RPW Exclusive: Empire Super Sprints CNY Speedweek Opens With Friesen In Victory Lane At Utica

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – VERNON, NY – In an infrequent Sprint Car appearance, Stewart Friesen was Thursday’s winner in the 25 lap opening race of the Empire Super Sprints CNY Speedweeks at Utica-Rome Speedway. The race was part of the Bill Shea Memorial Night at Utica-Rome.

Racing the Glenn Styres GSR Racing Team car, Friesen took the lead for good just before halfway and sped to his 4th career CNY Speedweeks win, his first since 2015, which also happened at Utica-Rome.

“That was a blast. Thanks to Glenn and the whole GSR crew. They build their cars in house, and it’s just a great race car. Big thanks to those guys for towing it down here for us,” Friesen said.

Even though he started on the pole, it wasn’t all that easy for Friesen. After 2 failed attempts to get the race going, Friesen took the lead at the start and quickly opened up a 3+ second lead over Jordan Poirier. That advantage went away with a lap 6 caution.

Poirier took off on the restart, going to the lead over Friesen.

“I didn’t fire off real good on the bottom on the restarts.”

As the race closed in on halfway, Friesen was closing back in on Poirier when caution was out after 12 complete.
On the restart, it was Friesen back to the lead and it was one that he never gave back up. At the finish, it was Friesen on top over Poirier.

“I knew once he got past me it would be tough to get back by him,” Poirier said. “It just seems like we can’t buy one this year. So many seconds, hopefully in the next few days, we can win one.”

Danny Varin finished 3rd, never really in a position to challenge Friesen or Poirier.

It was tough tonight. With those guys on the front row, I knew it would be tough,” Varin said. “Hats off to both drivers there”

Billy VanInwegen finished 4th. A great race between Davie Franek and Joe Trenca went Franek’s way as he finished 5th with Trenca 6th. Jordan Thomas was 7th. Jason Barney recovered from an early incident to finish 8th, Chase Moran was 9th and Shawn Donath 10th.

Next up on the ESS CNY Speedweeks schedule will be Friday, July 5th at Brewerton Speedway. Fulton Speedway then Weedsport Speedway wraps up the 2024 version of Speedweeks.

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 0F-Stewart Friesen[1]; 2. 28-Jordan Poirier[2]; 3. #01-Danny Varin[4]; 4. 10V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[3]; 5. 28F-Davie Franek[11]; 6. 98-Joe Trenca[10]; 7. #79-Jordan Thomas[8]; 8. 87-Jason Barney[5]; 9. 4P-Chase Moran[9]; 10. 53-Shawn Donath[13]; 11. #17-Sammy Reakes IV[16]; 12. 21T-Alex Therrien[21]; 13. 0-Glenn Styres[19]; 14. #89-Robbie Stillwaggon[18]; 15. #5H-Chris Hile[25]; 16. 17J-Kyle Smith[20]; 17. 36-Logan Crisafulli[15]; 18. 13T-Trevor Years[26]; 19. 10-Kelly Hebing[14]; 20. 3-Parker Evans[23]; 21. #7NY-Matt Farnham[12]; 22. 90-Matt Tanner[22]; 23. 21-Jonathan Preston[7]; 24. #41-Dalton Rombough[6]; 25. #9-Josh Pieniazek[17]; 26. 13-Keith Granholm[24]

Awards & Contingencies:

Rifenburg Contracting Fast Time ($25 each): #98-Joe Trenca; #87-Jason Barney; #28-Jordan Poirier; #7NY-Matt Farnham
E&V Energy Heat Winners ($25 each): #98-Joe Trenca; #87-Jason Barney; #28-Jordan Poirier; #79-Jordan Thomas
Cobra Coaches / Kinney’s Kar Kare Dash Winner ($125): #53-Shawn Donath
Lacaillade Masonry B Main Winner ($50): #21T-Alex Therrien
PJC Spray Foam First Non-Qualifier ($50): #46-Ryan Coniam
Pinnacle Pole Draw Award ($25): #0X-Stewart Friesen
A-Verdi Storage Containers Hard Charger Award ($50): #5H-Chris Hile
Pinnacle Investments Last Car Running ($30): #3-Parker Evans
Pinnacle Investments 11th Place (5 gallons fuel): #17-Sammy Reakes IV
Ashley Lynn Winery Podium Finish (bottle of wine): #0X-Stewart Friesen, #28-Jordan Poirier; #01-Danny Varin

