Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC.
For the second straight year Bruce Buckwalter Jr followed a large portion of the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, presented by Capitol Renegade Schedule. While Bruce and his team are no strangers to non-wing racing, making a full blown switch from one discipline to another can lead to growing pains. But for 2021 Bruce and team sound their stride as they began to get more and more acclimated to running a full blown sprint car.
The Buckwalter team ended up making twenty of the twenty-three events on the series trail in 2021, and wound up fifth in series points. Only missing a few events due to other commitments, and engine problems that fell upon the team following the event at Williams Grove in the summer months. Over all, Bruce showed speed and consistency on many nights as he and his team developed on the series trail.
In total, Bruce ended up with fifteen top ten finishes across his twenty series starts in 2021, picking up a heat race win at the Grandview Speedway in May, and a season best of third in September at the Winchester Speedway in Winchester, VA. Bruce also nabbed two fourth place efforts, one at Grandview in May, and another at Winchester in July. Both are tracks where Buckwalter has a number of starts behind the wheel of a midget.
For 2022, look for Buckwalter to run the majority of the schedule, with some midweek races being dropped as the team has work and other commitments. Bruce has debuted a brand new purple, pink and blue design for 2022 which will be hard to miss on track!