WATT WINS USAC EAST COAST SPRINT DEBUT
By: Nicholas Fillman/USAC ECSC
Georgetown, Delaware (July 24, 2020)………Ryan Watt of Boyertown, PA entered the evening at the Georgetown Speedway as rookie when it came to the wild world of non-wing sprint car racing. But by the time the checkered flags fell on the nights feature event, Watt came out on top looking like a seasoned veteran.
Getting back into action following a three-week break in series action, 16 drivers entered the pit area of the Georgetown Speedway for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series second ever trip to the southern Delaware Oval. Yet again, an interesting mix of 2020 series rookies and series veterans were on hand to try and grab the feature event win.
Two very entertaining heat race events would set the field for the 25-lap feature event with series rookie Bruce Buckwalter Jr, and Bill Unglert sharing the front row.
The drop of the green would see Unglert quickly power around the outside of Buckwalter and take the lead on lap one, with Ryan Watt following in close pursuit and immediately challenging Unglert for the lead of the feature event.
A quick caution on lap three for a breaking Jonathan Swanson would bunch the field back together for an early race restart. When the green flew again Unglert remained in the power position of the field with Ryan Watt again, pressuring Unglert for the lead of the field.
On lap five, Watt would be able to maneuver himself around Unglert and take over the top position of the field. Unglert remained in second but was immediately challenged for the runner up position by Joey Biasi.
As the field approached the halfway point, an intense battle would rage for the fourth through seventh position with: Chris Allen, Billy VanInwegen, Steven Drevicki, and Kyle Spence trading positions just inside, and outside of the top five.
The caution flag again appeared on lap 12 for a slowing Bruce Buckwalter. The caution would erase the lead that Watt had established and bring the balance of the field right back to his tail tank. As the green flew, Watt would again jump back out to a comfortable lead with Unglert and Biasi going at each other for second, and the same group of Allen, VanInwegen, Drevicki, and Spence trading spots behind the lead trio.
On lap 16 Unglert made a mistake on the cushion in turns three and four and ended up over the baking in the turn. Unglert kept his foot in the gas, and while not stopping, would lose control of the second-place position, falling back to seventh.
Heartbreak would again strike within the podium runners as Joey Biasi would slow down the back stretch on lap 23 causing a caution and one final shot for the rest of the field to get by Watt.
Watt was now leading Chris Allen, Steven Drevicki from 8th, Billy VanInwegen, and Kyle Spence to the green. As the field took the green flag with just a handful remaining Allen would try to dig to the bottom of Watt in turns one and two but it simply wasn’t enough as Ryan Watt would go on to collect his first ever Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series victory in his first ever attempt.
Ryan Watt the noted modified standout has dabbled with more open wheel racing over the last few years. With many starts and solid runs with the ARDC midgets, Watt had begun venturing out with running winged sprint car events for Tim Hogue. Watt drove like a natural in his series debut, moving from eight to third in his heat race, and picking up the feature event win.
For Christopher Allen, consistency is no issue as the Old Bridge, New Jersey driver was able to collect yet another top five finish with the series. For Allen, it was a bit of “Second verse, same as the first” as Allen was the runner up finisher in last year’s feature at the Georgetown Speedway. Allen will look to grab a Georgetown checkered flag in October in the series return. However, look for the Allen team to be in victory lane before then.
Steven Drevicki would earn a hard fought third place finish in the nights 25 lap main event. With the track surface receiving a large amount of rain between Thursday and early afternoon thunderstorms Friday, the track was lightning fast and a bit hard to pass on in the heats. Drevicki finished in fourth just outside of the redraw and stared eighth in the feature event. Drevicki methodically worked his way into the top three and continued his impressive streak of not finishing outside of the top five.
An unfortunate accident at the Bridgeport Speedway, has left the Bill Gallagher 5g entry without their regular driver Tim Buckwalter for the foreseeable future in 2020. The call was made to Port Jervis, NY driver Billy VanInwegen who would make his second ever non-wing 360 start. Billy V ran an impressive second at the Orange County Fair Speedway, and after never seeing the Georgetown Speedway in person, raced his way to a top five in his second ever start.
Rounding out the top five was another driver making just his second ever series start: Kyle Spence. The Micro sprint graduate finished eighth in his first ever start at the Big Diamond Speedway, and recently won $10,000 at the Non-Wing World Championship in Peru, Indiana. Spence appeared even more comfortable on Friday, not shying away from running the treacherous cushion at the Georgetown Speedway, and mixing it up for a solid top five finish in his first trip to the speedway.
Up next the series will continue a southern trend with a pair of shows in Maryland and Virginia. The series will debut at both the Potomac Speedway and at the Winchester Speedway next Friday and Saturday. Both Potomac Speedway in Maryland, and the Winchester Speedway in Virginia, have had wingless racing in the past as the ARDC midgets used to make a yearly trip to the speedways. Friday and Saturday will again put the drivers of the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series to the test, as they venture to a track that is largely unknown to the majority of the series drivers.
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 24, 2020 – Georgetown Speedway – Georgetown, Delaware
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer, top-3 redraw, starting positions in brackets) 1. 71-Chris Allen Jr. [3]; 2. B1-Joey Biasi [5]; 3. 39-Ryan Watt [7]; 4. 27c-Craig Pellegrini Jr. [2]; 5. 5Q-Ryan Quackenbush [8]; 6. 5z-Zack Burd [1]; 7. 3H-Heidi Hedin [6]; 8. 117-David Swanson [4].
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer, top-3 redraw, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 5G-Billy VanInwegen Jr. [3]; 2. 33B-Bill Unglert [1]; 3. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr. [2]; 4. 19-Steven Drevicki [6]; 5. 17-Christian Bruno [5]; 6. 22-Kyle Spence [7]; 7. 67-Jason Cherry [4]; 8. 17J-Jonathan Swanson [8].
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in brackets) 1. Ryan Watt [4]; 2. Chris Allen Jr. [6]; 3. Steven Drevicki [8]; 4. Billy VanInwegen Jr. [5]; 5. Kyle Spence [12]; 6. Bill Unglert [2]; 7. Ryan Quackenbush [9]; 8. Craig Pellegrini Jr. [7]; 9. Christian Bruno [10]; 10. David Swanson [15]; 11. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. [1]; 12. Heidi Hedin [13]; 13. Jason Cherry [14]; 14. Joey Biasi [3]; 15. Zack Burd [11]; 16. Jonathan Swanson [16].
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Bill Unglert, Laps 6-25 Ryan Watt.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Steven Drevicki-223, 2-Chris Allen Jr.-195, 3-Bill Unglert-180, 4-Joey Biasi-174, 5-Ryan Quackenbush-164, 6-Billy VanInwegen Jr.-141, 7-Christian Bruno-132, 8-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-130, 9-Jonathan Swanson-129, 10-Kyle Spence-115.
NEXT RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE: August 8, 2020 – New Egypt Speedway - New Egypt, New Jersey