Lacaillade Masonry B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 21T-Alex Therrien[1]; 2. 90-Matt Tanner[5]; 3. 3-Parker Evans[2]; 4. 13-Keith Granholm[10]; 5. 46-Ryan Coniam[3]; 6. #5H-Chris Hile[13]; 7. 13T-Trevor Years[6]; 8. #4-Emily VanInwegen[4]; 9. 84-Tyler Rand[9]; 10. #88C-Chad Miller[17]; 11. 11J-Chris Jones[7]; 12. 6K-Kyle Dutcher[14]; 13. 33-Lacey Hanson[15]; 14. X-Dan Bennett[8]; 15. 13E-Evan Reynolds[11]; 16. 23-Eric Cartier[16]; 17. 29-Dylan Menditto[12]

J Z Snowdrifters Dash 1 (4 Laps): 1. 53-Shawn Donath[3]; 2. 10-Kelly Hebing[1]; 3. 36-Logan Crisafulli[4]; 4. #17-Sammy Reakes IV[2]

E V Energy Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 98-Joe Trenca[2]; 2. #01-Danny Varin[1]; 3. 10V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[6]; 4. 10-Kelly Hebing[4]; 5. #9-Josh Pieniazek[7]; 6. 21T-Alex Therrien[10]; 7. 90-Matt Tanner[9]; 8. 84-Tyler Rand[8]; 9. #5H-Chris Hile[3]; 10. #88C-Chad Miller[5]

E V Energy Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 87-Jason Barney[2]; 2. #41-Dalton Rombough[5]; 3. 4P-Chase Moran[1]; 4. #17-Sammy Reakes IV[4]; 5. #89-Robbie Stillwaggon[3]; 6. 3-Parker Evans[6]; 7. 13T-Trevor Years[7]; 8. 13-Keith Granholm[8]; 9. 6K-Kyle Dutcher[9]

E V Energy Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Jordan Poirier[2]; 2. 0F-Stewart Friesen[1]; 3. 28F-Davie Franek[5]; 4. 53-Shawn Donath[4]; 5. 0-Glenn Styres[7]; 6. 46-Ryan Coniam[3]; 7. 11J-Chris Jones[6]; 8. 13E-Evan Reynolds[9]; 9. 33-Lacey Hanson[8]

E V Energy Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. #79-Jordan Thomas[1]; 2. #7NY-Matt Farnham[2]; 3. 21-Jonathan Preston[4]; 4. 36-Logan Crisafulli[3]; 5. 17J-Kyle Smith[5]; 6. #4-Emily VanInwegen[7]; 7. X-Dan Bennett[6]; 8. 29-Dylan Menditto[9]; 9. 23-Eric Cartier[8]

Rifenburg Contracting Qualifying 1: 1. 98-Joe Trenca, 00:16.638[5]; 2. #01-Danny Varin, 00:16.660[4]; 3. #5H-Chris Hile, 00:16.743[2]; 4. 10-Kelly Hebing, 00:16.765[9]; 5. #88C-Chad Miller, 00:16.807[7]; 6. 10V-Billy VanInwegen Jr, 00:16.892[6]; 7. #9-Josh Pieniazek, 00:16.912[8]; 8. 84-Tyler Rand, 00:17.027[1]; 9. 90-Matt Tanner, 00:17.065[3]; 10. 21T-Alex Therrien, 00:21.111[10]

Rifenburg Contracting Qualifying 2: 1. 87-Jason Barney, 00:16.710[8]; 2. 4P-Chase Moran, 00:17.003[1]; 3. #89-Robbie Stillwaggon, 00:17.097[9]; 4. #17-Sammy Reakes IV, 00:17.099[6]; 5. #41-Dalton Rombough, 00:17.194[5]; 6. 3-Parker Evans, 00:17.335[4]; 7. 13T-Trevor Years, 00:17.672[2]; 8. 13-Keith Granholm, 00:17.748[3]; 9. 6K-Kyle Dutcher, 00:18.030[7]

Rifenburg Contracting Qualifying 3: 1. 28-Jordan Poirier, 00:16.592[4]; 2. 0F-Stewart Friesen, 00:16.811[1]; 3. 46-Ryan Coniam, 00:16.966[5]; 4. 53-Shawn Donath, 00:17.160[3]; 5. 28F-Davie Franek, 00:17.198[6]; 6. 11J-Chris Jones, 00:17.281[8]; 7. 0-Glenn Styres, 00:17.453[9]; 8. 33-Lacey Hanson, 00:17.809[2]; 9. 13E-Evan Reynolds, 00:18.505[7]

Rifenburg Contracting Qualifying 4: 1. #7NY-Matt Farnham, 00:16.531[4]; 2. #79-Jordan Thomas, 00:16.921[9]; 3. 36-Logan Crisafulli, 00:17.058[2]; 4. 21-Jonathan Preston, 00:17.127[3]; 5. 17J-Kyle Smith, 00:17.433[5]; 6. X-Dan Bennett, 00:18.203[6]; 7. #4-Emily VanInwegen, 00:18.427[8]; 8. 23-Eric Cartier, 00:18.439[1]; 9. 29-Dylan Menditto, 00:18.892[7]