BRIGHT CONQUERS LINCOLN FOR THIRD USAC EC WIN OF THE SEASON
By: Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Abbottstown, Pennsylvania (June 6th, 2021)………Alex Bright of Collegeville, PA, utilized a late race restart, and a bit of contact, to pass Steven Drevicki with only two laps to go and collect his third Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, presented by Capitol Renegade.
Rookie Joey Amantea and Steven Drevicki led the field to green for the 25 lap feature on the initial start, with Drevicki quickly taking the lead. The caution flag would fly before the completion of lap one for Colin White, who went for a spin in turns one and two.
As the field came back to green again, Drevicki launched out into the lead with Amantea in tow, and Bright in third, but under heavy fire early from Christopher Allen Jr. Amantea fell to the clutches of Bright, and Allen a few laps later with Drevicki still leading as all three of the leaders were utilizing the high side of the speedway while the majority of the field ran around the bottom lane.
An extremely intense battle waged for positions four through six with Kenny Miller, Christian Bruno, and Damon Paul who were all over each other trading positions. Just behind them, yet another group of drivers in intense battle would see Briggs Danner, Ed Aikin, and Tommy Kunsman racing three wide for the back half of the top ten early on in the feature event.
Alex Bright made his first move for the race lead on lap eight, as he would throw a monster slider into turns three and four, but Drevicki would stab the breaks and dive underneath Bright for the race lead on the bottom side of the track and retain the race lead. Bright would continue to follow in the tire tracks of Drevicki for the next handful of laps at the half way point of the feature with Drevicki out front followed by Bright, Miller, Paul, Allen, and Christian Bruno in sixth.
With ten laps to go, Bright again threw a slide job on Drevicki for the race lead in turns three and four, and again Drevicki dove underneath Bright and retained the race lead. The two leaders began to encounter lapped traffic on lap eighteen, and just a couple of laps later, Bright once again threw a slide job on Drevicki in turn three and four, and yet again Drevicki held Bright off.
Competition for third through sixth remained as heavy as ever with Miller, Allen, Paul, and Bruno all over each other trying to gain a spot in the top five. Unfortunately for Allen, his great run came to an end on lap twenty-two as he would spin in turns three and four and bring out the caution flag. The caution on with only three to go would set up a battle to the finish between Drevicki and Bright for the feature event, with Miller set to pounce on the two if either made a mistake.
The green flag flew with three to go and Bright was all over Drevicki as the two went into turns one and two, Bright was all over the back bumper of Drevicki literally, as he would bump Drevicki twice down the back stretch getting him loose, as the two went into three and four. Bright dove to the bottom of Drevicki and took the lead with Drevicki diving underneath as they came to the line. Steven Drevicki took the lead going into turns one and two, but Bright would cross him over off the corner and retain the lead. Drevicki threw one last slider into turns three and four as the pair came to the white flag, but it did not stick as Bright would go on to collect his third feature event win of the 2021 season.
Alex Bright won two feature events last season on his way to being Rookie of the Year and is keeping the speed up in 2021 finishing on the podium in every event so far. Bright has now tied Danner for feature event wins on the season with both having three. The points battle will close even closer with Bright scoring the victory, and Danner finishing outside the top five. After Saturdays finish Bright and Hummer Motorsports have taken the lead by only six points over Danner. With only seven races down on the season, there is sure to be more battles between Bright, Drevicki, and Danner before the season is over.
Drevicki ended up in second in the feature event, which was not what the team was looking for after leading twenty-two laps of the feature event. Drevicki is not running for full time series points and is only looking for wins in the 2021 season. Drevicki will be hit and miss as the season goes on, and no doubt will continue to contend for wins.
Third place went to another driver who will not be full-time with the series in Kenny Miller lll. Miller was well on his way to a third place finish on Friday night at Williams Grove before late race contact with Alex Bright left him with a fourteenth place finish. Miller rebounded on Saturday night with yet another strong run inside the top three of the feature event and collecting a podium. Miller has been strong all season long and been inside the top five in nearly every feature event run during the season. Miller however has found some back luck with incidents that have been of his own doing, and some that are not. Miller may or may not start a few more feature events during the 2021 season, but we hope Miller will be able to join us full time in 2022.
Young Christian Bruno increased his career best finish on Saturday finishing fourth in Saturday’s feature event. Bruno had an incredibly strong weekend in limited starts thus far in the 2021 season finishing seventh at Williams Grove, and fourth at Lincoln. The sixteen year old driver has shown speed in everything he has driven so far in 2021, getting faster and faster in the sprint car, while consistently running up front in 600cc Micro Sprint competition.
