8/19/2022
USAC East Coast Sprint Cars
Danner Wins Eighth of the Season at Bloomsburg
Bloomsburg, PA. August 18th, 2022. Nick Filllman, USAC ECSC
Briggs Danner of Allentown, PA picked up his series leading eighth win of the year in Rapid Tire Services, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, Presented by Capitol Renegade action, at the Bloomsburg Fair Raceway.
Aidan Borden and Mark Smith would bring the seventeen car starting field to green for the twenty-five lap feature event, with Mark Smith getting the drop on Borden and moving into the lead early on. Within the first handful of laps the fastest car on the move was that of Steven Drevicki who had worked his way into the runner up position behind Mark Smith early on in the event.
Briggs Danner and Alex Bright who started sixth and fifth on the field were locked in a tight battle as the two we’re virtually tied together as they worked their methodically picked off cars at the front of the field. Joey Amantea held onto third, with Danner and Bright all over Amantea with an intense three car battle for the third position, before the trio would work around the 19 of Steven Drevicki.
The top five of the field were running extremely close together, within the same corner, for multiple laps early on. Mark Smith remained the leader with Danner, Bright, Amantea, and Drevicki rounding out the top five. Amantea had slapped the outside wall in turn one around lap six and had lost some ground on the front trio of cars, but still was within striking distance with Drevicki on his bumper.
Briggs Danner moved into the second position behind Mark Smith by lap six, and ultimately took the race lead as the field worked their way off the corner to lap number eight. From there, Danner put a ton of distance on the field and began to pull away, with Alex Bright fighting hard to work his way through the remaining cars in front of him and try to reel in Danner.
Bright had worked his way into the third place position by lap twelve, and eventually, into the runner up spot on lap fourteen, leaving him with just nine laps to try and reel Danner in, who was caught up in heavy, heavy, side by side lapped traffic. Mark Smith held third, with Joey Amantea glued to the rear bumper of the Lou Cicconi 75, and Steven Drevicki holding strong at the tail end of the top five. The top five of the feature event field were absolutely gone compared to the rest of the field, having nearly a full straightaway over the six place runner.
Danner was still locked in heavy lapped traffic, which allowed Bright to close in significantly, and eventually ending up in the same corner with Danner with only a handful of laps left to go. Mean while, Joey Amantea had worked his way by Mark Smith on lap twenty-one, to retake the third position. Try as he might, without a caution Amantea stood no chance at catching the lead duo who had separated themselves from the rest of the field.
Danner was still working his way through lapped traffic at the two to go signal, and Bright was absolutely flying as he drew in on the back bumper of the Heffner Racing 5G entry. Any mistake by Danner would not doubt have lead to Bright taking the race lead. As the field made their way by the white, and ultimately to the checkered flag, coming within a car length is all Bright could do as Briggs Danner collected his second win of the season at the Bloomsburg Fair Grounds. Bright with an impressive drive from nearly a straightaway back to finish second, Amantea, Mark Smith, and Steven Drevicki rounding out the top five.
The win for Danner comes off of what could be called a bit of a dry spell for the Heffner Enterprises South team, as Danner had only picked up one win in the last three races. While Danner still finished second in both of those events he did not win, more drivers in the field are showing their speed and making things even tougher on the top two drivers in the field.
While the wins certainly have not been the same as last year for Alex Bright and the Hummer Motorsports Team, they have been plugging away working their best to try and get back to victory lane. Mechanical issues at the Selinsgrove Speedway ended their night early, but at the Bloomsburg Speedway, making a debut in a brand new XXX Chassis, Bright and team looked like the team of last year. Bright picked up the heat race number two victory, and was incredibly fast in the feature event. Had Bright been able to pick through the top five on pace with Danner, the battle to the finish might have been even closer than it already ended up being.
Joey Amantea kept his speed rolling as the Mount Pocono, PA driver was at what is his home track on the 2022 season. Following a feature win at the Selinsgrove Speedway, Amantea picked up the fourth and final transfer spot into the inversion in dramatic fashion passing Mike Thompson on the outside coming to the checkered flag. Amantea was bouncing the right rear of his 88J entry off the wall on both ends of the speedway, but kept the car on all fours, and picked up a solid third place run.
Mark Smith was back in series action again at Bloomsburg after missing the event at Selinsgrove. Mark Smith who can win with a wing on, on virtually any track, picked up a winged URC victory at Bloomsburg back in April. Smith loves the bull ring tracks like Bloomsburg and lead a portion of the feature event early on. Again, while Smith will try and say that he is not a non-wing driver, he continues to pick up solid top five and top ten runs each and every time out.
Steven Drevicki almost never even ran on Thursday night, after the team found some engine problems following the event at Selinsgrove. Luckily, the issue was nothing terminal and the team was back in action for Thursday night, and picked up a respectable fifth place finish for their efforts.
Up next for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, presented by Capitol Renegade is the first ever trip in series history to the Clinton County Speedway, Tonight! Friday, August 19th, before rounding out the Triple Header weekend on Saturday the 20th at the always entertaining Port Royal Speedway.
USAC East Coast At Bloomsburg Results:
Heat 1 (8 Laps, All Qualify, 4 to the Inversion): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 7B Aidan Borden, 3. 75 Mark Smith, 4. 19 Steven Drevicki, 5. 83s Billy Ney, 6. 57 JT Ferry, 7. 67 Jason Cherry, 8. 42 John Fraker, 9. 19T Tylor Cochran
Heat 2 (8 Laps, All Qualify, 4 to the Inversion): 1. 20 Alex Bright, 2. 16cw Eric Jennings, 3. 75B Bobby Butler, 4. 88J Joey Amantea, 5. 11 Mike Thompson, 6. 87 Austin Graby, 7. 96 Lee Kauffman, 8. 12w Troy Fraker.
Feature Event (25 Laps): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 20 Alex Bright, 3. 88J Joey Amantea, 4. 75 Mark Smith, 5. 19 Steven Drevicki, 6. 7B Aidan Borden, 7. 11 Mike Thompson, 8. 16cw Eric Jennings, 9. 57 JT Ferry, 10. 87 Austin Graby, 11. 12w Troy Fraker, 12. 67 Jason Cherry, 13. 96 Lee Kauffman, 14. 19T Tylor Cochran, 15. 42 John Fraker, 16. 83s Billy Ney, 17. 75B Bobby Butler (DNS).
Lap Leaders: Mark Smith (1-7), Briggs Danner (8-25).
Vahlco Wheels Hard Charger: Briggs Danner and Troy Fraker +5
Article Credit: Nick Fillman
Submitted By: Nick Fillman
