Ryan Smith slides into Victory Lane in the 2021 URC Season Opener at the Kingdom of Speed

3/27/2021

United Racing Club

Ryan Smith slides into Victory Lane in the 2021 URC Season Opener at the Kingdom of Speed

SWEDESBORO, NJ - The Kunkletown Kid, Ryan Smith of Kunkletown, PA landed in victory lane after coming from deep in the field during the United Racing Club’s 74th season opener at Bridgeport Motorsports Park on March 27, 2021. This was Smith’s second win in the Brad Nowotarski owned #10X at Bridgeport, as he was also the winner of night one of the season finale only 5 months earlier.

The weather was beautiful for the first race of the 2021 season for the United Racing Club 360 sprint cars. After the 2020 season had many races canceled due to COVID-19, it was evident that drivers and teams were ready to get back to some sort of normalcy in racing as 33 cars signed in for the night. The field was quite stout with returning members such as the 2020 champion, Adam Carberry returning for action, the 2018 champion, Josh Weller competing in the Tim and Fran Hogue owned #39, and the 2020 Rookie of the year Dallas Schott. The series even drew in some new teams making the switch from the wingless side of things to become full time members for the 2021 season with URC such as Craig Pellegrini Jr., Mike Thompson, Joey Amantea, and Kevin Darling.

Bridgeport Motorsports Park, newly configured at the start of the 2020 season, has quickly become a favorite amongst the URC drivers. The steep banking, track surface, and length of the track has created some of the best racing on the East Coast and our drivers were eager to hit the track. Four heat races were scheduled for 10 laps, and even they were full of action. Unfortunately, by the last heat race the track surface began to take a lot of rubber and some cars ended up blowing tires. The heat races were won by Dallas Schott, Andy Best, Brian Carber, and Denny Peebles.

This sent 13 cars to the B-main event with the top 4 cars transferring to the main event. Rick Steif won the consolation race followed by Craig Pellegrini, Brandon McGough, and Jake Karklin. The staff at Bridgeport decided to completely rework the track before the features to ensure we had a surface that would provide great racing.

After the top twelve drivers redrew, Schott would fire from the pole with Carber to his outside. Previous Bridgeport winners, Franek, Smith, and Colagiovanni would start from the 11th, 15th, and 9th positions, respectfully. On the start, Carber rocketed around Schott to take the lead. As he began to pull away and approach lapped traffic the yellow flag would wave. By this time, Ryan Smith had gone from his starting position of 15th and was now in the top 5. On the ensuring restart, Carber got away but Smith made his way to third. Once again the caution flag flew and this is where the turning point of the race took place. Smith eventually made his way to Carber shortly after the restart. The two exchanged slide job after slide job every corner putting on a great show for the fans. In an attempt to block the next slider from Smith, Carber slipped up a tad allowing Smith to pull to the lead. From that point on, Ryan Smith never looked back and drove his 10X machine onto the stage for Victory Lane with Best, Schott, Jason Shultz, and Derek Locke completing the top 5.

“It was a blast!,” exclaimed Smith, “When you have a car that good, it really makes it fun.” When talking about the battle with Carber, Ryan said, “the way the track is it’s hard to get free and it turns into a slider fest. He’s a good clean racer, it was a chess match.” It is not often we see a car starting from the 15th position and win the race especially during a day show when track conditions are not ideal but Ryan said it right when he said, “we thought we had a small chance but we rolled the dice, go all out and hope you can make it to the end.” Ryan Smith plans to run about 5-6 URC races with Brad Nowatarski and the 10X team in 2021, and we know that whenever they show up to a race they will be a factor to win.

Ryan would like to thank Brad and Shelly Nowotarski, who own both the car and Specialty Rigging, Reese Nowotarski, Trevor Dunn, and Jason Early for all their help each week. He would also like to thank his friends, family, fiancé Stephanie, and his fans for supporting him week in and week out.
With the 2021 season underway, the next stop for the stars and cars of the United Racing Club will be the familiar Port Royal Speedway on April 24 for a night of wings where we will join the 410 and 305 sprint cars on the card for the evening.

The United Racing Club would like to thank Diane Pursell-Tracy, sister of the late Scott Pursell, a former URC driver who passed away recently, for putting up a $300 cash bonus to the hard charger in the feature in memory of Scott. The winner of the hard charger award was the Ritter Racing #35 Jason Shultz who started from the 20th position and improved 16 spots to finish 4th.

