NIck Fillman, USAC ECSC
Heat Wins: 2
Features: 19
Wins: 1
Top 5: 9
Top 10: 14
Average Fin: 7th
Earnings: $12,085
Expectations for Joey Amantea and the Amantea Racing team were already on a high level heading into the 2022 season with the addition of championship winning crew chief Brian Zyck, but a solid season, with ups and downs, including a first trip to victory lane, were all a part of the game for the team in 2022.
A mixture of podium runs, and top five runs started the season for Amantea, and were the regular until the Williams Grove Speedway in June where Amantea was involved in a big flip that saw him exit the speedway in turns three and four.
Amantea came back just a handful of weeks later, and made his USAC National Sprint car debut during the annual Eastern Storm run, and used that momentum to carry on to a hard fought win at the Selinsgrove Speedway in July, the first of Amantea’s career.
From there, the team either collected a top five or top ten, or unfortunately blew an engine. Top fives at Bloom, Clinton County, and Bedford and Bridgeport, were separated with blown engines at Action Track, and Delaware International, along with an unfortunate accident in a borrowed Lou Cicconi car at Winchester resulting in a 17th.
Amantea was as strong as ever in 2022, and even collected some top five runs in 410 competition with the BOSS series, before being heavily involved in the race of the year at Bridgeport to close out the season with a third place effort.
For 2023 Amantea and team have a 50+ race schedule with USAC East Coast being the focus, with USAC National, and BOSS series 410 shows, and maybe even some winged sprint car shows in the mix for 2023. As if the expectations that Amantea had set for himself weren’t high enough for 2022, Amantea expects even more, and to collect even more victories in 2023!