DANNER STORMS TO INAUGURAL BRIDGEPORT USAC EC WIN
By: Nick Fillman – USAC ECSC
Swedesboro, New Jersey (September 26, 2020)………Briggs Danner of Allentown, Pennsylvania took advantage of a last lap slider on race leader Alex Bright to collect his first career Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series victory, in the series first ever appearance at the all new Bridgeport Speedway.
Nagging afternoon showers and rain at the Bridgeport Speedway lead to a long night of competition for the 30 Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series teams in the pit area at the all new Bridgeport Speedway. Over the winter months, the old 5/8ths mile speedway, and newer 3/8ths mile oval, were removed and reworked into a high banked, 4/10ths mile oval that was extremely fast and tacky following an ample watering from mother nature. The series had previously completed two events on the 3/8ths mile with Coleman Gulick (2018), and Joey Biasi (2019) collecting victories.
A season high 30 teams would fill the pit area on Saturday night for competition with more drivers and teams making their series debuts. Nash Ely, Briggs Danner, CJ Faison, and Aiden Borden were among those making their first ever sprint car starts in 2020 in addition to the strong contingent of series regulars making for a stout field of cars.
Heat race action would see Alex Bright, Kyle Spence, and Christopher Allen collect the heat race victories and earn their way into the best redraw spots for the feature event along with six other drivers.
Following the redraw, Carmen Perigo Jr, the runner up last time out, and Alex Bright, the feature winner at Port Royal, would lead the field to the green for the very first time at the new Bridgeport Speedway.
As the green flag flew, Alex Bright quickly jumped into the race lead and began to take off from the rest of the field behind him. Drivers were able to utilize three very distinctive lines around the speedway with the bottom lane, cushion, and above the cushion being the preferred lines to use.
Two cars making immediate moves above the cushion were Briggs Danner in the Gallagher 5g who moved into the second spot from fourth on lap 2, and modified regular Ryan Watt, with Steven Drevicki utilizing the bottom line to move up early.
The first caution flag of the evening would fly on lap four, for Craig Pellegrini Jr, who would slow to a stop on the high side of turns one and two. Unfortunately, for Pellegrini he would not return.
As the field went back to green, Bright held the lead, with Danner, Drevicki, Amantea, and Carmen Perigo rounding out the top five.
The restart would see Ryan Watt flying around the high lane of the speedway above the cushion and move into the second-place position on lap six and gain ground quickly on race leader Alex Bright. Steven Drevicki also made wholesale moves and was into the third place position behind Watt and looked to track down Watt and Bright.
On lap nine, disaster struck for Ryan Watt and Steven Drevicki. Drevicki hit the cushion awkwardly in turns three and four packing the right rear with mud, leading to a broken bird cage and right rear shock, forcing the two time champ out of feature contention. On the same lap, Ryan Watt smacked the outside wall on the back stretch and blew a right rear tire, ending his chances at a second series victory.
On the ensuing restart Bright would lead the field to green, with Danner in Second, Kyle Spence, Christopher Allen and Joey Amantea the top five. Bright would regain his lead and take off from the rest of the top five with a hornet’s nest of action behind him.
Briggs Danner was peddling the car for everything hit had for second, with Spence above the cushion trying for second. Christopher Allen would run side by side, and even bang wheels and rub rails with Joey Amantea a handful of times for the fourth and fifth place positions. Meanwhile, first time wingless driver, and teammate to Kyle Spence, had worked his way into the sixth-place position and trying to move his way into the top five.
With five to go, Bright began to lose some of the lead that he had built on Briggs Danner as the leaders began to encounter lapped traffic, Danner held second, Christopher Allen was side by side with Kyle Spence for third, with Amantea in fifth holding off the challenges of Troy Betts.
At the two to go signal, Danner was all over the rear bumper of race leader Alex Bright in lapped traffic. Danner was running a more aggressive and straight line against the cushion, with running the slick just below the cushion on the speedway. As the leaders entered turns three and four on lap 23, Danner hit Bright with a monster slider diving from the top, to the bottom, to the top and above the cushion off of turn four to take the race lead at the white flag.
As the field rounded turns one and two, the back stretch, and turns three and four for the final time, Bright would have nothing for Briggs Danner as he would go on to collect his first career Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series Victory. Bright would grab second, Allen nabbing third, Spence fourth, and Amantea rounding out the top five.
Briggs Danner the 19-year-old modified and USAC SpeedSTR regular, has been busy in 2020. Danner spit his modified runs between the Grandview Speedway and competition at the Bridgeport Speedway. Danner also was a season long front runner in SpeedSTR competition at Action Track USA where he finished fourth in points. Danner made his first career start in the Bill Gallagher owned 5g entry and drove spectacular all night, drawing attention from fans and series regulars alike to how quickly he adapted to wingless sprint car competition.
