IT’S ALLEN’S TOWN AT ACTION TRACK USA

By: Nick Fillman – USAC ECSC

Kutztown, Pennsylvania (August 3, 2022)………Chris Allen Jr. scored the first of two feature and returned to USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series Victory lane for the first time in four years during Wednesday night’s Rapid Tire USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series Presented by Capitol Renegade action at Kutztown, Pennsylvania’s Action Track USA.

For the Wrightstown, N.J. native, it was his first victory since the series’ sophomore year of action in 2018 at the Delaware International Speedway.

Allen and Aidan Borden led the field to green for the first feature event of the night, which was a previously postponed 30-lap event from July 13.

Borden quickly got to the race lead with Allen in second, and numerous cars battling hard for position just inside the top ten, with Briggs Danner leading the charge from his ninth place starting spot.

Borden led the first 15 laps of the feature event before an extremely hard charging Colin White made his move to the inside of Aidan Borden and began his quest for his first career victory.

Briggs Danner followed along in the tire tracks of Colin White moving through the field and worked his way into the third place spot after a number of slide jobs were exchanged between Danner and Mike Thompson.

Colin White looked to have things under control in the feature event until the field passed by the flag stand on lap 27. As white entered turn one and two, he lost the handle in front of the field and nearly spun to a stop. White worked his way down the banking, but allowed Chris Allen, who had held off the charges of Briggs Danner, to take the race lead down the back straightaway.

White regained his composure and mounted a late attack on Allen entering turns three and four for the final time, throwing a monster slide job on Allen for the race lead out of four. White made heavy contact with the outside wall leaving the car with heavy damage and allowing Allen to dive back underneath to come to the line first and collect his second career victory.

Briggs Danner managed a second place effort, despite knocking the W-Link out of his 5G entry, over Billy Pauch Jr, White holding on for fourth, and Aidan Borden.

In the second, regularly scheduled feature event, Chris Allen Jr again lead the field to green, with Mark Smith to his outside on the front row of the feature event. Allen worked his way to the race lead, with veteran Mark Smith quickly chasing the recent feature winner.

The fastest car on the track early on in the feature event was that of veteran driver Carmen Perigo Jr as he would work his way by Smith and eventually by Allen for the race lead.

Mark Smith and Billy Pauch Jr made contact early on in the feature event, sending both into a spin cycle in turns three and four, and putting both to the rear of the field. Perigo would remain the race leader, after a bit of caution fever, with Briggs Danner and an extremely fast Alex Bright working their way into the top five, and eventually into the top three as they began to draw in on the leader Carmen Perigo.

Bright, Danner and Perigo would take turns throwing slide jobs on each other and bouncing off the walls of Action Track USA, even coming off of turn four three wide for the race lead, with Danner making significant contact with Perigo sending him into the wall on the front stretch but keeping the car under power.

Danner ended up with a two to three car length advantage as the field took the two to go signal, with Alex Bright left watching in the distance as Danner pulled away and collected his seventh win of the 2022 season.

Bright held on for second despite a souring engine that developed around five to go, with Carmen Perigo in third, Steven Drevicki and impressive fourth, and Mike Thompson rounding out the top five.

Unfortunately, a number of drivers were met with tough luck on Wednesday night as Joey Amantea blew an engine during the first feature event leaving him unable to start the second. Likewise, Colin White and Bobby Butler were also unable to make the second feature event that they had been qualified for putting alternates Austin Graby, Eric Jennings and Brendan Hires into the starting field.

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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS RACE RESULTS: July 13 & August 3, 2022 – Action Track USA – Kutztown, Pennsylvania

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (1), 2. 7B-Aidan Borden (2), 3. 71-Chris Allen Jr. (5), 4. 39-Billy Pauch Jr. (6), 5. 21-Carmen Perigo (8), 6. 7-Ed Aikin (7), 7. 17J-Jonathan Swanson (3), 8. 67-Jason Cherry (4). NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 75x-Bobby Butler (1), 2. 21K-Tommy Kunsman (2), 3. 88J-Joey Amantea (3), 4. 20-Alex Bright (8), 5. 23m-Kenny Miller III (7), 6. 19-Steven Drevicki (5), 7. 23B-Preston Lattomus (4), 8. 17-Christian Bruno (6). NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 5G-Briggs Danner (7), 2. 90-Colin White (6), 3. 11-Mike Thompson (3), 4. 62-Brian Spencer (1), 5. 16cw-Eric Jennings (4), 6. 57-Michael Nolf (8), 7. 117-David Swanson (2), 8. 75-Mark Smith (5). NT

SEMI: (12 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Preston Lattomus (5), 2. Steven Drevicki (2), 3. Christian Bruno (8), 4. Ed Aikin (1), 5. Jonathan Swanson (4), 6. Michael Nolf (3), 7. Jason Cherry (7), 8. David Swanson (6), 9. Mark Smith (9). NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chris Allen Jr. (1), 2. Briggs Danner (8), 3. Billy Pauch Jr. (10), 4. Colin White (3), 5. Aidan Borden (2), 6. Mike Thompson (4), 7. Alex Bright (11), 8. Carmen Perigo (13), 9. Christian Bruno (18), 10. Preston Lattomus (16), 11. Tommy Kunsman (5), 12. Ed Aikin (19), 13. Steven Drevicki (17), 14. Brian Spence (12), 15. Eric Jennings (15), 16. Kenny Miller III (14), 17. Bobby Butler (9), 18. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (6), 19. Joey Amantea (7), 20. Jonathan Swanson (20). NT

VAHLCO WHEELS HARD CHARGERS: Christian Bruno (18th to 9th)

LAST CAR RUNNING AWARD: Brian Spencer

NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS RACE: August 5, 2022 – Bloomsburg Fair Raceway – Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania