Story By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Jordan Poirier was the winner when the Empire Super Sprints made their first ever appearance at the historic 5/8’s Hard Clay oval in 2022. On Saturday night, he backed that win up by taking another one.
Poirier grabbed the lead at the start over Jordan Thomas and built up a good lead. by lap 5, Dylan Swiernik had taken 2nd and Davie Franek 3rd. They ran that way, equal distance apart in the high groove until lap 18 when Billy VanInwegen, running in the top 10, saw a wheel come loose from his car. The wheel sailed into the fence in the first turn, punching a big hole into the wood. But fortunately, the wheel stayed inside the facility and did not bounce onto Wisner Ave.
Franek lost two spots on the ensuing restart as he fell to 5th with Shawn Donath moving into 3rd with Thomas 4th. There were no further changes in the standings the remaining laps as Poirier came home the winner by about 1/2 a second over Swiernik with Donath finishing 3rd. Thomas was 4th and Franek finished 5th. Rounding out the top 10 were Jason Barney 6th, Joe Kata 7th, Matt Tanner 8th, Jeff Cook 9th and Chase Moran 10th.
Jeff Cook was the dash winner over Barney, Tanner, Kata, Kyle Smith and VanInwegen.