Another driver who had a massive rebound on Saturday night was Damon Paul. Paul suffered mechanical issues all night on Friday at the Williams Grove Speedway. Paul and team finally got the car to run for the feature event, only to be collected in a lap one pile up in turns one and two. Paul rebounded on Saturday and finished third in his heat race, and had a solid run in fifth in Saturday’s feature event at Lincoln.
Extremely bad luck fell upon rookie driver Billy Ney on Saturday at Lincoln as the team unfortunately never made a lap at the speedway. The car would not fire, and Billy unfortunately had to relinquish his position starting on the pole of heat one and had to pack up and head home. Hopefully, the issue isn’t too bad for the exciting rookie, and he can continue to run with the series for the remainder of the 2021 season.
Another driver that was missing from action on Saturday was Bruce Buckwalter Jr. Bruce and team unfortunately discovered some engine issues following Friday nights feature at Williams Grove, and the team chose not to risk the engine running on Saturday at Lincoln until the team can get it properly looked at. We certainly hope the engine issues aren’t that bad and the team can get right back into action at Selinsgrove.
Two of our drivers made double duty starts in non-wing competition on Saturday at Lincoln with the ARDC Midget in the form of Tommy Kunsman and Steve Buckwalter. Kunsman and Buckwalter each won their heat race, with Buckwalter grabbing the feature event win. Kunsman and Buckwalter finished ninth and thirteenth in the USAC East Coast Feature, respectively.
Up next for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, presented by Capitol Renegade, is a massive return to the Selinsgrove Speedway on Thursday June 17th, as the series will be running side by side with the stars and cars of the Amsoil, USAC National Sprint Car Series, during the annal USAC Eastern Storm. The special two division, non-winged sprint car doubleheader, will feature a number of drivers doing double duty in what is sure to be a special night of action.
As always, stay up to date with all of our breaking news, photos, and other information by following our socials. On Facebook at: USAC East Coast Sprint Cars, and on Twitter at: @USACecsc.
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR PRESENTED BY CAPITOL TRAILERS RACE RESULTS: June 5, 2021 – Lincoln Speedway – Abbottstown, Pennsylvania
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in brackets) 1. 71-Chris Allen Jr. [7]; 2. 21K-Tommy Kunsman [6]; 3. 88J-Joey Amantea [3]; 4. 59-Steve Wilbur [5]; 5. 3BC-Nash Ely [4]; 6. 7B-Aidan Borden [2]; 7. 17J-Jonathan Swanson [8]. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in brackets) 1. 20-Alex Bright [6]; 2. 17-Christian Bruno [3]; 3. 23m-Kenny Miller III [5]; 4. 117-David Swanson [4]; 5. 12-Blaine Emery [1]; 6. 75-Steve Buckwalter [7]; 7. 67-Jason Cherry [2]. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, starting positions in brackets) 1. 19-Steven Drevicki [1]; 2. 5G-Briggs Danner [3]; 3. 57-Damon Paul [4]; 4. 7-Ed Aikin [2]; 5. 32-Colin White [5]; 6. 12w-Troy Fraker [7]; 7. 22B-Jacob Balliet [6].
ALSO AT THE TRACK: 83s-Billy Ney
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in brackets) 1. Alex Bright [3]; 2. Steven Drevicki [2]; 3. Kenny Miller III [7]; 4. Christian Bruno [6]; 5. Damon Paul [4]; 6. Briggs Danner [8]; 7. Ed Aikin [12]; 8. Joey Amantea [1]; 9. Tommy Kunsman [9]; 10. Steve Wilbur [10]; 11. David Swanson [11]; 12. Nash Ely [13]; 13. Steve Buckwalter [17]; 14. Aidan Borden [16]; 15. Jonathan Swanson [19]; 16. Colin White [15]; 17. Jason Cherry [20]; 18. Chris Allen Jr. [5]; 19. Blaine Emery [14]; 20. Troy Fraker [18]; 21. Jacob Balliet [21]. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-22 Steven Drevicki, Laps 23-25 Alex Bright.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR PRESENTED BY CAPITOL TRAILERS POINTS: 1-Alex Bright-520, 2-Briggs Danner-514, 3-Steven Drevicki-449, 4-Tommy Kunsman-409, 5-Kenny Miller III-368, 6-Nash Ely-350, 7-Damon Paul-346, 8-Joey Amantea-322, 9-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-288, 10-Chris Allen Jr.-284.
NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR PRESENTED BY CAPITOL TRAILERS RACE: June 17, 2021 – Selinsgrove Speedway – Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Penske Shocks 1st Place: Alex Bright
Penske Shocks 2nd Place: Steven Drevicki
Penske Shocks 3rd Place: Kenny Miller III
Ultra Shield 3rd Place: Kenny Miller III
Ultra Shield 8th Place: Joey Amantea
Vahlco Wheels Hard Charger: Ed Aikin
