DANNER & GRABY TAKE SPRINTOBERFEST QUALIFIERS AT BRIDGEPORT

By: Nick Fillman – USAC ECSC

Swedesboro, New Jersey (October 29, 2022)………Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, Presented by Capitol Renegade series Champion Briggs Danner and Lebanon, Pennsylvania’s Austin Graby picked up twin-15 qualifier wins at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park during Saturday’s night two of Sprintoberfest.

Twenty-nine cars registered for action, a season high for the series. Those drivers were split by a random draw at sign-in, into two separate 15-lap qualifying events, which served as heat races for the weekend before Sunday’s 40-lap feature event.

Aidan Borden and Briggs Danner led the field to green for qualifying race number one with Borden getting the initial lead for the first two laps of the event. Danner worked his way by Borden for the race lead and worked his way to a commanding distance over the rest of the field.  Meanwhile, Alex Bright and Christian Bruno were making their way through the field from the back row of the qualifier.

The caution flag few with only a handful of laps remaining as fifth place runner Preston Lattomus spun and pulled a 360 in turns three and four.  The caution brought the field together with Bright working his way by third place runner Kyle Spence and, eventually, Aidan Borden for second, trying to catch the leader of Danner.

Unfortunately for Bright, time ran out as Briggs Danner collected the qualifier win. Bright, Borden, Spence and Jonathan Swanson, debuting a new DRC Chassis, rounded out the top-five. Sixth went to Colin White while Preston Lattomus stole the seventh and final transfer spot from Christian Bruno who slowed with issues coming to the line out of turn four.

Lee Kauffman and Austin Graby drew the front row of qualifier two with Graby taking the race lead and never looking back. Bobby Butler, Chris Allen Jr. and Joey Amantea followed suit in the top-four with a raging battle behind the top-four as Kenny Miller lll, Steven Drevicki, Eric Jennings and Mike Thompson battled it out for the final transfer spot.

Amantea hounded third place driver Chris Allen Jr. for multiple laps before the caution flew with only four laps remaining as Richy Carnathan made contact with the outside wall and slowed to a stop on the front stretch.

Intense action followed the caution with Kenny Miller III working to the high side of Amantea and Allen taking the third spot away while battling with Butler for second but falling just short. Amantea was able to take the fourth and final inversion spot from Chris Allen Jr. with Eric Jennings holding off Steven Drevicki for sixth and Drevicki besting a late rally from Mike Thompson for the seventh and final transfer spot.

With 14 cars locked into Sunday’s event and the top-eight set for the points inversion, only six spots for the 40-lap, $3,000-to-win main event remaining to be settled.

Sunday’s event will feature a semi-feature event transferring six cars to the feature event along with the feature event. The winged 360’s of URC will also have a B-Main, and feature, along with another full program for the winged 410 sprint cars.

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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS RACE RESULTS: October 29, 2022 – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – Swedesboro, New Jersey

FIRST HEAT: (15 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 5G-Briggs Danner (2), 2. 20-Alex Bright (13), 3. 7B-Aidan Borden (1), 4. 22-Kyle Spence (3), 5. 17J-Jonathan Swanson (9), 6. 90-Colin White (7), 7. 23B-Preston Lattomus (6), 8. 17-Christian Bruno (14), 9. 91-Mick D'Agostino (11), 10. 67-Jason Cherry (4), 11. 73-Al Cheney (5), 12. 117-David Swanson (12), 13. 97G-Gary Bozowski (10), 14. 74-Duane Nixon (8). NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 87-Austin Graby (2), 2. 5B-Bobby Butler (5), 3. 23M-Kenny Miller III (13), 4. 88J-Joey Amantea (6), 5. 71-Chris Allen Jr. (4), 6. 16CW-Eric Jennings (8), 7. 19-Steven Drevicki (11), 8. 11-Mike Thompson (14), 9. 7-Ed Aikin (7), 10. 2-Brendan Hires (15), 11. 96-Lee Kauffman (1), 12. 45-Brett Rose (12), 13. 64-Richy Carnathan (3), 14. 3H-Heidi Hedin (10), 15. 16-Charles Weslowski (9). NT

USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS POINTS: 1-Briggs Danner-1418, 2-Alex Bright-1291, 3-Steven Drevicki-1146, 4-Joey Amantea-966, 5-Kenny Miller III-866, 6-Preston Lattomus-739, 7-Mike Thompson-732, 8-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-688, 9-Jason Cherry-640, 10-Christian Bruno-622.

NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS RACE: October 30, 2022 – Bridgeport Motorsports Park – Swedesboro, New Jersey