5/19/2024
USAC East Coast Sprint Cars
Bright Sweeps Georgetown for First Win of 2024
Georgetown, DE. May 17th, 2024. Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Alex Bright of Collegeville, PA scored a clean sweep of the Rapid Tire Services, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, Presented by Capitol Renegade action at the Georgetown Speedway, by winning the heat race and feature event.
Following the heat race redraw, Alex Bright and Bobby Butler shared the front row of the twenty lap feature event, with Bright immediately securing the feature event lead. The top four of Bright, Butler, Bruno and Drevicki quickly tried to separate themselves from the rest of the field.
The best battle of the first half of the feature event was between Matthew Swift and Bruce Buckwalter Jr who battled side by side, lap after lap just out side of the top five. Behind that battle, another occurred between rookie driver Ronald Helmick and Jason Cherry who battled tooth and nail at the tail end of the field.
Up front, Alex Bright was on a Friday night cruise with nobody able to come near the former series champion, with Bobby Butler, Christian Bruno, and Steven Drevicki all within about two car lengths of each other. As the laps wound down and Bright began to put drivers at the tail end of the event a lap down, including going three wide with Bruce Buckwalter and Matt Swift, nobody could do a thing about Bright at the front of the field.
Alex Bright scored the feature event win, his first of the season, over Bobby Butler, Christian Bruno, Steven Drevicki and Ed Aikin completing the top five.
The win for Bright was the first of the season, but easily could have been the teams third or even fourth. Bright finished in the runner up position at Bedford after starting in the worst redraw spot, was leading at Port Royal before spinning and making contact with Briggs Danner, and was in third at Grandview when Bobby Butler spun and left Bright with nowhere to go. A welcome bounce back for the former series champion as they try to rack up wins and potentially another championship.
Bobby Butler had a welcome rebound finish following leading feature event laps at the series last event at Grandview. Butler has had a plethora of speed through the first four feature events of the season, and continues to challenge for wins.
Christian Bruno continues his fast beginning of 2024, with yet another podium run. The former 600 Speedweek Champion, has been racking up the top five finishes, and scored a second podium effort in as many weeks.
Steven Drevicki also continued with speed for his new season. However, following his fourth place run at Georgetown, Drevicki has lost the series points lead to Alex Bright by just two points. Drevicki will lock and load and try to take the points lead back at Delaware International.
Rounding out the top five was veteran driver Ed Aikin. Even though the series is only four races into the season, Ed Aikin appears to have as much speed as ever in his DRC Chassis entry. With as much speed as Aikin has shown, perhaps when the series makes a stop at the Bridgeport Motorsports park, one of Aikins best tracks, the vet could potentially break through and scored his first career win. Only time will tell!
Next up for the series is a return trip to the state of Delaware as the series heads to the Delaware International Speedway on Saturday, May 25th, before heading to the Williams Grove Speedway for the running of the Bill Gallagher Memorial 5G race.
USAC East Coast at Georgetown Results:
Heat 1 (8 Laps, All Qualify, 4 Redraw): 1. 27-Alex Bright[7]; 2. 17B-Christian Bruno[1]; 3. 5B-Bobby Butler[2]; 4. 19-Steven Drevicki[4]; 5. 7-Ed Aikin[9]; 6. 03-Matthew Swift[5]; 7. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr[8]; 8. 22R-Ronald Helmick[10]; 9. 67-Jason Cherry[6]; 10. 3H-Heidi Hedin[3]
Feature Event (20 Laps): 1. 27-Alex Bright[1]; 2. 5B-Bobby Butler[2]; 3. 17B-Christian Bruno[4]; 4. 19-Steven Drevicki[3]; 5. 7-Ed Aikin[5]; 6. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr[7]; 7. 03-Matthew Swift[6]; 8. 22R-Ronald Helmick[8]; 9. 67-Jason Cherry[9]; 10. 3H-Heidi Hedin[10]
Article Credit: Nick Fillman
Submitted By: Nick Fillman
