DREVICKI CRUISES TO EAST COAST SPRINT OPENER WIN AT ORANGE COUNTY
By: Nick Fillman
Middletown, New York (July 2, 2020)………After what would feel like an eternity, and after months of prep work and waiting, the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series were finally able to start the 2020 season off at the Orange County Fair Speedway on Thursday night. The series made their first ever appearance to the “House of Power” and a strong contingent of 25 sprint cars entered the pit area.
An interesting mix of drivers would fill the pit area, split between series veterans, series rookies, and a good deal of support from winged and wingless regulars in the Empire State region.
Heat race action on the night would see series regulars Timmy Buckwalter, and Joey Biasi collect heat one and two victories, with modified regular, and budding sprint car driver Danny Varin, collecting the third heat race victory in his series, and non-winged sprint car debut. While USAC East Coast Rookie, Alex Yankowski would grab the B Main victory on a last lap pass of Ryan Quackenbush.
Following the redraw, a pair of New York state drivers: Thomas Radivoy and Eric Jennings, would share the front row for the season opening event of the 2020 season.
On the initial green, Steven Drevicki would quickly move by Jennings, and Radivoy who were most comfortable on the outside lane of the speedway, while Drevicki would stick to the bottom.
With the slick surface of the Orange County Fair Speedway, drivers were left with a bottom lane, and a top lane early that would lead to an extremely intense battle for the 5th through 8th place positions on lap five, as Radivoy, Varin, Billy VanInwegen and Joey Biasi would fight tooth and nail for a spot in the top 5.
The most impressive runner early on in the feature would belong to Orange County modified regular, and part time ESS driver Billy VanInwegen. VanInwegen would quickly move through the first half of the field from his 12th place starting spot utilizing the outside line. VanInwegen would find himself into the 3rd place position on lap nine, battling another driver making his series debut: Davie Franek, for the runner up position.
At the halfway point of the feature event, Drevicki would hold a strong and commanding lead over a close battle for second between Franek, and Billy VanInwegen. Bobby Varin, and Tim Buckwalter would throw a number of sliders around the halfway point of the feature for the 5th place position.
On lap 16, while working through lapped traffic VanInwegen would finally be able to move around Franek, and would hope to track down race leader Steven Drevicki, who was encountering heavy lapped traffic. Although VanInwegen would close to about a corners’ length distance on Drevicki, it would not be enough as defending series champion Steven Drevicki would cruise on to collect the season opener. VanInwegen, Franek, Jennings, and Danny Varin would round out the top five.
For Reading, PA’s Steven Drevicki, season opening victories are no stranger, as the two-time champion has won three consecutive season opening events, at three different speedways, in three different states.
Runner up Billy VanInwegen is no stranger to sprint cars but has only dabbled in non-winged racing. VanInwegen has made a handful of starts for Steve Buckwalter at the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. The VanInwegen team was more than busy as he ran the 360 sprint car portion of the PA Speedweek event at the Port Royal Speedway on Wednesday before switching the car over for Thursdays show. VanInwegen would also be the sole double duty driver in the field and would compete in all three features on Thursday.
Davie Franek is another driver who has plenty of experience in a sprint car, but hardly any without a wing on. The Sussex, NJ driver was extremely impressive in their series debut running up front in both his heat race and the feature event.
Bloomingburg, New York driver Eric Jennings is always one to watch when the USAC East Coast Sprint Cars are in action. The series regular was consistent all season in 2019 finishing 5th in series points. 2020 is off to the same start for Jennings and the Hamilton Racing team as they were fast all night and collected a solid fourth place effort.
Rounding out the top five is another driver who was making their series debut. Danny Varin of Fonda, NY had only ever been in a wingless sprint car in an early season test at the Fonda Speedway. But you would not know the difference as the modified regular looked like a wingless veteran. Varin, and the Dover Brake 00 team have been branching out and doing a lot more sprint car racing in both 360 and 410 competition. Varin dominated heat race number three, and ran a smooth and consistent event in the feature.
A number of series rookie driver who will follow the tour in 2020 made their season debuts on Thursday including: Christian Bruno, Andrew Layser, Bruce Buckwalter JR, and Alex Yankowski.
Unfortunately for 2019 USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year, Andrew Layser’s night came to an early and abrupt end as a thrown rod in the engine would end the rookie drivers night early in hot laps.
The series returns to action tonight at the Big Diamond Speedway in Minersville, PA. Stay tuned to our social media pages for all updates throughout the night of action!
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 2, 2020 – Orange County Fair Speedway – Middletown, New York
FIRST HEAT: (top-5 transfer to the feature, top-3 redraw) 1. 5G-Timmy Buckwalter, 2-19 Steven Drevicki, 3-28F Davie Franek, 4-17 Jonathan Swanson, 5-117 David Swanson, 6. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 7. H20-Dan Malley, 8. 16-Charles Weslowski, 9. 3H-Heidi Hedin.
SECOND HEAT: (top-5 transfer to the feature, top-3 redraw) 1. B1-Joey Biasi, 2. 1Q-Thomas Radivoy, 3. 17-Christian Bruno, 4. 67-Jason Cherry, 5. 91-Bobby Flood, 6. 11-Craig Pelligrini Jr, 7. 96-Lee Kauffman, 9. 35-Andrew Layser.
THIRD HEAT: (top-5 transfer to the feature, top-3 redraw) 1. 00-Danny Varin, 2. 71-Chris Allen Jr, 3. 32-Eric Jennings, 4. 56-Billy VanInwegen, 5. 33B-Bill Unglert, 6. 7-Alex Yankowski, 8. 5Q-Ryan Quackenbush, 9. 6-Steve Kyzer.
SEMI: (top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Alex Yankowski, 2. Ryan Quackenbush, 3. Dan Malley, 4-Lee Kauffman, 5. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 6. Charles Weslowski, 7. Heidi Hedin, 8. Steve Kyzer, 9. Craig Pelligrini Jr., 10. Andrew Layser.
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Billy VanInwegen, 3. Davie Franek, 4. Eric Jennings, 5. Danny Varin, 6. Timmy Buckwalter, 7. Chris Allen Jr, 8. Joey Biasi, 9. Jonathan Swasnson, 10. Bill Unglert, 11. Thomas Radivoy, 12. Ryan Quackenbush, 13. Alex Yankowski, 14. Christian Bruno, 15. Bobby Flood, 16. David Swanson, 17. Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 19. Dan Malley, 20. Lee Kauffman.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Steven Drevicki
NEXT RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE: July 3, 2020 – Big Diamond Speedway – Pottsville, Pennsylvania
