Frankoski Leads Strong NEMA Rookie Group

Growing up, Jeremy Frankoski’s dad insisted he play different sports. The Newark Valley, NY athlete played baseball, some football and actually captained his high school hockey team.

“All I wanted to do was race,” says Frankoski, the Northeastern Midget Association’s leading rookie heading into Seekonk Speedway’s Oct 6-7 DAV Memorial. “My father was worried as I grew up my passion would change so I played other sports.”

Still, the “worst part of each year was putting up the car. I dreaded it. I hated it. Hockey was a way to pass the winter,” says Frankoski, a defenseman who had his share of penalty minutes. There is no longer any doubt about his passion.

Part of an impressive group of Rookies, the 24-year old Frankoski has been racing since age nine, moving through NYSMA Microds, Tobias Slingshots and Mini Sprints. Some years, he says, the season was only 10 or 15 races, making his 40-plus wins and two championships even more impressive.

In addition to Frankoski, who drives the Marine Engine-sponsored Power Point Race Cars #99, the rookie list includes John Zych Jr. in the family owned Hawk #9; Aaron Wall in the Seymour #29 and 17-year old Bobby Kuiken, the latter in the family-owned Stealth-Fontana.

Zych, 24, has won two of his last three heats. He’s on asphalt for the first time. Kuiken comes from eight years in go karts. His best was a sixth at Epping, NH. Wall, a Focus product, was fourth at Waterford. “An outstanding rookie class,” understates NEMA President Mike Scrivani.

The Rookie prize would top a Frankoski resume that includes “an awesome” victory at Beech Ridge earlier this year. Starting on the pole, he recalls working hard to “keep calm.” Only two other rookies have won a feature in NEMA’s long history.

Frankoski finished second in the All-American Driver Challenge in February – a program that whittled down 75 drivers to 10 and then to a single winner. “There was lots of exposure, lots of encouragement and it helped me land the deal with Power Point Racing,” he says of racing in front of evaluators like John Andretti, Bob East and Rick Benjamin.

On the asphalt for the first time in a decade, it’s been a major transition. “It’s been more than I expected,” says Frankoski, who holds an associate degree from Brome Tech in New York. “You say, ‘yeah, I can run with these guys’ then you get into it and you find out what it takes to run out front consistently; what it take to win.”

Everybody agrees NEMA is “one of the toughest clubs out there.” But, says Frankoski “there is a huge amount of help available. I came here like a huge sponge. I tired to learn as much as I could. I’m out of my league and I’m there to listen.”

Everybody, he says, is ready to talk, “especially the veterans-Joey Payne, Nokie Fornoro, the Bertrand drivers, Lou Cicconi Jr. and Randy Cabral. Any problems you have you can go to these guys and that has been a huge part of the success we’ve had this year.”

Frankoski comes to Seekonk off a hard earned 13th. Losing a motor in practice at Waterford’s Finale, they packed up and headed for Circle Performance in Massachusetts where John Andruk had just completed the team’s second motor. “John gave us the key to the shop and we were there till 9:30 at night,” Frankoski says. “It was 11:30 when we got back to the track that we had something to eat.”

Without the heat, he started the feature in 29th. “I can complain a lot about that,” Frankoski summed up.

Sources: Pete Zanardi/NEMA PR.

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