MALTA, N.Y. – Peter Britten, the 2017 Albany-Saratoga DIRTcar modified champion, was absent from the New York track last season because of back problems.

He returned to the speedway with a vengeance Friday night, winning the thrice-delayed season opener over fifth-starting Anthony Perrego by a razor thin margin.  Keith Flach, who traded the lead with polesitter Britten early on, was third.

Britten and Flach started on the front row by virtue of their heat wins, with Brett Hearn and Marc Johnson right behind them.  Britten got a good jump on the green, but Flach ran him down to lead lap two, setting the stage for a back and forth battle that would last for most of the 35-lap feature.

By lap 10 the popular Australian hit lapped traffic and promptly got squeezed into the frontstretch wall, though apparently it had no effect on his fleet Troyer modified.

At halfway the lead duo had a healthy lead over Hearn and Perrego, with Flach repeatedly getting a nose under the leader in turn two but never quite putting him away.

By lap 30 Perrego had caught fire, dispatching Hearn and running down the leaders.  He shot to second with three to go when a scramble with a lapped car slowed Flach and got even with Britten in the final corner but didn’t have the steam off the turn and had to settle for second.

“I always have trouble drawing here but we finally got a good draw to start up front in our heat,” offered Britten. “That really helped. Flach gave me a real battle there and starting further back would have been tough. After missing last year, I’m really enjoying this.”

Marc Johnson was fifth ahead of Kenny Tremont Jr., Ronnie Johnson, Bobby Hackel, Matt DeLorenzo and Jack Lehner.

Josh Coonradt won the crowd pleasing pro stock feature after swapping the lead with Brandon Emigh a few times. Chuckie Dumblewski was third.