News Director 
Story By: PAUL HARKENRIDER / PST – WOODHULL, NY – Davie Franek has certainly been the guy to beat in the northeast and he proved it once again at Woodhull Raceway this past Saturday night, but it was not easy having to hold off a very fast Jared Zimbardi.
“The fastest car definitely didn’t win tonight; we really weren’t that good” Franek commented in victory lane. “Starting position was key tonight, I was fortunate enough to find a little bit of moisture there on the bottom and I heard Jared (Zimbardi) there on the top so I tried to make the car as wide as I could to hold him off, we are happy to be standing here again.”
Franek lost the lead to Kyle Drum in his heat race but was still able to make it into the redraw and pull the No. 2 t-shirt. He would start alongside PST veteran, Steve Glover.
The field would charge into the first set of corners with third starter Jared Zimbardi wasting no time getting into the runner up position. It took several laps for Zimbardi to find a comfortable racing line before he was able to start tracking down Franek.
By lap 16 or so, Franek began to pull away from Zimbardi and had no issue getting by lap traffic. Then on lap 19, Eric Kurtz would spin in the middle of turn two bringing out the yellow flag.
On the restart, Franek went low and Zimbardi went high picking up a ton of momentum as they raced down the long back stretch. Zimbardi’s final opportunity came on lap 23 when he was sailing the top side, but when he drove into one and two, he lost a little control of the car which allowed Franek to pull away from him again. Franek would hold on to take the win with Zimbardi finishing second and Jordan Thomas continues to improve at Woodhull finishing third.
For Franek, this was his fourth win with the Patriots in 2019 and his ninth career under the PST sanction. Franek will visit another two new tracks next weekend when the tour heads to Brockville and Cornwall for their lone appearances in 2019.
“There is no right or wrong in this racing deal” Franek continued to talk about in victory lane. “Whatever the car is doing, you just try to fix it and do the best you can. Sometimes you guess right, sometimes you guess wrong”
For Zimbardi, although not coming away with the win, he was very happy to take home a runner up spot at a track he has typically struggled at.
“There is really good berm here in the corners” he admitted. “It takes a lot of discipline and endurance to bang the cushion for 20 laps in a row and not screw up. Davie is a smart racer; he knew he had to make his car as wide as he can, and you would have to pound the cushion to get by him.”
Unlike Franek, Zimbardi has a lot of success at Brockville, Cornwall, and Ohsweken which makes him very excited to return to these racetracks come next weekend.
“Tonight, is going to give us some momentum for the next three tracks I really like, I have a lot of experience at and hopefully we can get some wins.”
Also finishing on the podium was Jordan Thomas who had a contested battle with Kyle Drum and Joe Trenca throughout the entire race.
“It feels really good coming out of here with a podium” Thomas said. “We kind of just came into tonight and get what we could and move onto next weekend.”
Patriot Sprint Tour Competitors will be racing for a lot of money next weekend as they will spend four consecutive nights in Canada beginning at the Brockville Ontario Speedway on Saturday, July 20 and the Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 21. Both those shows will pay $3,500 (USD) to win. Then on Monday July 22, and Tuesday July 23, the tour will venture to Southern Ontario to the Ohsweken Speedway for the Canadian Summer Nationals, both of those shows will pay $5,000 to win and $400 to start.
For complete information on next weekend the rest of the 2019 season, please be sure to visit www.patriotsprinttour.com, you Patriot Sprint Tour on Facebook, and follow @PatriotSprints on Instagram and Twitter.
A-Verdi Storage Containers Quick Results
A-Main: 1) 28f-Davie Franek (4) 2) 35-Jared Zimbardi 3) 79-Jordan Thomas 4) 47-Kyle Drum 5) 98-Joe Trenca 6) 22r-Mike Koehler 7) 121-Steve Glover 8) 99-John Trenca 9) 67-Pete Richardson 10) 17z-Josh Azzi 11) 38-Brad Knab 12) 99K-Dan Kuhn 13) 86- Jeremy Barnard 14)74-Eric Kurtz 15) 16L-Roger Levesque
Heat 1) 1) 47-Kyle Drum 2) 28F-Davie Franek 3)22r-Mike Koehler 4) 121-Steve Glover 5) 67-Pete Richardson 6) 17z-Josh Azzi 7) 86-Jeremy Barnard 8) 74-Eric Kurtz
Heat 2) 1) 38-Brad Knab 2) 79-Jordan Thomas 3) 98-Joe Trenca 4) 35-Jared Zimbardi 5) 99-John Trenca 6) 16L-Roger Levesque
Bonnell’s Rod Shop Four Laps of Fame Dash 1) 67-Pete Richardson 2) 99-John Trenca 3) 17z-Josh Azzi 4) 74-Eric Kurtz 5) 16L-Roger Levesque 6) 86-Jeremy Barnard
Patriot Sprint Tour Point Standings: 1) 28F-Davie Franek (874) 2) 98-Joe Trenca (825) 3) 79-Jordan Thomas (813) 4) 35-Jared Zimbardi 5) 47-Kyle Drum (666) 6) 67-Pete Richardson (609) 7)17z-Josh Azzi (600) 8)16L-Roger Levesque (557) 9) 22-Jonathan Preston 10) 22r-Mike Koehler
