DREVICKI DOUBLES UP; SWEEPS SEASON OPENING WEEKEND WITH BIG DIAMOND WIN
By: Nick Fillman
Minersville, Pennsylvania (July 3, 2020)………Nearly 24 hours after cruising to the season opening victory at the Orange County Fair Speedway, Steven Drevicki continued on with his winning ways collecting yet another Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series victory at the Big Diamond Speedway.
After a line of heavy showers and a brief thunderstorm passed through the area, 22 USAC East Coast Sprint cars entered the pit area at the Big Diamond Speedway for night number two of action on the series trail. Again, an interesting mix of drivers and teams were in the pit area with another handful of drivers making their 2020 season debuts like: Mark Bitner, Kyle Spence, Carmen Perigo, and John Stehman.
With the evening rains, the track would be left narrow with the dominant line being around the top of the speedway for heat race competition. Series Rookie Bruce Buckwalter Jr. took heat one, while Carmen Perigo, and Joey Biasi would earn the heat race victories and look to have a good redraw.
The heat races did not come without casualty as Timmy Buckwalter had a steering failure in heat race number two leading to a hard impact with the outside wall in turns three and four ending his night.
With a handful of drivers not making it back out for the feature event, no B main would be conducted and the remaining 19 drivers would start the feature event. Old Bridge, New Jersey driver Bill Unglert and Joey Biasi would lead the field to the green for the feature event, with Steven Drevicki firing off from the third-place position just as he did one night prior.
Bill Unglert would quickly jump out to the early race lead with Biasi, Drevicki and the rest of the field fighting for position early on.
Major trouble would occur on lap 6 as Danny Varin would catch the cushion wrong in turns three and four, causing the car to bicycle and flip end over end out of the speedway. Luckily, Danny was ok and would make his way back to the pit area.
Within the next handful of laps following the restart, Drevicki would maneuver his way around Joey Biasi for second place using the inside line of the speedway, with the majority of the field devoted to the cushion around both ends of the track.
On lap 12, race leader Bill Unglert would find himself encountering the back end of the field, with traffic only getting heavier by lap 14. As the field completed lap 15, Steven Drevicki would be able to get to the inside of the number 33 machine and take the race lead away from Bill Unglert.
At the same time a great battle occurred between Ryan Quackenbush and Joey Biasi who would trade the third spot back and forth. With five laps to go, Joey Biasi would have a massive run into turns one and two and pass Unglert for the runner up position. However, it was all for not, as Steven Drevicki would be able to collect yet another victory at the Big Diamond Spedway.
Post race, Drevicki would explain that the set up they had for the feature event was more so for the bottom of the speedway, rather than the top on the cushion, wherein the majority of the field was running for most of the feature event. Drevicki would be able to use this difference in set up to pass cars on the bottom of the track to collect the feature win.
Ryan Quackenbush would grab a strong fourth place effort, his career best with the series. Over the winter, the Quackenbush team made major switch in chassis manufacturers from Triple X Chassis to RPM Chassis. The team has appeared to find success with the new combo and will only look to improve.
Making his series debut and impressing all in attendance was Bear, Delaware driver Kyle Spence. Spence was aboard the Betts Garage 22 machine and had a solid run from 12th to 8th in the feature event. A solid debut for the 600cc micro sprint standout.
Up next will be the series return to the Georgetown Speedway in Georgetown, Delaware, where Steven Drevicki is also the series’ first ever winner and defending race winner. As always, keep up to date with all breaking news, updates and stories by following along on our social media cites!
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 3, 2020 – Big Diamond Speedway – Pottsville, Pennsylvania
FIRST HEAT: (all transfer to the feature, top-3 redraw) 1. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 2. 15-Mark Bitner, 3. 71-Chris Allen Jr., 4. 22-Jacob Balliet, 5. 17m-Christian Bruno, 6. 117-David Swanson, 7. 00-Danny Varin, 8. 96-Lee Kauffman.
SECOND HEAT: (all transfer to the feature, top-3 redraw) 1. 21-Carmen Perigo, 2. 19-Steven Drevicki, 3. 5Q-Ryan Quackenbush, 4. 17-Jonathan Swanson, 5. 67-Jason Cherry, 6. 57-Ricky Rutt, 7. 5G-Timmy Buckwalter.
THIRD HEAT: (all transfer to the feature, top-3 redraw) 1. B1-Joey Biasi, 2. 33B-Bill Unglert, 3. 7-Alex Yankowski, 4. 22-Kyle Spence, 5. 3H-Heidi Hedin, 6. 23-John Stehman, 7. 8-Larry Drake.
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Joey Biasi, 3. Bill Unglert, 4. Ryan Quackenbush, 5. Carmen Perigo, 6. Chris Allen Jr, 7. Alex Yankowski, 8. Kyle Spence, 9. Mark Bitner, 10. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 11. Jonathan Swanson, 12. John Stehman, 13. Christian Bruno, 14. Jacob Balliet, 15. Jason Cherry, 16. Ricky Rutt, 17. Heidi Hedin, 18. Larry Drake. 19. Danny Varin, 20. Timmy Buckwalter, 21. David Swanson.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-15 Bill Unglert, Laps 16-25 Steven Drevicki.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Steven Drevicki-154, 2-Joey Biasi-132, 3-Chris Allen Jr.-120, 4-Bill Unglert-118, 5-Ryan Quackenbush-108, 6-Alex Yankowski-98, 7-Jonathan Swanson-97, 8-Danny Varin-95, 9-Bruce Buckwalter Jr. -83, 10-Christian Bruno-82.
NEXT RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE: July 24, 2020 – Georgetown Speedway – Georgetown, Delaware
