{"id":14264,"date":"2012-10-04T13:45:59","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T13:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=14264"},"modified":"2012-10-04T13:45:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T13:45:59","slug":"friesen-exudes-confidence-despite-cancelation-of-wednesdays-happy-hour-practice-at-napa-auto-parts-super-dirt-week-xli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/friesen-exudes-confidence-despite-cancelation-of-wednesdays-happy-hour-practice-at-napa-auto-parts-super-dirt-week-xli\/","title":{"rendered":"Friesen Exudes Confidence Despite Cancelation Of Wednesday\u2019s \u2018Happy Hour\u2019 Practice At NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian Star Will Bid For Record-Tying Third Consecutive Victory In VP Small Engine Fuels 200<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"SYRACUSE, NY \u2013 Oct. 3, 2012 \u2013 By Kevin Kovac\/DIRTcar Racing P.R. <\/em>– Stewart Friesen is ready to chase history during NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLI at the one-mile New York State Fairgrounds.<\/p>\n

The cancelation of Wednesday afternoon\u2019s \u2018Happy Hour\u2019 practice session due to wet conditions didn\u2019t dampen the positive outlook of the 29-year-old star from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., who will bid to become just the second driver to win three consecutive editions of the prestigious DIRTcar big-block Modified VP Small Engine Fuels 200.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would\u2019ve been nice to get some laps today, but we\u2019ve been good here the last two years and we\u2019ve got the same team, all the same stuff and all the right pieces,\u201d said Friesen, who now resides in Sprakers, N.Y. \u201cWe have a good setup and we have a good gameplan for this place. That takes a lot of \u2018what-ifs\u2019 out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have the confidence that we\u2019re not gonna be searching for speed when we do get on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friesen will now begin his quest to match Gary Balough\u2019s record of three straight VP Small Engine Fuels 200 triumphs \u2013 a standard the Floridian established from 1976-78 \u2013 on Thursday. Practice is tentatively scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and time trials for Sunday\u2019s 200-mile big-block Modified classic and Saturday\u2019s Gander Mountain 358-Modified Championship 150 are slated to get the green flag at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

The same Jeff Daley-owned Teo-Pro car that Friesen steered to the checkered flag in the 2010 and \u201911 VP Small Engine Fuels 200 events will be his stead again. The CC Performance-powered machine continues to carry sponsorship from Original Pizza Logs and M.R. Burdick Enterprises.<\/p>\n

Friesen\u2019s Syracuse Mile 358-Modified effort this year is also fielded by Daley, marking the first time the two have partnered to run both marquee races during NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week. A CC Performance Ford engine is under the hood of Friesen\u2019s small-block mount, a Teo-Pro car he debuted in August\u2019s Super DIRTcar Series event at Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been really good with the big-block so we know what we have there,\u201d said Friesen. \u201cWe really want to put a lot of emphasis on the small-block and do well in that race this year. It\u2019s equally as important to us \u2013 the way we look at it, we have two super-big races.<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning a Ford (358) is a little bit of an out-of-the-box combination for us, but we think it could really work well. (Engine builder Chuck) Cici has some things he wants to prove with the motor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friesen, meanwhile, has one big reason to put the 358-Modified 150-miler on his resume.<\/p>\n

\u201cBilly Decker has been sort of the king of the small-block race here (winning the last four Gander Mountain 358-Modified Championship 150s), so we\u2019d love to knock him off,\u201d said Friesen, whose five career starts in the event include two runner-up finishes (\u201907 and \u201911) and a fifth in \u201905. \u201cWe finished second to him last year \u2013 and just about passed him at the end \u2013 so we know we can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friesen already understands the joy of standing on the mile\u2019s winner\u2019s stage in front of a roaring crowd thanks to his back-to-back triumphs in the VP Small Engines Fuels 200 \u2013 an accomplishment achieved by just five other men.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d said Friesen, whose five career starts in the VP Small Engine Fuels 200 show two victories and finishes of fourth (\u201908), seventh (\u201905) and 33rd<\/sup> (\u201909). \u201cGuys race their whole careers and don\u2019t get a win here, so to be able to do it fairly early in my career is awesome. I\u2019ll never have a moment where I\u2019ll be saying, \u2018Woulda, shoulda, coulda…\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll race for, but when my career is over I\u2019ll always have (the Syracuse wins). It\u2019s like a life lesson you\u2019ll always have, more or less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friesen, of course, has some extra incentive to pull off a hat trick in the concluding event of NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLI. His victory in last year\u2019s 200 was clouded by a controversial fuel-cell technical penalty that resulted in him being fined half of his $50,000 first-place check.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely would like to come out on top again and shut up all the critics \u2013 because there are a lot,\u201d said Friesen, who is approaching the 30-win plateau in overall 2012 feature wins. \u201cWe\u2019re super determined (to win). It\u2019s just a matter of having all the luck on our side again and going out there and doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 160 cars across four divisions went through NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week technical inspection on Tuesday and Wednesday, including nearly 60 machines in both the big-block and 358-Modified classes.<\/p>\n

Gates to the New York State Fairgrounds are scheduled to open at 8 a.m. on Thursday in advance of a full day of practice and time trials. The top-six starting spots in both the VP Small Engine Fuels 200 and Gander Mountain 358-Modified Championship 150 will be set after Thursday\u2019s qualifying. Thursday\u2019s schedule also includes practice and qualifying for the first-time Syracuse Mile 358-Modified and Sportsman drivers who will compete in their respective divisions\u2019 Futures races on Friday.<\/p>\n

For the latest news and updates about NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week, visit www.SuperDirtWeekOnline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian Star Will Bid For Record-Tying Third Consecutive Victory In VP Small Engine Fuels 200 SYRACUSE, NY \u2013 Oct. 3, 2012 \u2013 By Kevin Kovac\/DIRTcar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-super-dirtcar-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14267,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264\/revisions\/14267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}