9/9/2022
USAC East Coast Sprint Cars
Delaware Domination! Danner Scores 9th of Season at DIS
Delmar, DE. September 2nd, 2022. Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Briggs Danner of Allentown, PA added to his 2022 Rapid Tire Service, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series Point lead, and win total on Friday September 2nd, in dominating fashion.
Kyle Spence and Mike Thompson lead the field to green for the twenty-five lap feature event, with Spence getting the early feature event lead away from Thompson. Quickly Briggs Danner was on the move from his eighth place starting spot, bringing second place in points driver Alex Bright along with him.
The first caution flag of the event flew on lap two, as Joey Amantea slowed to a stop in turns one and two. What initially looked like a harmless issue was quickly realized to be much more, as Amantea unfortunately had an engine expire only a few laps into the feature event.
The green flag would be displayed for another short two lap dash before a driver making his first career start in a sprint car and with the USAC East Coast Series, Shawn Jackson, clipped the inside retaining wall, nocking the front end out of the Dave Betts 22B and ending their night.
Once again the green flag would be displayed with Spence leading, Thompson, Miller, Danner, and Bright back to the line with twenty-one laps remaining.
Unfortunately yet again, the caution flag was thrown as Billy Ney now slowed with an issue out of turn four. Ney fought a plethora of issues all night long, slowing to a stop in hot laps, as well as his heat race, before yet another issue plagued Ney in the feature event.
The ensuing restart brought Briggs Danner to the tail tank of leader Spence, Danner had been the only driver who was utilizing the extreme high side of the speedway and picking off cars in extremely quick fashion compared to the rest of the field.
As the field returned to green flag action, Spence continued running the bottoms side of the speedway where he was much more comfortable, but it was not enough to hold off the advances of Danner who flew the outside of Spence to take the race lead after the completion of lap seven, and be scored the race leader on lap eight.
From there, nobody on track had a thing for Danner as he blasted away from the field, by over a half track, and lapped drivers up into the top ten, as high as the eighth place position.
Alex Bright was able to methodically work his way up into the second place position, also utilizing the high side of the speedway, but the defending series champion and runner up in points thus far on tour, simply had nothing for Danner on this night as the team would have to settle for a runner up finish.
Third place belonged to part time series driver Kyle Spence, who always is in action in the First State, his former home, and home of car owner Dave Betts. Spence started on the pole and lead laps early, but settled in among the series best and came a way with a podium run. Look for Spence to be in action with the series at the end of September as well, as the series returns to the Georgetown Speedway.
Fourth place went to former series winner at the speedway, Kenny Miller lll. Miller did not have a flashy night of racing, but was able to collect yet another top five run. The part time driver in 2022, started third, and finished fourth, without giving up more positions to some of the fastest drivers in the field. Miller fought hard with Spence for third for a number of laps, along with holding off the advances of Mike Thompson for fifth.
Fifth place went to a driver who has been racking in the top five runs week after week, in the form of Mike Thompson. The driver continues to week in and week out consistently finish inside the top five. While the podium runs have not been as frugal as the team would like, nor have they cracked victory lane, the consistency for the Thompson team is more than there, and possibly with a little luck, the team will grab their first career win before the season is through.
Next up for the series is a return visit to the Winchester, VA Speedway on September 17th, where last season Damon Paul and Alex Bright were able to secure victories. With this being the first an only visit of the year to the speedway for the series, as well as being the first event with the series new handicapping points inversion, the stage could be set to see a new winner for the series, and possibly even a first time winner.
USAC EC At Delaware International Results:
Heat 1 (8 laps, All qualify, 3 Invert): 1. 19 Steven Drevicki, 2. 22 Kyle Spence, 3. 11 Mike Thompson, 4. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 5. 22B Shawn Jackson, 6. 62 Brian Spencer, 7. 48G George Loux
Heat 2 (8 laps, All qualify, 3 Invert): 1. 20 Alex Bright, 2. 7 Ed Aikin, 3. 18T JT Ferry, 4. 117 David Swanson, 5. 83s Billy Ney, 6. 39 Billy Pauch Jr, 7. 17 Christian Bruno.
Heat 3 (8 laps, All qualify, 3 Invert): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 3. 88J Joey Amantea, 4. 71 Chris Allen Jr, 5. 87 Austin Graby, 6. 17J Jonathan Swanson, 7. 67 Jason Cherry.
Feature Event (25 Laps): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 20 Alex Bright, 3. 22 Kyle Spence, 4. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 5. 11 Mike Thompson, 6. 19 Steven Drevicki, 7. 39 Billy Pauch Jr, 8. 71 Chris Allen Jr, 9. 87 Austin Graby, 10. 17 Christian Bruno, 11. 7 Ed Aikin, 12. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 13. 17J Jonathan Swanson, 14. 18T JT Ferry, 15. 67 Jason Cherry, 16. 117 David Swanson, 17. 48G George Loux, 18. 62 Brian Spencer, 19. 83s Billy Ney, 20. 22B Shawn Jackson, 21. 88J Joey Amantea.
Lap Leaders: Kyle Spence (1-7), Briggs Danner (8-25).
Vahlco Wheels Hard Charger: Billy Pauch Jr (17th to 7th) +10
Article Credit: Nick Fillman
Submitted By: Nick Fillman