By Bob Miller
Davie “No Panic” Franek of Wantage, NJ sits on top of the Rislone URC Sprint Series point chase after a strong run Saturday night at the Grandview Speedway. Franek, still looking for his first URC victory of 2014 has delivered a string of consistent finishes to earn his place at URC’s point leader. Franek has one career URC victory with that win coming at the Delaware International Speedway in 2011. Brian Carber, the URC point leader going into the Grandview event, was involved in an early race tangle that eliminated him from the feature event.
Quickly approaching a milestone is URC’s eight time champion Curt Michael. His win last night at Grandview increased his career win total to forty-eight, just two feature wins short of reaching the fifty mark. Two races this weekend could offer Michael that opportunity to reach the coveted 50 URC career win mark. In URC history, only five other drivers have topped fifty career wins. Glenn Fitzcharles leads all drivers with 81, Dave Kelly has 76 wins, Kramer Williamsons is third with 67 victories, Buck Buckley owns 60 wins and Earl Halaquist is fifth with 52 career URC wins.
The Rislone URC Sprints will be in action this Friday night at the Bedford Speedway in Bedford, PA Earlier this season, Robbie Stillwaggon thrilled the fans to score the win, a follow-up performance to his win at Bedford in 2013. Without a doubt, Stillwaggon has established a strong fan base at the western Pennsylvania oval. Saturday night at Grandview, mechanical problems forced Stillwaggon to change cars and start eighteenth in the main event. Without the help of caution flags, Stillwaggon powered his way to a strong fourth place finish.
On Saturday night, the URC sprints team up with the 360 sprints at the Selinsgrove Speedway for a Super Series event. Previous winners of the two Super Series events at Selinsgrove this year were Mark Smith and Aaron Ott, two drivers expected to be in the field Saturday night.
For more information on these events and others, please visit www.urcsprints.com