Photo Credit: Jesse Carberry

Contingency awards:
KSE Hard Charger – Jason Shultz +16
Ultra Shield last redraw spot – Derek Locke
ISC Racers Tape – Jason Shultz (4th)
Seals-It – Brian Carber (6th)
Rod End Supply – Alex Bright (8th)
Ultra Shield – Briggs Danner (11th)
King Racing Products – Jordan Thomas (15th)
DMI – Joe Kata (last in feature)

Feature Laps Led by:
1-9: Brian Carber
9-25: Ryan Smith

RESULTS – MARCH 27, 2021

HEAT 1 (10 LAPS): 1. 55-Dallas Schott[3]; 2. 77-Derek Locke[1]; 3. 66-Ryan Kissinger[4]; 4. 25-JJ Grasso[9]; 5. 79-Jordan Thomas[7]; 6. 27C-Craig Pellegrini Jr[6]; 7. 11T-Mike Thompson[8]; 8. 7-Ed Aikin[5]; 9. (DNF) 89-Robbie Stillwaggon[2]

HEAT 2 (10 LAPS): 1. 20-Alex Bright[3]; 2. 34K-Andy Best[5]; 3. 5G-Briggs Danner[7]; 4. 39-Josh Weller[1]; 5. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[8]; 6. 669-Brandon McGough[6]; 7. 9S-Rick Stief[4]; 8. (DNF) 14B-Brett Wright[2]

HEAT 3 (10 LAPS): 1. 8C-Brian Carber[2]; 2. 23-Justin Foster[3]; 3. 10-Joe Kata[4]; 4. 10X-Ryan Smith[6]; 5. 18-Tim Tanner Jr[8]; 6. 88J-Joey Amantea[7]; 7. 9D-Kevin Darling[5]; 8. 42-Jesse Pruchnik[1]

HEAT 4 (10 LAPS): 1. 3-Denny Peebles[4]; 2. 28F-Davie Franek[1]; 3. 10C-Paulie Colagiovanni[3]; 4. 47-Adam Carberry[6]; 5. 35-Jason Shultz[5]; 6. 22-Troy Betts[8]; 7. 5K-Jake Karklin[7]; 8. (DNS) 4S-Johnny Smith

B-MAIN (10 LAPS): 1. 9S-Rick Stief[6]; 2. 27C-Craig Pellegrini Jr[1]; 3. 669-Brandon McGough[2]; 4. 5K-Jake Karklin[8]; 5. 11T-Mike Thompson[5]; 6. 7-Ed Aikin[9]; 7. 88J-Joey Amantea[3]; 8. 9D-Kevin Darling[7]; 9. (DNS) 22-Troy Betts; 10. (DNS) 14B-Brett Wright; 11. (DNS) 42-Jesse Pruchnik; 12. (DNS) 4S-Johnny Smith; 13. (DNS) 89-Robbie Stillwaggon

A-FEATURE (25 LAPS): 1. 10X-Ryan Smith[15]; 2. 34K-Andy Best[6]; 3. 55-Dallas Schott[1]; 4. 35-Jason Shultz[20]; 5. 77-Derek Locke[12]; 6. 8C-Brian Carber[2]; 7. 10C-Paulie Colagiovanni[9]; 8. 20-Alex Bright[8]; 9. 39-Josh Weller[14]; 10. 3-Denny Peebles[4]; 11. 5G-Briggs Danner[7]; 12. 25-JJ Grasso[13]; 13. 18-Tim Tanner Jr[19]; 14. 23-Justin Foster[5]; 15. 79-Jordan Thomas[17]; 16. 9S-Rick Stief[21]; 17. 11-Ryan Stillwaggon[18]; 18. 669-Brandon McGough[23]; 19. 27C-Craig Pellegrini Jr[22]; 20. (DNF) 28F-Davie Franek[11]; 21. (DNF) 22-Troy Betts[25]; 22. (DNF) 5K-Jake Karklin[24]; 23. (DNF) 66-Ryan Kissinger[10]; 24. (DNF) 47-Adam Carberry[16]; 25. (DNF) 10-Joe Kata[3]

TOP 10 2021 URC DRIVER POINTS (as of 3/27/2021)