BRIGHT & MILLER SPLIT TWIN 20’S; DREVICKI WINS USAC EAST COAST SPRINT TITLE
By: Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Minersville, Pennsylvania (October 9, 2020).........Alex Bright of Collegeville, PA, and Kenny Miller of Morgantown, PA were able to split the final two victories of the 2020 Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series season at the Big Diamond Speedway in the series first ever Twin 20’s program. While Steven Drevicki was able to hold off Chris Allen Jr. and wrap up his third consecutive USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series title.
Twenty-Eight USAC East Coast Sprint Car series teams entered the pit area on Friday at the Big Diamond Speedway for the season finale on the 2020 series trail. Alex Bright, Ryan Watt, and Kyle Lick collected the three heat race victories, while Jacob Balliet was the B Main winner.
Following the redraw of the top nine spots in the feature event, series rookie Joey Amantea, and Christopher Allen would lead the field to the green for the first of two twenty lap feature events.
On the initial green of the feature event, Christopher Allen was able to get the advantage over Amantea for the feature event lead and look to set sail on the field in his quest to close the gap on Steven Drevicki for the series point lead. Intermission track prep left the surface on the wet side, and very slick as drivers opted for the extreme outside of the speedway, and the extreme bottom. The top line prevailed for most of the field as drivers were strung out early on in the feature event.
Alex Bright was able to quickly move his way from the eighth starting spot, too inside the top three by lap four, with Allen leading the way over Carmen Perigo who was not letting the 71 entry slip away.
With the faster surface, the leaders began to encounter lapped traffic on lap nine, with Allen and Perigo slicing through lapped cars for the feature event lead. Perigo was underneath, and outside of Allen as the two battled for position through the back of the field with Allen getting the best of the veteran Perigo in each corner.
The two would battle side by side for a number of laps until a red flag would fly on lap seventeen. Ryan Watt hopped the right rear tire of Jacob Balliet, sending Watt viciously, and violently, over the wall and outside of the speedway. Luckily, Watt was able to get out of the car under his own power.
An extended red flag occurred due to where the Watt machine landed outside of the speedway, so a brief tire pressure session was allowed for crew members before the feature event went green again.
The restart order with just three laps to go saw Christopher Allen leading over: Carmen Perigo, Alex Bright, Bill Unglert, and Joey Amantea.
When the field went back green again, Alex Bright quickly moved by Carmen Perigo for second and began his hunt of race leader Christopher Allen. Allen remained committed to the outside line of the speedway with Bright diving low to the bottom and middle lanes trying to get by Allen. Christopher was able to hold off the charges of Bright for about two laps, before Bright would move by Allen on coming to the white flag.
Alex Bright would hold off one last charge from Christopher Allen to collect his second feature event win of 2020 over: Christopher Allen, Carmen Perigo, Bill Unglert, and Steven Drevicki.
With the unique inversion of the field for feature number two, Alex Bright would draw a pill for positions 8, 10, or 12 for the second feature event. Bright would pull a number 10 pill which would invert the top 10 positions for feature number two.
Christian Bruno and Kyle Spence by virtue of the invert shared the front row for the start of the second feature event. Bruno would grab the race lead on the initial start of the feature event with Spence, Kenny Miller and Alex Yankowski all batting hard in a side by side, four car battle for the top four positions.
Christian Bruno would lead the initial four laps of the feature event, before relinquishing the lead to Kenny Miller on lap four. The battle for second through fifth remained intense with Bruno, Spence, Yankowski, and Steven Drevicki side by side for position.
On lap eight, the top three drivers of Miller, Bruno, and Yankowski would run three-wide for the race lead as the track surface was slick, with multiple grooves for drivers to choose from early on.
The caution flag would fly and interrupt the battle for the top five positions on lap eight as Kyle Lick would spin to a stop in turns three and four. The restart would see Kenny Miller lead: Bruno, Yankowski, Drevicki and Spence to the green.
After the restart on lap ten, Steven Drevicki would move into the second-place position and try to track down race leader Kenny Miller, for the feature event lead. The caution flag would again fly on lap eleven, for Mike Thompson and Nash Ely who would get together in turn one and stop on the outside of the baking.
Miller again led the field to the green with Drevicki all over the tail tank of the number 23m machine of Miller. Miller chose to run the bottom groove of the speedway, with Drevicki running the extreme outside of the speedway trying to get a run for the race lead. Alex Bright clawed his way up to the fourth-place position on lap fifteen and was part of a great battle with Alex Yankowski and Christian Bruno for positions three, four, and five.
Drevicki would give Miller everything he could to try and take the race lead away, but at the conclusion of feature event number two, Kenny Miller lll was able to collect his second victory of the 2020 USAC East Coast Season over: Steven Drevicki, Alex Yankowski, Alex Bright, and Christian Bruno.
While Steven Drevicki did not grace victory lane as a feature winner on Friday night at the Big Diamond Speedway, he was able to celebrate his third consecutive Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series Championship. Drevicki who is also the series all time feature winner, and leads about every statistical category in series history, Christopher Allen kept him honest for the majority of the 2020 season.
