Kutztown, PA, August 2nd, 2022. Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Christopher Allen Jr and Briggs Danner split a pair of 30 lap feature events in the Rapid Tire, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, Presented by Capitol Renegade’s second ever event at the Berks County oval.
In full disclosure to our readers, the action was so intense on the speedway that I simply was not able to keep notes or keep track of all of the passes for position throughout both future events. The following article will be a brief synopsis of the night of action, to the best of my abilities.
Christopher Allen Jr returned to USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series Victory lane for the first time since the series sophomore year of action in 2018 at the Delaware International Speedway. Chris and Aidan Borden lead the field to green for the first feature event of the night, which was a previously postponed 30 lap event from July 13th.
Borden quickly got to the race lead with Allen in second, and numerous cars battling hard for position just inside the top ten, with Briggs Danner leading the charge from his ninth place starting spot.
Borden lead the first 15 laps of the feature event before, an extremely hard charging Colin White made his move to the inside of Aidan Borden and began his quest for his first career victory.
Briggs Danner followed along in the tire tracks of Colin White moving trough the field and worked his way into the third place spot after a number of slide jobs were exchanged between Danner and Mike Thompson.
Colin White looked to have things under control in the feature event until the field passed by the flag stand on lap 27. As white entered turn one and two, he lost the handle in front of the field and nearly spun to a stop. White worked his way down the banking, but allowed Chris Allen, who had held off the charges of Briggs Danner, to take the race lead down the back straightaway.
White regained his composure, and mounted a late attack on Allen entering turns three and four for the final time, throwing a monster slide job on Allen for the race lead out of four. White made heavy contact with the outside wall leaving the car with heavy damage, and allowing Allen to dive back underneath to come to the line first and collect his second career victory.
Briggs Danner managed a second place effort, despite knocking the W-Link out of his 5G entry, over Billy Pauch Jr, White holding on for fourth, and Aidan Borden.
In the second, regularly scheduled feature event, Chris Allen Jr again lead the field to green, with Mark Smith to his outside on the front row of the feature event. Allen worked his way to the race lead, with veteran Mark Smith quickly chasing the recent feature winner.
The fastest car on the track early on in the feature event was that of veteran driver Carmen Perigo Jr as he would work his way by Smith and eventually by Allen for the race lead.
Mark Smith and Billy Pauch Jr made contact early on in the feature event, sending both into a spin cycle in turns three and four, and putting both to the rear of the field. Perigo would remain the race leader, after a bit of caution fever, with Briggs Danner and an extremely fast Alex Bright working their way into the top five, and eventually into the top three as they began to draw in on the leader Carmen Perigo.
Bright, Danner and Perigo would take turns throwing slide jobs on each other and bouncing off the walls of Action Track USA, even coming off of turn four three wide for the race lead, with Danner making significant contact with Perigo sending him into the wall on the front stretch, but keeping the car under power.
Danner ended up with a two to three car length advantage as the field took the two to go signal, with Alex Bright left watching in the distance as Danner pulled away and collected his seventh win of the 2022 season.
Bright held on for second despite a souring engine that developed around five to go, with Carmen Perigo in third, Steven Drevicki and impressive fourth, and Mike Thompson rounding out the top five.
Unfortunately a number of drivers were met with tough luck on Wednesday night as Joey Amantea blew an engine during the first feature event leaving him unable to start the second. Likewise, Colin White and Bobby Butler were also unable to make the second feature event that they had been qualified for putting alternates: Austin Graby, Eric Jennings and Brendan Hires into the starting field.
Rookie driver Austin Graby worked his way solidly into the top ten finishing a respectable eighth place, with fellow rookie Brendan Hires following along and ending up eleventh.
Action Track USA 7/13 Results
Heat 1 (8 Laps, 5 transfer, 3 Invert): 1. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 2. 7B Aidan Borden, 3. 71 Chris Allen Jr, 4. 39 Billy Pauch Jr, 5. 21 Carmen Perigo Jr, 6. 7 Ed Aikin, 7. 17J Jonathan Swanson, 8. 67 Jason Cherry.
