By Curtis Berleue
(Vernon, NY) | For the second time in his career, Davie Franek is a Cole Cup champion at the Utica Rome Speedway. The New Jersey driver was a model of perfection in the 30 lap A-main, leading green to checkered in a dominating performance to pocket $10,000, the highest-paying points event on the 2025 Empire Super Sprints calendar.
By virtue of drawing the Pinnacle Pole award, Franek and Johnny Smith led the field to the green flag of the 30 lap main event. Franek jumped out to an early lead, but the start was called back as Chase Moran brought out the caution on the back stretch before a lap could be completed.
On the second attempt at a green flag, Franek again jumped out to a lead with Larry Wight in tow. Matt Tanner assumed the third position, with Smith falling to fourth momentarily. Just a lap later, Smith got by Tanner and ran in third for the next four laps until misfortune struck and he brought out the caution, stopping between turns three and four.
When the field again took the green, Franek resumed his position at the front of the field. By lap ten, the makeup of the top five had changed, with Dalton Rombough, Danny Varin and Dylan Swiernik entering the picture behind Franek and Wight.
As the laps clicked off and the lap counter hit halfway, Danny Varin had worked his way past Rombough into a podium position.
Through multiple restarts, Franek and Wight were able to maintain their spots at the head of the field. A lap 20 restart, however, allowed Jordan Thomas to work his way into the top five. A final restart with three laps remaining gave Thomas one final shot, and using the extreme outside of the speedway he was able to get by both Varin and Wight to take the second spot.
Ultimately, nobody had anything for Franek as he would cross under the checkers first for the third time in 2025.
“There was a little bit of moisture down there on the bottom, and Larry was good on the restarts, he kept pace with me,” said Franek in victory lane. “My motor would stumbled a little bit so I had to set a little faster pace (on the restarts).”
“We got our motor combination back where we need it, it’s very important on these slick race tracks. Brian (Zyck) has been doing a great job in the shop, this past month we have been running very good.”
Jordan Thomas made some late race moves to work his way into a second place finish.
“I think we would have gave Davie a run for his money if there was one more caution,” said Thomas. “At the beginning I was super tight, as the fuel burned off the car just came to me and we were getting better and better.”
Rounding out the Ashley Lynn Winery podium was Larry Wight, who also picked up his third straight podium finish on the weekend.
“I actually wanted the long runs,” said Wight. “I was hoping we would get into some lap traffic, as soon as we got to that we were starting to catch Franek. When the cautions came out and we were stuck to the outside, it was hard to keep pace with him.”
With 33 cars registered for the final night of the Labor Day weekend tripleheader, the field was split into four timed hot lap groups. Rifenburg Contracting fast time awards went to Jason Barney, Dylan Swiernik, Joe Trenca and Shawn Donath. Elab Smokers Boutique heat races were won by Dalton Rombough, Davie Franek, Jordan Poirier, and Johnny Smith. The Cobra Motorhomes and Trailers Dash presented by Hidden Meadows Campground was won by Shawn Donath, while Alex Therrien picked up the Lacaillade Masonry B-Main.
The next scheduled event for the Empire Super Sprints is this coming Saturday September 6th at the Can-Am Speedway in LaFargeville, NY. For the latest news, information, and schedule updates regarding the Empire Super Sprints be sure to check the series website (www.EmpireSuperSprints.com) and follow along on Facebook (Empire Super Sprints), X (@ESSprints) and Instagram (@empiresupersprints).
The Empire Super Sprints would like to thank the following series sponsors for their continued support: Rifenburg Contracting Corp, Hoosier Racing Tire, Cobra Motorhomes & Trailers, E&V Energy, A-Verdi Storage Containers, Elab Smokers Boutique, Pinnacle Investments, LLC, Lacaillade Masonry, Inc., Wilwood Disc Brakes, FX Caprara, Lanes Yamaha, Ashley Lynn Winery, Slade Precision Shocks, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Bicknell Racing Products, and DirtTrackDigest.com.
