Danner Takes Exciting USAC EC Sprint Main; Bruno Wins 600 Sprint Thriller at Kutztown’s Action Track USA

Two In A Row for Tyler Hoch in Slingshots; McNichol Repeats in Junior Slingshots

Kutztown, PA (July 10)— It’s been said that the USAC East Coast Sprint Car events at Foley Cat Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds are like “having fighter jets buzz around inside a high school gymnasium.” If that is true, then Allentown, PA’s Briggs Danner was Top Gun on Wednesday night.
Danner charged to his fourth USAC EC victory of the season in the Iron Cowboy Classic, presented by E. Schneider & Sons Metal Recycling, despite heavy lapped traffic slowing his pace and allowing Kenny Miller III to close in and make things interesting late in the race.
Two-time and defending point champ Christian Bruno captured his first Hyper Racing 600 Sprint triumph on Wednesday in a race that saw the top five cars engage in an incredible battle for much of the 25 lap feature.
The All Star and Junior Slingshot classes each had drivers win their second in a row, with Tyler Hoch winning his seventh career All Star Slingshot main, while young Landon McNichol notched his second straight Junior Slingshot feature.
This Wednesday, July 17, will see the return of Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek at Foley Cat Action Track USA. And NASCAR Champion Kyle Busch is expected to compete. Joining the two-time Cup Series titlist will be his son, Brexton, who is slated for competition in the Junior Sprint division. Joining the 600 and Junior Sprints will be the All Pro SpeedSTRs. Pit gates open at 4 p.m. with grandstand gates swinging open at 5:00. Warm-ups begin at 6:15 with opening ceremonies and qualifying activity following the hot lap sessions.
The 30 lap Iron Cowboy Classic for the USAC East Coast Sprint Cars went green with Christian Bruno grabbing the early lead over pole sitter Bobby Butler. It wasn’t long before fourth starting Briggs Danner worked his way into the runner-up spot and began his assault on the race leader. Danner executed a nice slide job in turns three and four to snare the point on the fifth trip around Berks County’s number one bullring. Three tours later, Kenny Miller III used the exact same maneuver to steal second from Bruno.
Danner was cruising out front during a long stretch of green flag action, but his frantic pace was slowed when he caught the back of the field and some heavy traffic held him up as he attempted to put cars a lap down. Miller closed the gap between himself and Danner, but Briggs was able to muscle his way through the thick traffic to maintain a fairly comfortable advantage.
A caution period with 11 revolutions remaining wiped the track clean for the leaders and placed Miller right behind the Boulevard Truck Repair No. 39 driven by Danner. On the restart, however, Danner danced away once again as last year’s Iron Cowboy victor, Carmen Perigo Jr., zipped by Bruno and into the third position.
Try as they might, Miller and Perigo could not catch the high flying Danner, who blasted under Nicole Flood’s checkered flag for the victory by 1.761 seconds over Miller, Perigo, Bruno, and Steve Drevicki.
“Tim (Hogue) and I are working really well together; the whole crew is jelling and giving me a great car every time out,” said Danner as he stood in Weaknecht Archery Victory Lane. “And this track was awesome tonight, as it usually is…we could rip around the top but the bottom was good, too.”
The Hyper Racing 600 Sprint feature was an instant classic highlighted by a five-car battle royale at the front of the pack during the second half of the 25 lapper.
Before the crowd-pleasing dogfight among the top five, Craig Whitmoyer jumped out to the early lead. Kyle Lick, who took the green in the fifth spot, drove right around the bottom as he wheeled his No. 11z into second place on the fourth tour of the speedway. He and Whitmoyer battled furiously for the top spot and made contact as they exited turn two with five laps scored. Whitmoyer’s No. 99 skidded sideways and stopped on the track as the rest of the field narrowly avoided his disabled racer.
Lick was now the pace setter as the green flag reappeared. Christian Bruno went from fourth to second on the restart and began to hassle Lick for the race lead. Meanwhile, as they battled for the number one position, Colin White had rumbled from his tenth starting spot to run third and Steven Snyder Jr. flew into the fourth position after starting the race on the outside of row six. James Roselli was also in the mix, running right behind Snyder as the yellow waved at the halfway point.
On the restart, the fun really began as the intensity meter cranked skyward and the top five diced for position. Bruno held serve as the leader, but he could not get away from his pursuers, even though they were side by side and trading spots several times per lap. Roselli gassed his No. 95B to second—briefly—before dropping back to fifth. Snyder worked the bottom and the top to move into the runner-up slot, but his stay did not last long as Lick and White scooted back by him while dueling with one another. They would gang up on race leader Bruno at times, but the Deptford, NJ wheel-twister was planted in the low groove and kept his No. 5 at the head of the class.
“My car was actually sputtering for much of the race,” admitted Bruno afterward, “but I think it may have actually helped me. I could run the bottom and not spin the tires and it was just fast enough to stay in front on the straightaways.”
One could have thrown a blanket over the top five as they fought tooth-and-nail over the final dozen circuits, but never touched one another. At the finish, it was Bruno recording his first Foley Cat Action Track USA victory of the 2024 campaign. He narrowly defeated Lick, who barely held off Snyder for runner-up honors. Snyder completed the podium by a whisker over White, with Roselli completing the top five in an outstanding race that served as a final tune up for next Wednesday’s 600 Speedweek affair.
Mertztown’s Tyler Hoch snatched the lead from Patrick Weiss on lap two, then maintained a couple car length advantage over his brother and current point leader Dylan to register his second consecutive triumph in the All Star Slingshot 20 lap main. Brett Bieber finished third with Dave Carraghan and Luke McCloskey rounding out the top five.
Landon McNichol won his second straight Junior Slingshot feature, taking the lead on a restart at the halfway mark of the 15 lapper. Hailey Eroh, the opening night winner, battled back from an early race mishap to finish second with Jon Severn completing the podium. Aubry Romig and Colton Henry were fourth and fifth, respectively.
RESULTS:
USAC East Coast Sprint Car Feature, 30 laps: 1.Briggs Danner, 2.Kenny Miller III, 3.Carmen Perigo Jr., 4.Christian Bruno, 5.Steve Drevicki, 6.Cameron Smith, 7.Bobby Butler, 8.JT Ferry, 9.Bruce Buckwalter, 10.Scott Frack, 11.Ed Aikin, 12.Ronald Helmick, 13.Gary Huston.
DNS: Heidi Hedin; Patrick Chilmonik; Joey Amantea.

Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Christian Bruno, 2.Kyle Lick, 3.Steven Snyder Jr., 4.Colin White, 5.James Roselli, 6.Connor Mirabelli, 7.Lukas Kostic, 8.Connor Gross, 9.Zack Weisenfluh, 10.Dakota Barlet, 11.Nate Freed, 12.Anthony Tramontana, 13.Sammy Martz Jr., 14.Dylan Hahn, 15.Jasper Ziegafuse, 16.Gabe Gerber, 17.Gunnar Pio, 18.Luke Hess, 19.Zach Curtis, 20.Tyler Henry, 21.Cole Gerber, 22.Preston Lattomus, 23.Craig Whitmoyer, 24.Jake Fisher, 25.Tim Buckwalter, 26.Danny Buccafusca.
DNQ: Jace Marshall, Patrick Chilmonik, Ted Meixsell, Dan Lane, Abel Engler, Jarid Kunkle, Amanda Onimus, Shelby McLaughlin, Zack Bealer, Peyton Knecht, Richie Baker.

All Star Slingshots Feature, 20 laps: 1.Tyler Hoch, 2.Dylan Hoch, 3.Brett Bieber, 4.Dave Carraghan, 5.Luke McCloskey, 6.Austin Kroboth, 7.Patrick Weiss, 8.Chase Schott, 9.Amanda Angstadt, 10. Daniel Betz, 11.Shawn Dengler, 12.Jocelynn Darinsig, 13.Tyler Lilick, 14.Brianna Snyder, 15.Troy Kline, 16.Mason Lineman, 17.Nathan Abrams, 18.Gavin Danner.

Junior Slingshots Feature, 15 laps: 1.Landon McNichol, 2.Hailey Eroh, 3.Jon Severn, 4.Aubry Romig, 5.Colton Henry, 6.Kaleb Stofflet, 7.Carter Mullins, 8.Brenden Lilick, 9.Matthew Laubach, 10.Dallas Peters.