Alex Bright continued his torrid consistency of running up front in USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series action. The 29-year-old rookie collected the checkers at Port Royal, and has been very close to victory lane on a number of other occasions.
Christopher Allen is yet another driver who has kept his consistency going all year long. The Old Bridge, NJ Driver has been all over the top five this season, and with Drevicki’s misfortune in Saturdays feature event, Allen will look to close the gap for the points lead and championship.
Kyle Spence has been just about full time with the series in 2020, and the learning the rookie driver has done is noticeable. Spence continues to run very clean, and smart races while running up front with the series best drivers. Should the Delaware driver return for a full time shot at the series in 2021, a victory for the Dave Betts owned entry would not be out of the question.
Joey Amantea of Mount Pocono, PA made only his third ever start on Saturday night, but if you had no idea of that fact, you’d think the sixteen-year-old was a series veteran. Amantea put on a show on Saturday running above the cushion, with the car being on the bike multiple times, and bouncing the right rear off the wall a handful of times. Amantea recently purchased the car off of Austin Burke and will finish out the season with the series and run full time in 2021.
While just missing the top five, Troy Betts, a regular in winged 360 sprint car competition made his series debut and ran a very impressive sixth. The Delaware driver is no stranger to wingless action as Betts has multiple USAC Eastern/ARDC Midget starts and is an annual support of the Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
With Steven Drevicki breaking on lap nine of the feature event, an incredible streak came to an end. Until Saturday night, Drevicki had finished inside the top five in every, series feature event in the three years the series has existed. The series point leader will look to rebound at the Georgetown Speedway next week where he was the winner in 2019.
Up next for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series is stop number two to the Georgetown Speedway, in Georgetown, DE. In July, Modified regular Ryan Watt was able to grab his first career checkered flag. With a hungry field of series vets, and rookies looking to grab a feature win before the season ends, Friday’s event will be one not too miss!!
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: September 26, 2020 – Bridgeport Speedway – Swedesboro, New Jersey
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. 20-Alex Bright, 2. 39-Ryan Watt, 3. 19-Steven Drevicki, 4. 8-Kyle Lick, 5. 74JR-J.R. Berry, 6. 5z-Zack Burd, 7. 51G-C.J. Faison, 8. 3BC-Nash Ely, 9. 11-Mike Thompson, 10. 3H-Heidi Hedin. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. 22-Kyle Spence, 2. 21-Carmen Perigo, 3. 88J-Joey Amantea, 4. 33B-Bill Unglert, 5. 27c-Craig Pellegrini Jr., 6. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 7. 17J-Jonathan Swanson, 8. 7-Aiden Borden, 9. 32-Brian Krummel. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. 71 Chris Allen Jr., 2. 23m-Kenny Miller III, 3. 5G-Briggs Danner, 4. 22B-Troy Betts, 5. 73JR-Ed Aikin, 6. 96-Lee Kauffman, 7. 91-Mick D’Agostino, 8. 117-David Swanson, 9. 67-Jason Cherry, 10. 15-Mark Bitner. NT
SEMI: (10 laps, top-5 transfer): 1. Nash Ely, 2. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 3. Jonathan Swanson, 4. Mike Thompson, 5. Mick D’Agostino, 6. Brian Krummel, 7. Zack Burd, 8. David Swanson, 9. Lee Kauffman, 10. Aiden Borden, 11. Heidi Hedin, 12. Jason Cherry, 13. C.J. Faison. NT
ALSO AT THE TRACK: 23-John Stehman
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Briggs Danner, 2. Alex Bright, 3. Chris Allen Jr., 4. Kyle Spence, 5. Joey Amantea, 6. Troy Betts, 7. Kyle Lick, 8. Bill Unglert, 9. Carmen Perigo, 10. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 11. Kenny Miller lll, 12. Mike Thompson, 13. Nash Ely, 14. Jonathan Swanson, 15. Ed Aikin, 16. Mick D’Agostino, 17. Lee Kauffman, 18. Ryan Watt, 19. Steven Drevicki, 20. J.R. Berry, 21. Craig Pellegrini Jr. NT
**Brian Krummel flipped on lap 2 of the second heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-23 Alex Bright, Laps 24-25 Briggs Danner.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Steven Drevicki-696, 2-Chris Allen Jr.-616, 3-Bill Unglert-574, 4-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-450, 5-Kyle Spence-363, 6-Jonathan Swanson-345, 7-Ryan Quackenbush-341, 8-Christian Bruno-332, 9-Carmen Perigo-316, 10-David Swanson-303.
NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE: October 2, 2020 – Georgetown Speedway – Georgetown, Delaware
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
ULTRA SHIELD PRODUCTS 2ND PLACE: Alex Bright
KEIZER WHEELS 3RD PLACE: Chris Allen Jr.
KING RACING PRODUCTS 6TH PLACE: Troy Betts
ULTRA SHIELD PRODUCTS 8TH PLACE: Bill Unglert