Heat 2 (8 Laps, 5 transfer, 3 Invert): 1. 75B Bobby Butler, 2. 21K Tommy Kunsman Jr, 3. 88J Joey Amantea, 4. 20 Alex Bright, 5. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 6. 19 Steven Drevicki, 7. 23B Preston Lattomus, 8. 17B Christian Bruno
Heat 3 (8 Laps, 5 transfer, 3 Invert): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 90 Colin White, 3. 11 Mike Thompson, 4. 62 Brian Spencer, 5. 16CW Eric Jennings, 6. 57 Michael Nolf, 7. 117 David Swanson, 8. 75 Mark Smith DNF.
Semi (12 Laps, 5 Transfer): 1. 23B Preston Lattomus, 2. 19 Steven Drevicki, 3. 17B Christian Bruno, 4. 7 Ed Aikin, 5. 17J Jonathan Swanson, 6. 57 Michael Nolf, 7. 67 Jason Cherry, 8. 117 David Swanson DNF, 9. 75 Mark Smith (DNS).
Feature Event (made up 8/4) 30 Laps: 1. 71 Chris Allen Jr, 2. 5G Briggs Danner, 3. 39 Billy Pauch Jr, 4. 90 Colin White, 5. 7B Aidan Borden, 6. 11 Mike Thompson, 7. 20 Alex Bright, 8. 21 Carmen Perigo Jr, 9. 17B Christian Bruno, 10. 23B Preston Lattomus, 11. 21K Tommy Kunsman Jr, 12. 7 Ed Aikin, 13. 19 Steven Drevicki, 14. 62 Brian Spencer, 15. 16cw Eric Jennings, 16. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 17. 75B Bobby Butler, 18. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 19. 88J Joey Amantea, 20. 17J Jonathan Swanson (DNS).
Vahlco Wheels Hard Charger: Christian Bruno +9
$150 Last Car Running Bonus: Brian Spencer
USAC East Coast at Action Track 8/3 Results:
Heat 1 (8 Laps, 5 transfer, 3 Invert): 1. 11 Mike Thompson, 2. 21 Carmen Perigo Jr, 3. 19 Steven Drevicki, 4. 20 Alex Bright, 5. 17B Christian Bruno, 6. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 7. 57 Michael Nolf, 8. 39 Billy Pauch Jr.
Heat 2 (8 Laps, 5 transfer, 3 Invert): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 3. 71 Chris Allen Jr, 4. 23B Preston Lattomus, 5. 75B Bobby Butler, 6. 87 Austin Graby, 7. 27x Brendan Hires, 8. 16CW Eric Jennings.
Heat 3 (8 Laps, 5 transfer, 3 Invert): 1. 88J Joey Amantea, 2. 75 Mark Smith, 3. 21K Tommy Kunsman Jr, 4. 90 Colin White, 5. 62 Brian Spencer, 6. 7 Ed Aikin, 7. 7B Aidan Borden.
Semi Feature (12 Laps, 5 transfer): 1. 39 Billy Pauch Jr, 2. 7 Ed Aikin, 3. 57 Michael Nolf, 4. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 5. 7B Aidan Borden, 6. 87 Austin Graby, 7. 16CW Eric Jennings, 8. 27x Brendan Hires.
Feature Event (30 Laps): 1. 5G Briggs Danner, 2. 20 Alex Bright, 3. 21 Carmen Perigo Jr, 4. 19 Steven Drevicki, 5. 11 Mike Thompson, 6. 23M Kenny Miller lll, 7. 23B Preston Lattomus, 8. 87 Austin Graby, 9. 7 Ed Aikin, 10. 75 Mark Smith, 11. 27x Brendan Hires, 12. 21K Tommy Kunsman Jr, 13. 16cw Eric Jennings, 14. 71 Chris Allen Jr, 15. 83 Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 16. 62 Brian Spencer, 17. 7B Aidan Borden, 18. 39 Billy Pauch Jr, 19. 17B Bruce Buckwalter Jr, 20. 57 Michael Nolf
*While qualified, Amantea, White and Butler were unable to start feature two. Graby, Jennings, and Hires were added as alternates.
Vahlco Wheels Hard Charger: Austin Graby +10
$75 Last Car Running award: Eric Jennings