Davie Franek Becomes First URC Winner At The New Bridgeport Motorsports Park

Story By: CASEY ROBICHEAU / UNITED RACING CLUB – SWEDSBORO, NY – Over the winter, Doug Rose, the new owner of Bridgeport Motorsports Park, put in a lot of time, effort, and money as he tore down the old beloved 5/8ths mile track to create a whole new, high-banked 4/10th mile dirt oval that has now been named the “Kingdom of Speed”. In the United Racing Club’s first appearance at the track since the redesign, Davie Franek of Sussex, NJ went on to win the 25 lap main event, cementing his name in the record books as the first winner at Bridgeport Motorsports Park in the URC 360 sprint cars.

It was an extremely warm day in south Jersey, in fact, it was exactly 70 degrees warmer than URC’s last appearance at Bridgeport only 8 months prior, and the action on the track was just as hot as the weather. When hot-laps concluded, Ryan Watt, who had more laps on the speedway coming in than anyone else due to racing his modified the week before, found himself on top of the speed chart recording a lap of 15.309. However this time was later topped by Troy Betts who recorded the fastest time of the night during his heat race with a time of 15.086. Heat races were full of action as the track began to widen out and many lanes of racing were present. Betts, Watt, and Austin Bishop all went on to win their respective heats.

When the redraw was complete, Betts and the 2019 ESS Champion, Paulie Colagiovanni would lead the field to the green flag. Colagiovanni jumped out to the lead right away, mastering the bumps and banking of the newly designed oval. He was pulling on the field when a caution waved on lap 3 for a spinning Rick Stief in turns 3 and 4. When the field restarted it was Colagiovanni, Betts, Franek, Anthony Macri, and Josh Weller in the top 5. Once again, Colagiovanni would take control of the race and begin to put some distance between himself and the rest of the field.

Franek seemed to be running on the edge and once he drove by Betts the race was on to get to Colagiovanni as the leaders approached lapped traffic. Once they hit lapped traffic Franek took advantage and grabbed the lead from Colagiovanni on lap 15 and never looked back. Behind the leaders there were many slide jobs and jockeying for position as many racing lanes were available and the cushion being pushed up all the way to the fence. At the end of the night, Davie Franek took the checkered as Colagiovanni, Macri, Betts, and Steve Buckwalter rounded out the top 5.

“This place is badass” said Franek in victory lane, “it’s challenging because going down the straightaways there are contours and you want to run a certain way but you can’t…it changes every lap, the lanes change so fast and you have to keep up with it.” When asked how it feels to win the first race on the new speedway, Franek said “we really weren’t that good in the beginning so I was worried, but its awesome to go down in the record books.” The 28F machine rolled into victory lane with a flat right rear tire, and had to “limp it a little” during the last two laps of the race, but ended up victorious. Davie would like to thank his friends, family and crew, specifically Brian Zyck, as well as his sponsors: Rapid Tire, Escape Power Sports, Atlantic Battery, Davis Power Coating, and ESJ Graphics for helping him get to victory lane.

The United Racing Club will return to Bridgeport Motorsports Park November 6-7 for their finale weekend including the Midge Miller Memorial Race on Friday followed by Championship night on Saturday.

The KSE hard charger for Saturday night went to Dave Brown who started from the 21st position and worked his way to a thirteenth place finish. Troy Betts, Ryan Watt and Austin Bishop were credited with the three heat race wins.

The United Racing Club returns to action for another double header weekend starting Friday night, July 10 at William’s Grove Speedway followed by an the 360 National Open presented by Mach-1 on Saturday, July 11 at Selinsgrove Speedway. Both shows are sure to be action-packed as some drivers will compete double duty on Friday night and will also be looking to collect the $5,000 payday on Saturday, you won’t want to miss it!

Photo Credit: Jesse Carberry

Contingency awards:
KSE Hard Charger – Dave Brown +8
Ultra Shield last redraw spot – Adam Carberry
ISC Racers Tape – Troy Betts (4th)
Seals-It – Adam Carberry (6th)
Rod End Supply – Ryan Watt (8th)
Ultra Shield – Robbie Stillwaggon (11th)
King Racing Products – Ryan Stillwaggon (15th)
DMI – Jonathan Swanson (last in feature)

Feature Laps Led by:
1-15 – Paulie Colagiovanni
16-25 – Davie Franek

RESULTS – JULY 5, 2020
HEAT 1 (10 LAPS): 1. 22-Troy Betts[1]; 2. 20-Anthony Macri[5]; 3. 28F-Davie Franek[3]; 4. 5-Tyler Ross[8]; 5. 9S-Rick Stief[2]; 6. 7-Ed Aikin[7]; 7. 24-Mike Haggenbottom[6]; 8. 44-Dave Brown[4]; 9. 669-Brandon McGough[9]

HEAT 2 (10 LAPS): 1. 39-Ryan Watt[2]; 2. 47-Adam Carberry[3]; 3. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[7]; 4. 25-JJ Grasso[8]; 5. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[4]; 6. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[6]; 7. 17J-Jonathan Swanson[5]; 8. 5Z-Zack Burd[9]; 9. (DNF) 55-Dallas Schott[1]

HEAT 3 (10 LAPS): 1. 11A-Austin Bishop[1]; 2. 7X-Steve Buckwalter[3]; 3. 63-Josh Weller[4]; 4. 5G-Curt Michael[5]; 5. 8A-Andy Best[7]; 6. 82-Cameron Burke[2]; 7. 23J-Jake Eldreth[8]; 8. (DNF) 54-Joey Amantea[6]

B-MAIN (10 LAPS): 1. 24-Mike Haggenbottom[1]; 2. 23J-Jake Eldreth[3]; 3. 44-Dave Brown[4]; 4. 55-Dallas Schott[8]; 5. 54-Joey Amantea[6]; 6. 17J-Jonathan Swanson[2]; 7. 669-Brandon McGough[7]; 8. 5Z-Zack Burd[5]

FEATURE (25 LAPS): 1. 28F-Davie Franek[4]; 2. 10-Paulie Colagiovanni[2]; 3. 20-Anthony Macri[6]; 4. 22-Troy Betts[1]; 5. 7X-Steve Buckwalter[5]; 6. 47-Adam Carberry[9]; 7. 5-Tyler Ross[10]; 8. 39-Ryan Watt[8]; 9. 63-Josh Weller[3]; 10. 11A-Austin Bishop[7]; 11. 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[14]; 12. 5G-Curt Michael[12]; 13. 44-Dave Brown[21]; 14. 8A-Andy Best[15]; 15. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[17]; 16. 24-Mike Haggenbottom[19]; 17. 55-Dallas Schott[22]; 18. 25-JJ Grasso[11]; 19. 23J-Jake Eldreth[20]; 20. 9S-Rick Stief[13]; 21. 54-Joey Amantea[23]; 22. 5Z-Zack Burd[25]; 23. 82-Cameron Burke[18]; 24. 7-Ed Aikin[16]; 25. 17J-Jonathan Swanson[24]

TOP 10 2020 URC POINTS (as of 7/5/2020)
1. Josh Weller – 495
2. Dallas Schott (Rookie) – 484 (-11)
3. Adam Carberry – 481 (-14)
4. Ryan Stillwaggon – 387 (-108)
5. Austin Bishop – 377 (-118)
6. Chad Layton – 357 (-138)
7. Tyler Ross – 351 (-144)
8. Curt Michael – 346 (-149)
9. Ryan Kissinger – 327 (-168)
10. Anthony Macri – 285 (-210)