Stewart Friesen Hopes To Right The Ship This Weekend With The Short Track Super Series

Story By: BRETT DEYO / SHORT TRACK SUPER SERIES – NEW EGYPT, NJ – A quick glance at the Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series (STSS) Fueled By Sunoco all-time win list says it all.

The STSS has been very good to Stewart Friesen.

The Sprakers, N.Y., driver has won 13 STSS events, nearly double his closest rivals in series history.

Friesen hopes to ‘right the ship’ on his 2019 season this weekend when he competes with the series at New Egypt Speedway Thursday night (May 23) for the ‘Dirty Jersey 6’ and battles for glory in the ‘Lightning on the Mountain’ at Thunder Mountain Speedway in Center Lisle, N.Y., Sunday (May 26).

The Halmar International No. 44 kicked off the season in Victory Lane at Georgetown (Del.) Speedway for the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial in mid-March. Since then, Lady Luck has not shined on Friesen.

He was leading the STSS stop at Pa.’s Port Royal Speedway when power steering issues surfaced. At an unsanctioned event at N.Y.’s Five Mile Point Speedway, a broken suspension piece took him out of the lead. A scrape with the inside barrier while racing toward the front at Delaware International Speedway in the ‘Diamond State 50’ led to a DNF.

And this past Saturday while leading the feature at Fonda (N.Y.) Speedway, Friesen was sidelined when he lost oil pressure – this, after missing the Fonda program on May 4 when his race trailer broke down in northern Delaware.

Possibly the most heartbreaking of all was the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series event at Kansas when a potential breakthrough win was nixed three laps from the finish, out of fuel.

On Thursday, Friesen returns to New Egypt with a clean slate and a positive outlook for the 40-lap, $6,000-to-win big-block/small-block Modified event, Race No. 4 of the Velocita-USA South Region presented by Design for Vision and Sunglass Central.

“It’s just the way luck goes sometimes,” Friesen said of his misfortunes. “I can’t think of another year in my career where I’ve had a stretch like this. We will race our way out of it. The one thing I am happy about is we’ve had fast cars. We’re right there; we just need things to go our way.”

Friesen actually founded the ‘Dirty Jersey’ event at New Egypt with STSS organizer Brett Deyo in 2013. As Friesen’s career and One Zee Tees business grew, he stepped away from co-promoting the event.

While he has won at nine different tracks with the Short Track Super Series, Friesen is seeking his first STSS triumph at New Egypt. He has, however, won at the Garden State facility before in special Modified events.

Friesen is a past STSS winner at Thunder Mountain and also owns a 360 Sprint Car victory at the three-eighths-mile oval.