ I’m going to say it wasn’t a blessing in disguise “ said Matt when talking about the tire going flat during the rain delay. “ It was only lap eleven. Had it been later in the race, getting a flat then it would have worked in your favor. That happened to ( Tom ) McGrath at Lancaster as someone flattened his tire and he came in and got another tire. Same thing happened to me but lap eleven it was not an advantage for me, I didn’t want to pit at lap eleven. I didn’t want to pit the whole race but the guys are a little confused here afterwards as they think I got an additional tire and I broke the rules. But I got a flat tire and I changed it and it was a marked tire, so I didn’t do nothing wrong. I’m not sure why they don’t know the rules as they’ve run the Series longer than I have. I did what was there available for me. “
Matt debuted on July 1st a new Troyer chassis and this car change has really helped him. “ Both of our finishes at the last two Tour races didn’t show how good we were at those races “ said the second generation driver. “ We weren’t a winning car at either race but were a solid top five car but our finishes didn’t show it. We had a flat with five to go at Thompson and loss of power steering slowed us at Lancaster. I think it’s going to be a real good car as our other car was ten years old and a lot of things change in ten years. The older car is a good car but we hope this car can get us some wins this season. “ 
“ It’s was pretty awkward as we planned on pitting for a right rear because the way you wear out tires here “ said third place finisher Tony Hanbury. “ It got raining and stuff, they counted cautions and TJ was running good and I was running good so we weren’t going to pit. It burnt me at Lancaster ( by not pitting ) and we were going to pit and we didn’t. Tonight we were going to pit, then thinking not to pit, then hoping for rain, it was pretty wild. “
Tony summed up the night of racing for his team. “ We came into the day hoping for a top ten to help us in the points and bring the car home in one piece. We did that and we’re happy. “ 
Qualifying for the 25 Modifieds in attendance saw Pete Brittain, Hirschman, and Potrzebowski win the heat races.
Notes; Holland track management along with RoC officials should be given plenty of credit for running a quickly paced program before the rains hit the speedway. The Holland track drying crew did an excellent job by getting the track dry and race ready in less than 25 minutes after the rain stopped. Hot laps were full of unwanted excitement with Rusty Smith and JR Kent getting into the wall in separate incidents. Kent had minor damage that was repaired in time for the heat. Meanwhile the Smith crew deserves plenty of credit as they had a severely bent and crippled racecar repaired in less than three hours and ready to run in the feature. Dick Kluth blew a motor in his car in the final hot lap session, he then drove his son’s backup car for the remainder of the show. A big RoC welcome back to Matt Parsons who ran in his first RoC show of the season after spending some time on the Hooters Pro Cup Series. Matt was as high as second until spinning through the infield with less than 30 laps to go. Despite giving the Modifieds a night off only one Lancaster weekly racer, Matt Alix supported the show and the two tracks are only 30 minutes apart.
RoC Modified Tour Race Report North Region Race 3