Danner, White, & Bieber Snare Action Track USA Victories on July 14
Kutztown, PA (July 14)— After a long, hot day of laying asphalt, who feels like working on a race car?
But that is exactly what Allentown, PA’s Briggs Danner and his crew did—until 2 a.m.—in preparation for Wednesday’s event at Championship Energy Action Track USA on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
The Danner team stayed up late on Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning to finish up the E. Schneider & Sons/ Roy Danner Paving No. 78, and their efforts paid off as Briggs won his first SpeedSTR race of the season at the Berks County oval. It was actually his second straight feature win at Action Track USA, as Danner captured the previous week’s USAC East Coast Sprint Car main as well.
On Hoosier Racing Tire Night at the speedway, Colin White ended Steven Snyder’s three race win steak in the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints, but Snyder gave the defending track champ all he could handle in the latter stages of the 25 lap feature race.
And Oley, PA’s Brett Bieber notched his third triumph of the season in the All Star Slingshot main.
The Speedway Entertainment All Pro SpeedSTRs, powered by VP Racing Fuels, had Nick Havens bolt to the early lead as their 30 lap headliner got underway. Tim Buckwalter shot past Havens to snare the top spot on lap four but all eyes were on the progress being achieved by tenth-starting Briggs Danner.
Danner thundered into the runner-up position before ten circuits were scored, then gassed his No. 78 to a high side pass of Buckwalter to claim the lead on lap 11.
Dillon Steuer was running a strong third but Louden Reimert, who began the race in 12th, was making his presence known as he blasted into the top five at the halfway point. Reimert soon took over fourth place, then executed an amazing “thread the needle” pass of both Buckwalter and Steuer, zipping between the two blue cars on a restart to secure second spot. While Reimert slowly eased away from T. Buckwalter, he could not close the gap on the high flying Danner.
The biggest mover of the race was Mike Bednar, who took the initial green in 21st starting position. Bednar, who had to be towed off the track in his heat race (the arm broke that holds the steering box in place), sliced his way into third as the race neared its conclusion. He pressured Reimert for second, but had to settle for the show position when the checkered flag waved. “Coming from 21st, after the way our night began, this feels like a win,” said Bednar afterward. “I’m very proud of this one.”
Colin White of South Abington Township, PA, picked up his second win of the 2021 campaign at Action Track USA…but it wasn’t easy.
White slipped past early leader Jarid Kunkle, then survived numerous “Snyder Sliders” as Maryland’s Steven Snyder Jr. navigated his way from 11th on the starting grid to challenge White during the second half of the 25 lapper. For a brief time, a good sized afghan would have covered the top four when Eddie Strada and Tim Buckwalter joined the fight for the top spot. With White and Snyder waging war in front of them, Strada and Buckwalter both attempted to launch between the lead duo as the foursome charged into turn one with five tours remaining. Buckwalter and Strada got together with Strada climbing over the nose of Buckwalter’s Greth Racing No. 71 as both cars spun. The race ended for the two of them at that point.
Snyder tried to throw his slider on a few additional occasions, but White defended his position and eventually pulled away to a 1.087 second victory.
“Those sliders made me nervous,” stated the winner in victory lane. “And having to turn back under him after the slide jobs was nerve racking, too, but it was also a lot of fun. Glad it worked out in our favor.”
Snyder, the current point leader, was almost relieved that his streak of consecutive triumphs ended at three. “Going for four in a row, which would have been a record here, was a lot of pressure,” he admitted. “We’ll try to start another streak next week, during 600 Speedweek. I think we’re in good shape for that.”
13th starter Kyle Lick, in his first race since breaking both collarbones in an April Sprint Car crash, bobbed and weaved his way to an impressive third place finish. Briggs Danner came from 17th to collect fourth place cash, while Christian Bruno spun on the opening circuit before rebounding for a fifth place payday.
Brett Bieber stalked race leader Amanda Angstadt for several laps, then motored to the inside of her No. 55A as he wrestled the lead from her in the 20 lap All Star Slingshot feature. Shelby McLaughlin, who hustled and hassled Angstadt in the early stages, hung on for a third place effort with Jax Yohn and Blaire Schoenly completing the top five.
Wednesday, July 24 will find the three weekly divisions in competition once again, and the 600 Sprints will take part in Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek. Championship Energy Action Track USA will host the third event of the six race Speedweek series, with a large field of the country’s best 600 Sprint chauffeurs expected to take part. Pit gates open at 4 p.m., with grandstand gates swinging open at 5:00. Warm-ups get underway at 6:15 and qualifying heats will follow the hot lap sessions.
Get your midweek motorsports adrenaline rush where the superstars come to race…at Championship Energy Action Track USA!
RESULTS:
All Pro SpeedSTR Feature, 30 laps: 1.Briggs Danner, 2.Louden Reimert, 3.Mike Bednar, 4.Tim Buckwalter, 5.Alex Yankowski, 6.Steve Buckwalter, 7.Tim Iulg, 8.Matt Janisch, 9.Dillon Steuer, 10.Ken Meisner, 11.Dustin Morris, 12.Nick Havens, 13.Gary Wagner, 14.TJ Mayberry, 15.Jason Musser, 16.Rich Rutski, 17.Josh Dalrymple, 18.Tom Mayberry, 19.Billy Pauch Sr., 20.Ryan Godown Jr., 21.Nick Pecko, 22.Andy Haus, 23.Justin Thompson.
Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Colin White, 2.Steven Snyder Jr., 3.Kyle Lick, 4.Briggs Danner, 5.Christian Bruno, 6.Zach Weisenfluh, 7.Zack Bealer, 8.Michael Nolf, 9.Jarid Kunkle, 10.Jacob Severn, 11.Billy Koch, 12.Logan Rumsey, 13.Fred Heinly, 14.Matt Donley, 15.Joe Nemeth, 16.Jackson White, 17.Joe Kay, 18.Tim Buckwalter, 19.Eddie Strada, 20.Matt Jarowicz, 21.Jay Hartman, 22.Olivia Haworth, 23.Jared Lilly, 24.James Morris, 25.Joey Jarowicz, 26.Preston Lattomus, 27.John Barnett, 28.Connor Gross, 29.Mike Rutherford. DNS: Joey Amantea.
DNQ: Jacob Fisher, Eric Ankiewicz, Jeremy Harshman, Don Smith, Ben Maier, Teddy Reed, Hunter McFadden, Junior Ankiewicz.
All Star Slingshot Feature, 20 laps: 1.Brett Bieber, 2.Amanda Angstadt, 3.Shelby McLaughlin, 4.Jax Yohn, 5.Blaire Schoenly, 6.Tyler Ulsh, 7.Gavin Danner, 8.Slade Darrah, 9.Cooper Schoenly, 10.Dave Carraghan.
