5/15/2021
USAC East Coast Sprint Cars
Briggs Danner Victorious in Series Return to Bedford
Bedford, PA. May 14th, 2021. Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Briggs Danner of Allentown, Pennsylvania collected the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, Presented by Capitol Renegade victory at the Bedford Speedway in the series first feature event since 2019.
After the conclusion of heat race action, and the completion of the redraw, Brody Adamsky, and Briggs Danner would share the front row for the twenty-five lap feature event at the Bedford Speedway. Danner would grab the lead on the initial start of the feature event with Adamsky, Drevicki, Billy Ney, Kenny Miller and Alex Bright in close pursuit.
Alex Bright would make quick work on the bottom side of the speedway in the opening two laps, working his way into the third place position behind Steven Drevicki. The caution flag would fly on lap three for Bruce Buckwalter who would slow to a stop on the back straightaway after fighting mechanical issues all evening.
Danner would lead the field to green on the lap three restart, and maintain a comfortable lead over Steven Drevicki and Alex Bright as they tried to reel in the teenage rookie driver. Meanwhile, outside of the top five, drivers would battle for positions inside the top ten with the lead five cars remaining relatively single file.
The red flag would fly on lap five of the feature event as Brody Adamsky, who had been running within the top six of the field, made heavy contact with the tire wall outside of the speedway in turns three and four. Adamsky would walk away from the accident scene under his own power.
The top five for the restart on lap five would be relatively the same with Danner leading Steven Drevicki, Alex Bright, Kenny Miller, and Mark Smith. Once the green flag flew again on the feature event, the top five would begin to string out around the top side of the speedway.
Just as the field was beginning to catch lapped traffic on lap thirteen, a spinning Blaine Emery would cause a caution, and the chance for Drevicki, Bright, or Miller to try and take their shot at the top spot. Danner would again execute a flawless restart keeping both the hard charging Drevicki and Bright at bay as the laps would continue to click off.
The fast way around the Bedford Speedway was on the cushion all the way around the half mile oval, with Danner taking it a step further and running above the cushion nearly agains the guardrail, especially in turns one and two. By lap twenty-one the leaders would again begin to catch lapped traffic, with Danner having a bit of difficulty maneuvering passed some of the tail end of the field.
Danner would make his way by a couple of tail end cars with Drevicki a few car lengths away with only a handful of laps remaining. Steven Drevicki entered turn one hot on the heels of Lee Kauffman, and made contact with Kauffman’s car in turns one and two sending Drevicki for a spin on lap twenty-four.
A “Green-White-Checkered” would ensue to settle the top spot for the feature event, in the first series feature at Bedford since the fall of 2019. This time, Danner would not quite get the same restart as he had, as Alex Bright stayed right on the tail tank of Danner as the two dove into turns one and two. Bright would stay on the heels of Danner as the pair entered three and four, with Bright throwing a massive slide job on Danner for the top spot off of turn four.
Danner would power off of the top side of the speedway in turns three and four, and hold off Alex Bright to collect his first career victory at the Bedford Speedway, in his first career start. Alex Bright would finish second ahead of: Kenny Miller, Mark Sith and Nash Ely.
Briggs Daner collected his second feature event win of the 2021 season, and is coming off of a successful “Keystone Invasion” with the USAC National Sprint Car Series, nabbing a quick time at the Grandview Speedway. It has also recently been announced that the Bill Gallagher team has purchased a midget for Danner to do select events in, adding to the young drivers already full plate of racing.
Alex Bright continued his consistency that was presented throughout the entire 2020 USAC East Coast Season, and continued off of their win at the Port Royal Speedway in the last feature event run before having a few weeks off. Like Danner, Bright was another driver who found a great deal of success with the USAC National Sprint Cars and their “Keystone Invasion” as Bright would score his personal best national sprint finish, along with a pair of hard charger awards.
Kenny Miller lll rounded out the podium on Friday night and had yet another impressive showing. While the Millersville University Student will not be full time with the series in 2021, any time Miller enters the pit area, he is a threat for the victory.
Mark Smith was a surprise entrant on the night who ended up with a solid finish. Smith has dabbled with non-wing racing throughout the east coast and midwest over the last few seasons. Smith collected his heat race victory, and ran a strong race inside the top five.
Rounding out the top five was another rookie driver; Nash Ely. Each time out Ely has become more and more comfortable behind the wheel of his 3BC entry, and made three of the four USAC National Tour shows a few weeks ago. Look for the speed and confidence of Ely to only improve and expand as the weeks go on.
The next event for the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, Presented by Capitol Renegade is tomorrow evening, May 15th at the Grandview Speedway, where another driver will look to grab the first series victory at the track since 2019.
USAC EC at Bedford:
Heat 1: (8 Laps, three qualify) 1. 20 Alex Bright, 2. 83S Billy Ney, 3. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 4. 11 Mike Thompson, 5. 75 Lou Cicconi, 6. 12E Blaine Emery, 7. 96 Lee Kauffman, 8. 3H Heidi Hedin.
Heat 2: (8 Laps, three qualify): 1. 5G Briggs Danner 2. 19 Steven Drevicki, 3. 3BC Nash Ely, 4. 57 Damon Paul, 6. 67 Jason Cherry, 7. 12W Troy Fraker.
Heat 3: (8 Laps, three qualify) 1. M1 Mark Smith, 2. 21K Tommy Kunsman, 3. 19A Brody Adamsky, 4. 71 Chris Allen, 5. 88J Joey Amantea, 6. 21 Brett Perigo, 7. 27 Craig Pellegrini Jr
Feature event (25 Laps): 1. 5G Briggs Danner , 2. 20 Alex Bright, 3. 23M Kenny Miller, 4. M1 Mark Smith, 5. 3BC Nash Ely, 6. 71 Chris Allen, 7. 57 Damon Paul, 8. 21K Tommy Kunsman, 9. 11 Mike Thompson, 10. 88J Joey Amantea, 11. 19. Steven Drevicki, 12. 96 Lee Kauffman, 13. 12E Blaine Emery, 14. 12W Troy Fraker, `15. 67 Jason Cherry, 16. 75 Lou Cicconi, 17. 21 Brett Perigo, 18. 27C Craig Pellegrini, 19. 19A Brody Adamsky, 20. 83S Billy Ney, 21. 83 Bruce Buckwalter, 22. 3H Heid Heding.
Lap Leaders: 1-25 Briggs Danner
Penske Racing Shocks first place certificate: Briggs Danner
Penske Racing Shocks second place certificate: Alex Bright
Penske Racing Shocks third place certificate: Kenny Miller
Ultra Shield Certificate third place: Kenny Miller lll
Ultra Shield Certificate eighth place: Tommy Kunsman
Article Credit: Nick Fillman
Submitted By: Nick Fillman
