BRIGHT CLAIMS 8TH EAST COAST WIN AT DELAWARE INT’L
By: Nick Fillman – USAC ECSC
Delmar, Delaware (September 4, 2021).........For the eighth time on the 2021 Rapid Tire USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series presented by Capitol Renegade trail, Alex Bright of Collegeville, PA claimed the checkered flag at the conclusion of the twenty-five lap main event, doing so once again on Saturday night at Delaware International Speedway.
Allentown, PA’s Briggs Danner and Mount Pocono, PA’s Joey Amantea lead the field to green for the initial start of the future event, with Amantea getting a bit of a big jump over Danner leading to a no start call. The second attempt to get the feature rolling went much smoother with Danner and Amantea drag racing to the line for the lead, and into turn one.
Things continued on being smooth until the middle of turns three and four when sixth starting Damon Paul went for a spin. Paul’s car spinning ended up collecting Colin White who went for a series of small tumbles, and also collected Jonathan Swanson and Aiden Borden who both suffered no damage in the accident.
Third time was the charm as the field finally got underway for round eighteen of USAC East Coast Competition. Briggs Danner grabbed the early lead with Kenny Miller lll quickly moving into second, with Alex Bright in third. Early on, Danner and Bright went directly to the top of the speedway where they are both most comfortable, with Miller digging away on the bottom where he has been known to run, and the line that afforded him his first ever feature win last season at the Delaware International Speedway.
Three time series champion Steven Drevicki had worked his way into the top five by using the inside line of the speedway as well, while Chris Allen joined Danner and Bright on the high side on both ends of the speedway. Amantea began to fall a bit and found himself running in the sixth place position in the top half of the feature event.
Bright, using the topside would be able to work around Miller for second and being his charge after race leader Briggs Danner, who had established a lead of just a few car-lengths. Miller kept digging away on the bottom in third with Drevicki draped all over the tail tank of Miler. The lead cars were utilizing the high side of the speedway in turns one and two, with the majority of the field then diving to the bottom in three and four.
Danner maintained the lead with Bright in second but drawing ever closer to the leader as Danner was having difficulty entering turn three and four on the bottom side. Miller and Drevicki continued to battle for third and fourth, with Allen remaining on the high side of the speedway trying everything he could to reel in the top four as the field approached lap ten. Bright made a big move to the inside of Danner as lap ten was scored and tried to take the race lead away, but the momentum of the high side carried Danner around Bright for the lead.
The second caution flag of the feature event flew on lap ten as Joey Amantea made contact with the inside barriers breaking the front end on the 88J entry ending a strong run for the rookie driver.
The field would go back to green with just fifteen laps remaining, an all-out dash for the feature win around the half mile at Delaware International. Danner was the leader over Bright, Miller, Drevicki, and Allen. The battle for sixth through eight was about to kick off with Buckwalter, Betts, and Nash Ely all trying to get inside the top five as well.
When the green flag flew, Bright nailed the restart and quickly dove to the inside of Danner as they entered turn one, pulling off the massive slide job and getting the race lead as the duo exited corner number two. As the field raced down the back stretch, Kenny Miller III drew alongside Danner for second, and at the completion of lap eleven, Bright was the leader with Miller in second, Danner third, Drevicki fourth and Allen fifth.
On the next circuit of the speedway, Danner utilized the high line in one and two, to blast back by Miller for second, and close the door on him as they entered turn number three.
With the short amount of laps remaining, and continuing to click off, drivers all over the speedway began making as many moves as they could to improve their position. As the field neared the ten to go mark, Bright had established a massive lead over Danner, Drevicki and Miller fought tooth and nail for a number of laps before Drevicki, utilizing the high side in turn one, moved by Miller for third. Miller held fourth with Allen pedaling hard in fifth. The best battles on the track were the three car fight for sixth through eighth, and a two car duel for ninth and tenth.
Bruce Buckwalter Jr., Troy Betts, and 14th starting Nash Ely were swapping positions every lap with Buckwalter on the bottom, Betts ripping the cushion, and Ely utilizing all three lanes to try and find his way by the cars in front of him. Behind them but closing in on the three car fight in front of them, was a tooth and nail battle between sixteenth starting Ed Aikin and Mike Thompson.
Aikin rolled around the bottom of the speedway with Thompson up top on the cushion making up ground just as he had been in his heat race. The battle between the six cars at the back half of the top ten was more than intense with the positions changing back and forth nearly every lap as the feature neared its conclusion.
Bright had absolutely no problems getting through lapped traffic and had opened a straightaway lead over Danner. Danner remained in second with a good sized gap over Drevicki, Miller, and Allen. Buckwalter continued to hold off the challenges of Betts and Ely, with Aikin getting the best of Thompson. Damon Paul who had to start at the rear of the field following his lap one spin had worked his way into eleventh and was trying to catch Aikin and Thompson for the top ten, but he would run out of time to get the job done.
As the checkered flag flew, Alex Bright cruised to his eighth win of the season, drawing him even with Danner once again for season long win totals, Danner, Drevicki, Miller, and Allen would be the top five. On the last lap of the feature event, Bruce Buckwalter didn’t quite get into turn three as hard as he wanted, allowing Troy Betts to get by for sixth. Buckwalter held off Ely for seventh, with Aikin grabbing ninth besting Thompson in their own duel for position.
