2003 ZR Motorsports News

Petropoulos Shined Memorial Day Weekend At Lanier

Atlanta, GA. - (May 24, 2003) The potential of 24-year driver Peter Petropoulos shined in front of a huge Memorial Day weekend crowd Saturday night at Lanier National Speedway in Braselton, Ga. as the Flowery Branch resident won his first career pole award. He then backed up his outstanding qualifying effort with a career-best second place finish in the 100-lap Pro Late Model feature in the No. 28 Battle Paint and Drywall Chevrolet.

"I was very surprised," said Petropoulos of his 14.200 second lap in time trials. "But, what sums it up is we have a new crew chief (Steve Whitehead) and somebody that's got experience. Now I can display my talent and show what this team is capable of. Steve has been around for years. Everybody knows him and respects him and has come up to me and said 'listen to him and you will learn a lot.' This is his first weekend with us. That really says a lot."

The roll of the dice forced Petropoulos forced to start fifth, but he quickly surged to the front and engaged in a crowd-pleasing battle with former track champion Clay Dale for third before passing Fredrick Moore several laps later to finish second to eventual race winner Richey Etheridge.

"It was real exciting racing Clay," said Petropoulos of a late-race rubbing incident with the part-time Busch Series driver. "It wasn't payback. It was basically he raced me that way and he bumped me. I bumped him back for the position."

Petropoulos returns to action at Lanier National Speedway on Saturday May 31. He hopes to improve one position next week in the finishing order and claim his first Pro Late Model victory.