Vernon, NY. June 28th, 2024, Nick Fillman, USAC ECSC
Danny Varin of Fonday, New York picked up the victory in the first ever Rapid Tire Services, USAC East Coast Sprint Cars, presented by Capitol Renegade Series event at the Utica-Rome Speedway.
A pair of New York’s finest lead the field to green for the twenty-five lap feature event, with Billy VanInwegen and Danny Varin sharing the front row. Behind them, a pair of USAC East Coast Champions, and the current one and two in points, Steven Drevicki and Alex Bright were ready to try their hand at defending victory lane for a series regular.
Danny Varin got the early jump on Billy V for the feature event lead, with VanInwegen moving sliding into second, and Alex Bright moving into third. Fellow New York driver Matt Tanner quickly moved his way into the fourth spot, with battles behind of them between Shawn Donath, Steven Drevicki, and Kenny Miller lll for spots just outside of the top five.
Early on in the feature event, the high side was the place to be with the majority of the field running the razor thin cushion following a brief track prep break prior to the feature event. The fast pace, meant that the leaders quickly encountered lapped traffic. Danny Varin was the first to get to the slower cars, which allowed Billy V and Alex Bright to draw in on the Varin for the lead as the lead trio began to pick apart the lapped cars.
Varin had a bit of apprehension when it came to the lapped traffic, allowing Billy V to make multiple attempts to get to the bottom lane of the speedway, before ultimately taking the lead from Varin around the half way point of the feature event utilizing the extreme outside of the speedway. Just as Billy V had taken the lead, the lapped traffic came thick and heavy as the leaders began to close in on the back half of the top ten after setting a torrid pace.
Billy V, Danny Varin, and Alex Bright had all drawn to being within the same corner as Bright dove to the inside of Varin repeatedly to try and take the runner up spot. As the field worked their way down the back straight away on lap sixteen, they encountered a three wide battle for position with lapped traffic. Just as it appear Billy VanInwegen was about to make a daring four wide move for position, the caution flag flew for a spinning Jason Cherry in turn four.
The restart set up the leaders with a fresh track ahead of them and no lapped cars in sight. Billy V got the early jump on the restart and immediately went to the high side of the speedway, with Varin following. Varin quickly pulled the diamond maneuver through turns one and two and dove to the bottom side of Billy V out of turn two and down the back stretch taking the race lead back officially on lap seventeen.
Varin was back out front and in command with Billy V now holding off the charges of Alex Bright for second. Matt Tanner was solidly in the third place position with Shawn Donath, Steven Drevicki, and Kenny Miller lll continuing to battle for positions inside the top five.
As the lead trio of drivers began to settle in just a bit, the caution flag flew once again on lap twenty for Dalton Herrick who spun to a stop in turn three. The caution flag would set up a five lap dash to the finish and establish who would become the first ever USAC East Coast winner at the Utica-Rome Speedway.
On the restart, Varin launched off of the corner and down the front straightaway and immediately put distance between himself and Billy V for the race lead. Alex Bright did not get the best of restarts, and got over the banking in turns one and two, losing multiple positions and just about falling outside of the top ten. Matt Tanner was then able to move inside the top three, with Shawn Donath also having issues and falling back, allowing Kenny Miller lll and Steven Drevicki to move back inside the top five.
The five lap dash gave Danny Varin all the extra effort he needed as the attacked the cushion around the outside of the speedway and pulled away to his biggest lead of the night, nearly five seconds, over Billy V as the last handful of laps faded away.
In the end, it was Danny Varin scoring his first career USAC East Coast victory at the Utica-Rome Speedway over Billy VanInwegen, and Matt Tanner, who completed an all Empire State podium. Kenny Miller lll took the fourth spot, with Steven Drevicki in fifth, and Alex Bright rebounding for sixth.
The win for Danny Varin at Utica-Rome was not his first sprint car win, nor his fist victory ever at the speedway. Varin has won many modified events at the speedway, and just last season defeated the All Star Circuit of Champions in winged 410 sprint car competition. In fact, Varin has now won in six different divisions at Utica-Rome, a Sportsman Modified, big block modified, 305, 360 and 410 Winged sprint car, and now a non-wing 360. Varin explained in victory lane that he was just a bit apprehensive when going through lapped traffic allowing Billy V to take the feature event lead. Varin also mentioned that this was a bucket list item for himself and the team, and was determined to park the 01 car on the front stretch. Varin was once a former part time competitor with the series just a few seasons ago, and since has focused more on winged 360 events in New York. Varin utilized all of his laps around the Utica-Rome Speedway to secure a convincing win in front of one of his home track crowds.
