THRILL ON THE HILL! DANNER WINS GRANDVIEW DUEL VS. DREVICKI
By: Nick Fillman – USAC ECSC
Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania (May 11, 2024)………Briggs Danner of Allentown, Pa. was able to collect his second win of the 2024 USAC Rapid Tire Services East Coast Sprint Car Series presented by Capitol Renegade, and the second win of his career at his home track of Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania’s Grandview Speedway.
With rain moving in quickly from the west, a quick turnaround time was made for the series by the Grandview Speedway staff with drivers and teams needing to make quick changes to present their cars for the feature event. Heat one winner Christian Bruno drew the pole for the feature event and led the field to the green alongside Rookie driver Matthew Swift.
As the field when green, Bruno jumped out to the early event lead with Bobby Butler quickly moving up into the runner-up spot and drew in on the tail tank of Bruno. Danner was quickly on the move as well, ripping the high side of the speedway to move up into third from his sixth starting spot early on in the feature event.
By lap two, Bobby Butler was able to move around the outside of Christian Bruno and take over the race lead with Bruno a close second and Danner hustling to catch up to the front two. On lap three, unfortunately, the red flag would have to be thrown as Circleville, N.Y. driver Thomas Radivoy slid wide in turn one, caught the wall and went for a vicious bout of barrel rolls before coming to a stop in the middle of turns one and two.
Bobby Butler led Christian Bruno, Briggs Danner, Ed Aikin and Alex Bright who was on the charge from the worst redraw position – starting spot eight. Butler secured a stellar restart but did not run away from Bruno with Danner now drawn in close to the rear of the 17B for the runner-up spot. Danner quickly dispatched Bruno, bringing Alex Bright with him around the outside as the duo tried to draw in on Butler for the race lead.
Around lap 10, the top-three was all within the same corner as each other with Butler fending off challenges from Danner and Bright as the trio ran bumper-to-bumper-to-bumper nearing the half way mark.
On lap 12, just as Danner was attempting a slide job on Butler for the lead in turns three and four, Butler appeared to get too loose and began to spin in the corner. Alex Bright, with nowhere to go, tagged the rear of Butler, sending Bright into a 360 spin and drawing the caution while Butler was able to stay running. Bright, however, was not able to keep the fire going under the hood of the Heffner No. 27 and spun to the bottom of the corner, handing the lead to Danner with 13 laps to go.
The restart saw Danner get a good jump on runner up Bruno with Drevicki moving in on Bruno for second, and eventually moving around the outside of Bruno, putting his sights on Danner for the race lead.
Behind the top-three, Ed Aikin found himself with a comfortable gap in fourth with what was, without a doubt, the best racing of the night going on behind him for fifth through 10th. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. and Cameron Smith battled side-by-side, lap after lap with J.T. Ferry and Tommy Kunsman wheel to wheel behind them in a four-car battle for position.
With the Grandview surface continuing to slick off, Danner and the leaders were not making much time up on the rest of the field as the laps wound down. Drevicki was inching closer and closer to Danner for the race lead as Buckwalter, Smith, Ferry and Kunsman continued to battle in formation for position.
Smith, the winged 410 regular from Central Pennsylvania, moved around Buckwalter for fifth with Buckwalter holding sixth and Kunsman getting the better of Ferry for seventh. Bright was hard on the prowl and had moved his way back inside the top-10.
With three laps to go, the diamond maneuver that Drevicki had been working on was quickly working as he drew closer and closer to Danner for the race lead. As the field came down the back stretch with one lap to go, Drevicki moved a lane lower on the speedway and drew side-by-side with Danner for the race lead, taking the lead at the line with one lap to go. Danner quickly gassed it up and drove around the outside of Drevicki to take the lead back at the exit of the second turn as they both dove into turn three for the final time.
Danner had moved to the bottom side of three and four with Drevicki trying to run the middle just in case Danner missed the bottom trying for the cross over. Drevicki got a solid run as the two drove side-by-side off the corner, with Drevicki going to the bottom, but not having enough to get Danner at the line.
Danner held on to score his second feature event win of the season with Drevicki coming home a close second. Bruno had another solid run to come home third while Grandview veteran Ed Aikin took fourth and Cameron Smith, in his first series start, finished fifth.
Speaking of Smith, the talented young driver, without a doubt, had the most impressive run of the race. In what was his first USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series start with Lee Kauffman’s Rocky Ridge Racing No. 96, the team missed hot laps and only had eight laps in the heat race to figure the set up out. Smith slow-rolled the bottom from the 13th position to score his first top-five in what was around his seventh start in a wingless sprint car. Smith competed for the team with the USAC national series in February of 2023 in Florida.
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USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS RACE RESULTS: May 11, 2024 – Grandview Speedway – Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 17-Christian Bruno (1), 2. 03-Matthew Swift (2), 3. 7-Ed Aikin (7), 4. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (5), 5. 21K-Tommy Kunsman (8), 6. 29-Dalton Herrick (3), 7. 96-Cameron Smith (6), 8. 64-Richy Carnathan (4), 9. 67-Jason Cherry (9). NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. 27-Alex Bright (1), 2. 5B-Bobby Butler (3), 3. 39-Briggs Danner (6), 4. 19-Steven Drevicki (7), 5. 18T-J.T. Ferry (2), 6. 39x-Scott Frack (5), 7. 1Q-Thomas Radivoy (4), 8. 22R-Ronald Helmick (9), 9. 76-Mike Smith (8). NT
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (6), 2. Steven Drevicki (5), 3. Christian Bruno (1), 4. Ed Aikin (4), 5. Cameron Smith (13), 6. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (7), 7. Tommy Kunsman (9), 8. J.T. Ferry (10), 9. Alex Bright (8), 10. Ronald Helmick (16), 11. Jason Cherry (17), 12. Dalton Herrick (11), 13. Scott Frack (14), 14. Bobby Butler (3), 15. Mike Smith (18), 16. Matthew Swift (2), 17. Richy Carnathan (15), 18. Thomas Radivoy (12). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Christian Bruno, Laps 3-12 Bobby Butler, Laps 13-23 Briggs Danner, Lap 24 Steven Drevicki, Lap 25 Briggs Danner.
HARD CHARGER: Cameron Smith (13th to 5th)
USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS POINTS: 1-Steven Drevicki-204, 2-Briggs Danner-195, 3-Alex Bright-194, 4-Ed Aikin-180, 5-Bobby Butler-171, 6-Joey Amantea-145, 7-Christian Bruno-142, 8-Carmen Perigo-133, 9-Jason Cherry-130, 10-Dalton Herrick-129.
NEXT USAC RAPID TIRE EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CAPITOL CUSTOM TRAILERS RACE: May 17, 2024 – Georgetown Speedway – Georgetown, Delaware
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