If the term “resilience” ever needed an image attached to it in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, it would be apt to include one of Logan Seavey and Abacus Racing after their victorious performance on Thursday night at Pottsville, Pennsylvania’s Big Diamond Speedway.
The team’s outing one night earlier at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park proved to be among the most challenging of the year. An engine failure forced them into a backup car where they proceeded to finish an undesirable 15th, dropping them to 11th in the USAC Eastern Storm standings and also shrunk their overall USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship point lead to its closest margin since February.
Further demonstrating the resolve of Sutter, California’s Seavey, in his only previous Big Diamond appearance one year earlier, he missed out on transferring into the main event, making Thursday’s race his first feature start at the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
This time around, he stalked Mitchel Moles for the first half of the 30-lap event before making his stride to the outside of turn two to get by for the lead, and ultimately, his sixth USAC National Sprint Car victory of the year in his Abacus Racing/MPV Express – CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
“These guys bounce back so well,” Seavey said in praise of his crew led by Ronnie Gardner and Kirk Simpson. “I’m confident when I get in it, so it doesn’t really deter me. These guys make sure it’s ready to go and on kill every time I’m in it. I feel like every time we have a bad night, we come back and redeem ourselves or win or have a great night.”
Seavey’s Big Diamond score was the 16th of his USAC National Sprint Car career, equaling Damion Gardner and Jud Larson for 38th place on the all-time win list. Furthermore, it put Seavey, the 2022 USAC Eastern Storm champion, right back in the thick of the title hunt for the six-race series where he now sits sixth and trails by only a 20-point margin.
The previous night’s engine failure left an unsavory taste and a major sense of frustration for Seavey and Abacus. However, throughout the day and night at Big Diamond, the team kept plugging away until they hit the sweet spot and delivered yet another victory.
“Man, this was a long day,” Seavey exhaled. “We put ourselves in position there early, but we weren’t nearly as good as we needed to be. We made some big changes to get back to where I’m comfortable on these big racetracks and it was really gripped up. Comfort was key, and to be able to get up there and run into one like that was tough. I can’t say enough about what Ronnie and Kirk do. For me, they work together every freaking night. Sometimes that’s hard but it always seems to be what’s best for the team and here we are in victory lane.”
Seavey began his race from the outside of the front row alongside Moles who bolted to the early lead with Seavey in tow just a couple car lengths back.
Multiple early cautions halted the contest, first on lap five when 20th running Carson Garrett slipped sideways in turn four and came to a stop, suffering enough contact in the incident that, on lap eight, Garrett stopped again. This time, his entire left front wheel was missing, grinding the Colorado driver to a stop in turn two, putting a premature end to his race.
Seavey continued to press Moles for the first 15 laps, but on the 16th circuit, Seavey looked to the outside line and drove right around Moles to take over up front by the time the pair exited turn two.
Meanwhile, as Seavey was enjoying his exploits at the head of the pace, the previous night’s Bridgeport winner, Brady Bacon, was attempting to place himself in contention to track down the front runners.
In the battle for third on lap 17 with Justin Grant, Bacon clipped his right front wheel against Grant’s left rear on the bottom of turn three, sending Bacon spinning to a stop at the top of the racetrack. The incident proved costly as Bacon lost his USAC Eastern Storm point lead in the process after restarting and managed only to get back to 18th at the checkered, ending a run of seven consecutive top-three finishes with the series.
On the ensuing lap 17 restart, Moles was fully cognizant of the fact that this might be his final shot to regain the top spot. In turn, he dove to the bottom of turn one and slid up in front of Seavey to briefly attain the position. However, it was a fleeting moment as Seavey turned back down and charged his way back past Moles by the time the two reached turn three.
“I really wasn’t worried,” Seavey said of momentarily relinquishing the lead to Moles. “My automatic line is to turn down as long as he doesn’t stick the bottom really good. He slid up just enough to where I could get down underneath him on the back stretch and get a huge run. It’s cool to see Mitchel running up front again. That’s what he and his team deserve, but I feel like this is where my team deserves to be too and I’m happy to get them back in victory lane.”
With the lead firmly in his grip over the next 14 laps, victory lane is exactly where Seavey was headed to as he closed out a 0.917 second triumph in round three of the six-race USAC Eastern Storm series. Mitchel Moles took second and Justin Grant went third in what was an all-California podium.
Moles’ run placed him directly at the top of the USAC Eastern Storm point standings with three races completed and three remaining this weekend in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy. His runner-up finish provided him with his best result of the season after leading the initial 15 laps.
“I think it’s a huge momentum gain,” Moles said of attaining the Eastern Storm points lead. “We’ve been struggling; it’s no secret. We’ve finally hit on something here and we just keep clicking away. I just needed that yellow like a half lap sooner and I think I would’ve been all right. Nobody passed a car on the top all night long, so I figured (Seavey) wasn’t going to circle me. I was going through my mind wanting to run that line that he was running, but it’s hard to just jump up there and leave the door that open. The modifieds made it look like it was going to be rough and kind of a California style racetrack, so we just freed it up a little bit. I think that’s where he got us. We just weren’t getting down the straightaways as good as they were.”
Native Pennsylvanians Briggs Danner and Alex Bright crossed the stripe in fourth and fifth, respectively. Bright recorded his first career USAC National Sprint Car fast qualifying time earlier in the night during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.
Another Pennsylvanian, Joey Amantea, entered Eastern Storm on a rough patch in his first season on the tour. In his first 16 starts of the USAC National Sprint Car season, Joey Amantea had finished inside the top-10 just once, and that occurred four months earlier during the season opening races in Florida. At Big Diamond, he posted his third straight top-10 result by finishing a solid ninth. That performance earned him the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Ricky Lewis had himself a topsy-turvy evening at Big Diamond when an engine issue in his heat race forced him into a backup car. Utilizing a powerplant borrowed from fellow competitor Brian Ruhlman, Lewis started 25th and finished 10th in the feature, earning a $100 bonus from Irvin King as the night’s hard charger.
USAC PR
