MINERSVILLE, Pa. – Nearly 24 hours after cruising to the season-opening victory at Orange County Fair Speedway, Steven Drevicki continued his winning ways.
Drevicki collected another Rapid Tire USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series victory at Big Diamond Speedway Saturday night, running his win total to two for the year so far.
After a line of heavy showers and a brief thunderstorm passed through the area, 22 USAC East Coast Sprint Cars entered the pit area at Big Diamond for night number two.
With the evening rains, the track was left narrow, with the dominant line being around the top of the speedway for heat race competition.
Series rookie Bruce Buckwalter Jr. took heat one, while Carmen Perigo, and Joey Biasi earned their respective heat race victories and looked to have a good redraw.
The heat races did not come without casualty, however, as Timmy Buckwalter had a steering failure in heat two that led to a hard impact with the outside wall in turns three and four ending his night.
With a handful of drivers not making it back out for the feature event, no B-main was conducted and the remaining 19 drivers started the main.
Bill Unglert and Joey Biasi led the field to the green for the feature event, with Drevicki firing off from the third position just as he did one night prior.
Unglert quickly jumped out to the early race lead, with Biasi, Drevicki and the rest of the field fighting for position early on.
Major trouble would occur on lap six, as Danny Varin caught the cushion wrong in turns three and four, causing the car to bicycle and flip end over end out of the speedway.
Luckily, Varin was OK and made his way back to the pit area.
Within the next handful of laps following the restart, Drevicki maneuvered his way around Biasi for second place using the inside line of the speedway, with the majority of the field devoted to the cushion around both ends of the track.
On lap 12, race leader Unglert found himself encountering the back end of the field, with traffic only getting heavier by lap 14.
As the field completed lap 15, Drevicki was able to get to the inside of the No. 33 machine and took the race lead away from Unglert.
At the same time, a great battle occurred between Ryan Quackenbush and Biasi, who traded the third spot back and forth. With five laps to go, Biasi got a massive run into turns one and two and passed Unglert for the runner up position.
However, it was all for naught, as Drevicki was able to collect yet another victory at Big Diamond Spedway.
Post race, Drevicki explained that the set up they had for the feature event was more so for the bottom of the speedway, rather than the top on the cushion, wherein the majority of the field was running for most of the feature event.
Drevicki was able to use this difference in set up to pass cars on the bottom of the track to collect the feature win.
Quackenbush grabbed a strong fourth place effort, his career best with the series.
Over the winter, the Quackenbush team made a major switch in chassis manufacturers, from Triple X Chassis to RPM Chassis. The team has appeared to find success with the new combo and will only look to improve.
Making his series debut and impressing all in attendance was Delaware driver Kyle Spence. Spence was aboard the Betts Garage No. 22 machine and had a solid run from 12th to eighth in the feature event. It was a solid debut for the 600cc micro sprint standout.
Up next will be the series return to the Georgetown Speedway in Georgetown, Del., where Drevicki was the series’ first ever winner and is the defending race winner.
The finish:
1. Steven Drevicki, 2. Joey Biasi, 3. Bill Unglert, 4. Ryan Quackenbush, 5. Carmen Perigo, 6. Chris Allen Jr, 7. Alex Yankowski, 8. Kyle Spence, 9. Mark Bitner, 10. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 11. Jonathan Swanson, 12. John Stehman, 13. Christian Bruno, 14. Jacob Balliet, 15. Jason Cherry, 16. Ricky Rutt, 17. Heidi Hedin, 18. Larry Drake. 19. Danny Varin, 20. Timmy Buckwalter, 21. David Swanson.