Until Friday nights feature was completed, Billy VanInwegen held the honor of being the most recent USAC East Coast winner in the state of New York. VanInwegen, another veteran of winged 360 and modified events in the state, was fast all night long. While Billy V did lead some of the feature event, he came up just a bit short on scoring his second career victory.
One of the biggest surprises of the night came from the podium finisher Matt Tanner. A regular front runner with the ESS winged 360 sprint cars, Tanner had previously made one USAC East Coast start in our last event in New York at the Orange County Fair Speedway. After that night of action, Tanner had expressed it was one of the most fun times he had in a sprint car and was eager to make a return start with the series. Tanner put his New York track surface knowledge and experience to the test and secured a eye catching, and impressive podium finish.
Kenny Miller lll picked up a feature event win in late May at the Delaware International Speedway, and was back for more action in New York at Utica-Rome. With Miller lll’s busy work schedule, its a bit of a surprise every time we find the 23m pit side, but one thing is always guaranteed, and that is Miller will be fast. Through the feature event, Miller fought tooth and nail with Drevicki, and NY drivers Matt Tanner and Shawn Donath inside the top five for the majority of the feature. With the calamity of the final restart of the night, Miller worked his way inside the top five securely and scored a fourth place effort.
When it comes to running in the slick and the USAC East Coast Series, Steven Drevicki is one of the more prominent drivers that comes to mind. Drevicki scored the dominating heat one win. In the feature event, Drevicki appeared to struggle just a little bit early on when the preferred line was around the high side of the speedway, but as the track began to slow down, Drevicki sped up, picking off a handful of positions and securing another top five run. Important for Drevicki is the fact that his finish was one spot ahead of Alex Bright, and allowed Drevicki to add another three points to his points lead which now stands at +16.
While he may not have scored the win, or a podium run, it was good to see Alex Bright back in the pit area on Friday night back behind the wheel of the Hummer Motorsports 20 car. Bright picked up the heat race two win, and was strong all feature long, however one tiny error on the high side of the speedway ended Bright’s shot at a podium finish.
Up next for the Rapid Tire Services, USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series, presented by Capitol Renegade is the first ever visit to the Fonda Speedway in Fonda, NY on Saturday June 29th.
USAC East Coast at Utica-Rome Results:
Heat 1 (8 Laps, 4 Redraw, All Qualify): 1. 19-Steven Drevicki[3]; 2. 01-Danny Varin[7]; 3. 23M-Kenny Miller III[5]; 4. 16CW-Eric Jennings[2]; 5. 5B-Bobby Butler[6]; 6. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr[4]; 7. 64-Rich Carnathan[8]; 8. 44-Gary Huston[9]; 9. 4P-Chase Moran[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps, 4 Redraw, All Qualify): 1. 20-Alex Bright[3]; 2. 90-Matt Tanner[2]; 3. 53-Shawn Donath[4]; 4. 56-Billy VanInwegen Jr[7]; 5. 7-Ed Aikin[6]; 6. 29-Dalton Herrick[1]; 7. 51-Mike Haggenbottom[5]; 8. 67-Jason Cherry[8]
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 01-Danny Varin[2]; 2. 56-Billy VanInwegen Jr[1]; 3. 90-Matt Tanner[6]; 4. 23M-Kenny Miller III[7]; 5. 19-Steven Drevicki[3]; 6. 20-Alex Bright[4]; 7. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr[11]; 8. 51-Mike Haggenbottom[14]; 9. 53-Shawn Donath[5]; 10. 16CW-Eric Jennings[8]; 11. 7-Ed Aikin[10]; 12. 4P-Chase Moran[17]; 13. 64-Rich Carnathan[13]; 14. 67-Jason Cherry[16]; 15. 29-Dalton Herrick[12]; 16. 5B-Bobby Butler[9]; 17. 44-Gary Huston[15]
Lap Leaders: Danny Varin (1-11, 17-25, Billy Vaninwegen, 12-16)