USAC EC WILLIAMS GROVE DEBUT BELONGS TO DREVICKI
By: Nick Fillman/USAC ECSC
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (August 14, 2020)………Steven Drevicki of Reading, PA, returned to victory lane with the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, collecting his first career win at the speedway, and the series’ first ever feature event at the legendary half mile.
Two years of rain outs, and an early season postponement of the 2020 event, the USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series was finally able to make their series debut at the Williams Grove Speedway. The feature event and on track entertainment was well worth the wait.
The front row of the feature event featured Bill Unglert, and David Swanson following the redraw, with top drivers sprinkled evenly throughout the top nine in the feature field.
The initial green would be followed by a quick yellow, as Chris Allen Jr. went for a spin in turns one and two and would set up a complete restart. When the initial green flew, Bill Unglert took over the top spot, and quickly worked his way to the cushion around the top of the speedway.
The surface of the Williams Grove Speedway was very wide, with a low groove, and a small cushion to lean on at the top of the speedway. Quickly, Alex Bright, working from his eighth place starting position, used the high line of the speedway and moved into the top three by lap five. Bright and Drevicki would trade positions four and five back and forth for a number of laps early on in the feature event.
Bright and Drevicki remained one of the fiercest battles on the speedway as they worked their way into the top three positions by lap ten. The rest of the top five saw Carmen Perigo, Joey Biasi and Billy VanInwegen battle for positions in third through sixth.
On lap eleven, Drevicki would finally move by Bright for second, and begin to make his bid for the race lead and try to reel in race leader Bill Unglert. Just two laps later, the top three of: Unglert, Drevicki, and Bright would be nose to tail running in the same corner at the same time. As the field moved through turns three and four, Drevicki threw a slider on Unglert and would have the race lead. Shortly after the pass for the lead, the yellow flag flew for a spinning Lee Kauffman in turns one and two.
As the green flag flew on the ensuing restart, the intensity kicked up even more with drivers fighting hard for each and every position. Drevicki still led, with Bright giving everything he could to try and draw even with the number nine-teen entry. Carmen Perigo had moved into third, in a remaining intense battle for the top six. Joey Biasi made bids to pass Perigo multiple times, with Unglert falling back some, and Billy VanInwegen trying to get into the top five.
The yellow flag would again fly on lap twenty for a spinning Heidi Hedin, setting up a five lap dash for the finish at Williams Grove.
The restart saw Bright draw even with Drevicki for the lead in turns one and two, with Drevicki powering off the low line of the speedway. The battle for the top five yet again showed no signs of being any less intense. Biasi made used the high line to battle with Perigo for third, and Billy VanInwegen utilizing the low line. On lap 22, Perigo, Biasi, and VanInwegen in that order fanned out three wide for the second position behind Drevicki and Bright who had distanced themselves from the remainder of the pack.
Drevicki had an increasingly difficult time with the exit of turn four on the remaining two laps getting over the cushion near the wall, allowing Bright to still have a shot at the win. Drevicki one last time jumped the cushion off of turn four coming to the checkered flag but would hold strong for the victory. Drevicki was followed to the line by: Bright, Billy VanInwegen, Joey Biasi, and Carmen Perigo.
Steven Drevicki is no stranger to Williams Grove, making a number of starts in ARDC midget, and a handful of winged 358 sprint car starts. However, Drevicki never was able to grace victory lane at ‘the paperclip” until Friday night. Drevicki continued his amazing streak of consecutive top five finishes and remained the only driver to win multiple races in 2020 now collecting three victories.
Alex Bright was strong yet again in the Rodota Trucking number 20 machine, despite making only his second start of the season. Bright cruised to a heat two victory and worked his way from the eighth place starting position to a solid second.
Billy VanInwegen suffered a hand injury following the series event at the Georgetown Speedway, which prevented him from competing in last week’s events at New Egypt and Selinsgrove. VanInwegen again looked like a wingless veteran, methodically working his way to a podium spot utilizing the bottom groove of the speedway. VanInwegen, the modified regular, and sprint car part timer, again impressed, collecting his third top five finish in as many starts.
Joey Biasi made his return to the USAC East Coast Series on Friday night, following issues and missing last week’s events. Biasi won heat three, and put on a show battling with Carmen Perigo, and Billy VanInwegen inside the top six for the entire feature event.
Rounding out the top five was Carmen Perigo. Perigo may have had the most experience at the Williams Grove Speedway with his many years of Super Sportsman competition coming into play. Perigo ran inside the top 10 at the Selinsgrove Speedway on Sunday and made his USAC Silver Crown Series debut finishing in the top five.
Christopher Allen Jr was the hard charger of the feature event on Friday working his way from the 21st starting spot to finish 9th. Following the event at Selinsgrove, the team found metal shavings in the oil while doing maintenance. Allen and team were prepared to utilize their back up car one Friday, but a quick turn-around from their engine builder, allowed the team to use their primary car. However, chasing an engine gremlin most of the night, that ended up being a bad power steering pump, left the team starting from the rear. Allen smoothly made his way through the field and salvaged a decent night despite early troubles.
A massive flip in hot laps left Andrew Layser unable to compete on Friday night. Layser is ok after going to a local hospital for a check-up. The team suffered major damage to the operation and will likely regroup and try again in 2021.
Up next for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series is another double header weekend. Friday, August 21st the series heads to the Bedford Speedway, and Saturday the series makes its one and only visit to the “Speed Palace” the Port Royal Speedway.
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 14, 2020 – Williams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all cars transfer) 1. 33B-Bill Unglert, 2. 19-Steven Drevicki, 3. 74JR-J.R. Berry, 5. 23-John Stehman, 6. 96-Lee Kauffman, 7. 67-Jason Cherry.
SECOND HEAT: (8 Laps, all cars transfer) 1. 20-Alex Bright, 2. 17-Christian Bruno, 3. 5G-Billy VanInwegen, 4. 22-Kyle Spence, 5. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 6. 27c-Craig Pellegrini, 7. 5Q-Ryan Quackenbush. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 Laps, all cars transfer) 1. B1-Joey Biasi, 2. 21-Carmen Perigo, 3. 117-David Swanson, 4. 12w-Troy Fraker, 5. 11-Mike Thompson, 6. 3H-Heidi Hedin.
ALSO AT THE TRACK: 35-Andrew Layser
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Alex Bright, 3. Billy VanInwegen, 4. Joey Biasi, 5. Carmen Perigo, 6. Bill Unglert, 7. Kyle Spence, 8. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 9. Chris Allen Jr., 10. John Stehman, 11. Mike Thompson, 12. David Swanson, 13. J.R. Berry, 14. Ryan Quackenbush, 15. Jonathan Swanson, 16. Troy Fraker, 17. Lee Kauffman, 18. Craig Pellegrini Jr., 19. Jason Cherry, 20. Heidi Hedin, 21. Christian Bruno.
**Andrew Layser flipped during hot laps.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Bill Unglert, Laps 13-25 Steven Drevicki.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Steven Drevicki-439, 2-Chris Allen Jr.-372, 3-Bill Unglert-346, 4-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-273, 5-Ryan Quackenbush-264, 6-Joey Biasi-243, 7-Alex Yankowski-206, 8-Jonathan Swanson-202, 9-Carmen Perigo-188, 10-Kyle Spence-172.
NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE: August 21, 2020 – Bedford Speedway – Bedford, Pennsylvania