Drevicki won when he needed too, early, often, and late. The veteran of the series swept opening weekend in July, won races through the summer months, and rebounded with a victory following his first ever, and only DNF at the Bridgeport Speedway in September.
Steven Drevicki ended the season with five feature event wins (Orange County, Big Diamond, Williams Grove, Winchester, and Georgetown), along with 12 top five finishes in 13 feature event starts. Drevicki owned an impressive statistic of finishing inside the top five in every series feature event since its inception, until suffering a mechanical failure at Bridgeport. But the streak ending did not phase the driver, as Drevicki stated “Streaks are meant to be broken.” Following the only major setback the team experienced in 2020 he immediately rebounded with a feature event win at the Georgetown Speedway in the true spirt of a championship caliber driver.
Despite the best efforts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the series was able to enjoy a 12 event, 13 feature event season with high car counts at many events, and many new teams joining the series.
Look for the 2021 schedule to resemble much of what was initially scheduled for the 2020 season, with the potential for more than one event at a few of the tracks the series visited for the first time in 2020.
Lastly, the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Series team would like to give our heartfelt thanks to all of the tracks, drivers, and fans who have supported us in a very difficult 2020 season, and we cannot wait to swing back into action in 2021!!
------------------------------------------------
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 9, 2020 – Big Diamond Speedway – Pottsville, Pennsylvania
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. 20-Alex Bright, 2. 19A-Brody Adamsky, 3. 19-Steven Drevicki, 4. 3BC-Nash Ely, 5. 32-Colin White, 6. 3H-Heidi Hedin, 7. 64-Rich Carnathan, 8. 22B-Troy Betts, 9. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 10. 7B-Aidan Borden.
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. 39-Ryan Watt. 2. 88J-Joey Amantea, 3. 21-Carmen Perigo Jr, 4. 22-Kyle Spence, 5. 33B-Bill Unglert, 6. 22J-Jacob Balliet, 7. 11-Mike Thompson, 8. 17m-Christian Bruno, 9. 23-John Stehman.
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. 8L-Kyle Lick, 2. 7-Alex Yankowski, 3. 71-Chris Allen Jr., 4. 23m-Kenny Miller lll, 5. 96-Lee Kauffman, 6. 17G-Devin Gundrum, 7. 74JR-J.R. Berry, 8. 67-Jason Cherry, 9. 5G-Briggs Danner.
SEMI: (10 laps, top-5 transfer) 1. Jacob Balliet, 2. Mike Thompson, 3. Christian Bruno, 4. Troy Betts, 5. J.R. Berry, 6. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 7. John Stehman, 8. Heidi Hedin, 9. Jason Cherry, 10. Rich Carnathan, 11. Devin Gundrum.
FIRST FEATURE: (20 laps) 1. Alex Bright, 2. Chris Allen Jr., 3. Carmen Perigo, 4. Bill Unglert, 5. Steven Drevicki, 6. Alex Yankowski, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Kenny Miller, 9. Kyle Spence, 10. Christian Bruno, 11. Mike Thompson, 12. Kyle Lick, 13. Colin White, 14. Nash Ely, 15. Troy Betts, 16. Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 17. J.R. Berry, 18. Jacob Balliet, 19. Brody Adamsky, 20. Ryan Watt, 21. Lee Kauffman.
SECOND FEATURE: (20 laps) 1. Kenny Miller lll, 2. Steven Drevicki, 3. Alex Yankowski, 4. Alex Bright, 5. Christian Bruno, 6. Kyle Spence, 7. Chris Allen Jr., 8. Carmen Perigo Jr, 9. J.R. Berry, 10. Troy Betts, 11. Joey Amantea, 12. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 13. Colin White, 14. John Stehman, 15. Kyle Lick, 16. Nash Ely, 17. Jason Cherry, 18. Mike Thompson, 19. Heidi Hedin, 20. Jacob Balliet, 21. Bill Unglert.
Stehman, Cherry, and Hedin were added as alternates due to Adamsky, Watt, and Kauffman not being able to run feature two.
FIRST FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-18 Chris Allen Jr., Laps 19-20 Alex Bright.
SECOND FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Christian Bruno, Laps 5-20 Kenny Miller III.
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Steven Drevicki-903, 2-Chris Allen Jr.-795, 3-Bill Unglert-722, 4-Bruce Buckwalter Jr.-566, 5-Kyle Spence-541, 6-Christian Bruno-471, 7-Carmen Perigo-435, 8-Kenny Miller III-416, 9-Jonathan Swanson-382, 10-Ryan Quackenbush-341.
FIRST FEATURE CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
ULTRA SHIELD PRODUCTS 2ND PLACE: Chris Allen Jr.
KEIZER WHEELS 3RD PLACE: Carmen Perigo
KING RACING PRODUCTS 6TH PLACE: Alex Yankowski
ULTRA SHIELD PRODUCTS 8TH PLACE: Kenny Miller III
SECOND FEATURE CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
ULTRA SHIELD PRODUCTS 2ND PLACE: Steven Drevicki
KEIZER WHEELS 3RD PLACE: Alex Yankowski
KING RACING PRODUCTS 6TH PLACE: Kyle Spence
ULTRA SHIELD PRODUCTS 8TH PLACE: Carmen Perigo