Coming off a successful trip to the Kokomo Speedway Smackdown last week, Alex Bright picked up right where he left off in USAC East Coast competition. Bright grabbed the heat race win and got the best of Danner for yet another feature win. Unfortunately for Bright, his points lead only grew by three points, as the duo who have been the best of the season have finished in positions one or two the last three events in a row. The points gap for Bright is now at 33 points over Danner with just five races remaining on the series trail.
Briggs Danner has been nothing but impressive this season, racking up wins and podium finishes all season long. But what may be the most astonishing part of the whole season, is the fact that many of the tracks on the series trial Danner has either never seen before, or never run on before in any kind of car.
That was the case on Saturday at Delaware International, but just as the rest of the season has gone, you’d hardly know it was the teenager’s first time on the speedway. Danner collected an impressive heat win from the ninth place starting position and redrew the pole for the feature event. Danner did everything he could to grab another feature win, and chip away at the point lead of Bright, but came up just a bit short on Saturday night.
Steven Drevicki was the second driver from the series to head west to Kokomo last week, and while the trip may not have been the results they were looking for, running with the best in the nation certainly any driver and their program. Following a flip two weeks ago at Bedford, Drevicki was back in the Fitzpatrick team 19 car, his usual ride for 410 sprint car competition. Drevicki has shown speed in all events they have run with the car, continually improving his finishing positions, resulting with a podium run on Saturday night. While this season is certainly on the downside for the Drevicki racing team, they have shown a good deal of speed in many of the events run this season.
Morgantown, PA’s Kenny Miller III has been a welcome addition back to the field since the completion of his summer internship, and the sophomore driver has certainly not missed a beat behind the wheel of a sprint car, immediately getting into the top five since returning. Miller notched his first ever sprint car win last season at the Delaware International Speedway and was looking to repeat that effort on Saturday.
When it comes to running the bottom lane of any track on tour, Miller is just about as good as they get, with Saturday night being no different. Miller utilized the bottom to perfection, getting second away from Danner, before fading some in the late stages of the feature event. If the top five and podium runs continue for Miller, there’s a very strong chance he could end up back in victory lane with the USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series.
Rounding out the top five with a great effort was Old Bridge, N.J.’s Chris Allen Jr. Allen has had an up and down year and hasn’t been full time with the series as in prior years. Allen ran the teams back up car two weeks ago at the Bedford Speedway, and an unfortunate parts failure sent him into the turn one wall leaving the car with heavy damage. Luckily, that weekend Allen and team picked up their primary Maxim Chassis 71 car from its frame repair, and it made its return to series action Saturday at Delaware International. Allen ran strong all night, coming home in fifth in the team’s first race back with the primary car.
While the team has not graced victory lane yet this season, they continue to be right on the door step of getting career win number two. With only five races left on the series trail this season, time is running out, but perhaps with the primary car back in action, the team can break through and grab their first win of the season.
Up next for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, presented by Capitol Renegade, is the second of two visits to the Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Virginia. Saturday’s show will be another show featuring $300 to start thanks to sponsor E. Schneider and Sons Inc.
As always, follow along with the USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series on our social media pages! On Twitter at: @USACecsc, or on Facebook at: USAC East Coast Sprint Cars.
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR PRESENTED BY CAPITOL RENEGADE RACE RESULTS: September 4, 2021 – Delaware International Speedway
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 5G-Briggs Danner (9), 2. 57-Damon Paul (8), 3. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (1), 4. 71-Chris Allen Jr. (6), 5. 22B-Troy Betts (7), 6. 32-Colin White (4), 7. 83s-Billy Ney (10), 8. 17J-Jonathan Swanson (3), 9. 56-Jermain Godshall (2), 10. 67-Jason Cherry (5). NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 20-Alex Bright (1), 2. 88J-Joey Amantea (2), 3. 19-Steven Drevicki (6), 4. 23m-Kenny Miller III (9), 5. 11-Mike Thompson (10), 6. 117-David Swanson (3), 7. 3BC-Nash Ely (5), 8. 7-Ed Aikin (7), 9. 7B-Aidan Borden (8), 10. 27c-Craig Pellegrini (4). NT
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Alex Bright (4), 2. Briggs Danner (1), 3. Steven Drevicki (7), 4. Kenny Miller III (3), 5. Chris Allen Jr. (5), 6. Troy Betts (9), 7. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (8), 8. Nash Ely (14), 9. Ed Aikin (16), 10. Mike Thompson (10), 11. Damon Paul (6), 12. Billy Ney (13), 13. David Swanson (12), 14. Jonathan Swanson (15), 15. Aidan Borden (18), 16. Craig Pellegrini (20), 17. Jason Cherry (19), 18. Jermain Godshall (17), 19. Joey Amantea (2), 20. Colin White (11). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1-10 Briggs Danner, Laps 11-20 Alex Bright.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR PRESENTED BY CAPITOL RENEGADE POINTS: 1-Alex Bright-1308, 2-Briggs Danner-1275, 3-Nash Ely-971, 4-Damon Paul-950, 5-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-841, 6-Tommy Kunsman-832, 7-Steven Drevicki-815, 8-Mike Thompson-790, 9-Joey Amantea-764, 10-Kenny Miller III-725.
NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR PRESENTED BY CAPITOL RENEGADE RACE: September 25, 2021 – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – Swedesboro, New Jersey
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Penske Shocks $100 Award: Alex Bright
Penske Shocks $50 Award: Briggs Danner
Penske Shocks $25 Award: Steven Drevicki
Ultra Shield 4th Place: Kenny Miller lll
Ultra Shield 6th Place: Troy Betts
Vahlco Wheels Hard Charger: Ed Aikin (16th to 9th)