The ESS Road Ahead:
Saturday, September 6 – Can-Am Speedway – LaFargeville, NY ($2,000 to Win)
Friday, September 12 – Ohsweken Speedway – Ohsweken, ONT (Northern Sprint Car Nationals Prelim)
Saturday, September 13 – Ohsweken Speedway – Ohsweken, ONT (Northern Sprint Car Nationals)
Full Results:
Cole Cup A Main (30 Laps): 1. 28F-Davie Franek[1]; 2. 79-Jordan Thomas[7]; 3. 99L-Larry Wight[5]; 4. 28-Jordan Poirier[11]; 5. 01-Danny Varin[9]; 6. 98-Joe Trenca[16]; 7. 7C-Dylan Swiernik[14]; 8. 21T-Alex Therrien[21]; 9. 87-Jason Barney[10]; 10. 96X-Chad Phelps[20]; 11. 53-Shawn Donath[13]; 12. 10V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[19]; 13. 38-Zach Sobotka[18]; 14. 24-Jeremy Lafleur[4]; 15. 17-Sammy Reakes IV[15]; 16. 13E-Evan Reynolds[26]; 17. 33-Lacey Hanson[25]; 18. 17S-Kyle Smith[17]; 19. 41-Dalton Rombough[6]; 20. 21-Spencer Burley[8]; 21. 66-Jordan Hutton[23]; 22. 7NY-Matt Farnham[12]; 23. 90-Matt Tanner[3]; 24. 3Z-Johnny Smith[2]; 25. 13T-Trevor Years[22]; 26. 4P-Chase Moran[24]
Lacaillade Masonry B-Main (10 Laps): 1. 21T-Alex Therrien[1]; 2. 13T-Trevor Years[3]; 3. 66-Jordan Hutton[7]; 4. 4P-Chase Moran[11]; 5. 33-Lacey Hanson[4]; 6. 13E-Evan Reynolds[5]; 7. 3-Denny Peebles[13]; 8. 81-Tyler Reynolds[9]; 9. 6K-Kyle Dutcher[2]; 10. 67-Steve Glover[6]; 11. (DNS) 36-Mikey Kruchka; 12. (DNS) 99K-Mike Kiser; 13. (DNS) 88H-Josh Hansen
Hidden Meadows Campground Dash (4 Laps): 1. 53-Shawn Donath[4]; 2. 7C-Dylan Swiernik[2]; 3. 17-Sammy Reakes IV[1]; 4. 98-Joe Trenca[3]
Elab Smokers Boutique Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 41-Dalton Rombough[2]; 2. 87-Jason Barney[4]; 3. 01-Danny Varin[1]; 4. 17-Sammy Reakes IV[6]; 5. 17S-Kyle Smith[5]; 6. 21T-Alex Therrien[3]; 7. 13E-Evan Reynolds[7]; 8. 81-Tyler Reynolds[8]; 9. 3-Denny Peebles[9]
Elab Smokers Boutique Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 28F-Davie Franek[2]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[3]; 3. 21-Spencer Burley[1]; 4. 7C-Dylan Swiernik[4]; 5. 38-Zach Sobotka[5]; 6. 6K-Kyle Dutcher[7]; 7. 67-Steve Glover[8]; 8. 99K-Mike Kiser[6]
Elab Smokers Boutique Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Jordan Poirier[1]; 2. 79-Jordan Thomas[3]; 3. 90-Matt Tanner[2]; 4. 98-Joe Trenca[4]; 5. 10V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[5]; 6. 13T-Trevor Years[8]; 7. 66-Jordan Hutton[7]; 8. 4P-Chase Moran[6]
Elab Smokers Boutique Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 3Z-Johnny Smith[8]; 2. 24-Jeremy Lafleur[2]; 3. 7NY-Matt Farnham[1]; 4. 53-Shawn Donath[4]; 5. 96X-Chad Phelps[7]; 6. 33-Lacey Hanson[6]; 7. 36-Mikey Kruchka[5]; 8. 88H-Josh Hansen[3]
Awards & Contingencies:
Rifenburg Contracting Fast Time ($25 each): #87-Jason Barney; #7C-Dylan Swiernik; #98-Joe Trenca; #53-Shawn Donath
Elab Smokers Boutique Heat Winners ($25 each): #41-Dalton Rombough; #28F-Davie Franek; #28-Jordan Poirier; #3Z-Johnny Smith
Cobra Motorhomes & Trailers / Hidden Meadows Campground Dash Winner ($125): #53-Shawn Donath
Lacaillade Masonry B Main Winner ($50): #21T-Alex Therrien
Pinnacle Pole Draw Award ($25): #28F-Davie Franek
Keizer Wheels 5th Place Finisher ($50 Certificate):#01-Danny Varin
King Motorsports 10th Place Finisher ($25 Certificate): #96X-Chad Phelps
Pinnacle Investments 11th Place Finisher (5 Gal Fuel): #53-Shawn Donath
Wilwood Disc Brakes 13th Place Finisher ($50 Certificate):#38-Zach Sobotka
All-Star Performance 15th Place Finisher ($50 Certificate): #17-Sammy Reakes IV
A-Verdi Storage Containers Hard Charger Award ($50): #21T-Alex Therrien (+13)
Pinnacle Investments Last Car Running ($30): #33-Lacey Hanson
Ashley Lynn Winery Podium Finish (bottle of wine): #28F-Davie Franek; #79-Jordan Thomas; #99L-Larry Wight
Hoosier Tire Award (RR Hoosier tire): #90-Matt Tanner
Slade Shock Tech ($50 Certificate): #36-Mikey Kruchka