Danner Wins Rollie Beale Classic in First Attempt
Saturday at Toledo in Doran-Swanson Racing No. 77
And Finishes Second in USAC Silver Crown Points

Photo credit: USAC photo by Rich Forman

TOLEDO, Ohio, Oct. 4 — Doran-Swanson Racing’s Briggs Danner won the Hemelgarn Racing/Super Fitness Rollie Beale Classic USAC Silver Crown season finale Saturday at Toledo Speedway in his first race ever at the half-mile paved oval.

With the victory the Allentown, Pa.-based driver clinched second place in the USAC Silver Crown driver championship in his first full season in the series. He and Justin Grant both finished with 557 points, but Danner won the tiebreaker because he had three wins and Grant, the series’ defending champion, had none this year.

Five of the last six USAC Silver Crown races at this track have now been won by a Doran Racing No. 77 based in Lebanon, Ohio.

The USAC Silver Crown series is unique in that it stages races on both pavement and dirt tracks. Doran-Swanson Racing fielded cars for Danner in the series’ pavement races, while he drove for DMW Motorsports in the dirt-track events. For Danner’s three victories out of the 10 races held, two came on pavement tracks in the Doran car (Winchester, Ind., and Toledo), and one came on a dirt track for DMW (Springfield, Ill.) C.J. Leary won the championship with three victories too, and his also came at two paved tracks and one dirt track.

Polesitter Chase Cabre led the first 45 laps on Saturday night at Toledo before Danner took command of the 100-lap race. But Tyler Roahrig, who started eighth, made many stabs at passing Danner during the last half of the race after he moved into second on lap 54. Danner’s margin of victory over Roahrig was 0.478 seconds.

One stat that showed how tight the competition was ranks the drivers by their fastest race lap. Roahrig got that distinction with a time of 15.698 seconds on lap 75. Danner was second in that category with a 15.719 on lap 74.

Danner started third in the 18-car field in the No. 77, which is sponsored in part by E. Schneider & Sons Inc. Recycling, Fuelmart, and Sennebogen, and was powered by a Lanci Ford engine.

Kyle Hamilton started fourth but retired after just two laps with a mechanical issue, and Grant, who started fifth, took several stabs at Danner in the early going.

But Danner passed Mario Clouser, who started second, on lap 32 between Turns 1 and 2 to move into second place. He was able to close in on Cabre immediately, and hounded him until he made the winning move working lap 46 when Cabre made a tiny bobble and Danner charged under him as they flew out of Turn 4.

Danner was able to build a lead of over 1 second over Cabre almost as soon as he got by him, as he enjoyed a 1.5-second advantage at the halfway mark. By lap 54 he had built up a 2.107-second lead.

But Roahrig got around Cabre for second on that lap, and was coming on strong. Danner had a 2.536-second lead over Roahrig by lap 60 before the second and final yellow flew on lap 62 when Jared Kreider stopped short of the pits. (The first yellow was from laps seven through 15 when Gregg Corey’s car experienced an oil fire. No one was hurt.)

Roahrig knew the restart on lap 67 would be his best shot to get by, but Danner was up to the challenge. Still, Roahrig kept the pressure up the rest of the race. He was only 0.363 behind on lap 75 and only 0.344 behind on lap 80, but Danner was able to increase his lead to 0.505 by lap 85. Roahrig closed to just 0.263 once again with seven laps to go, but Danner persevered.

Cabre finished third. Grant, who won this race last year, finished fourth, and Dakoda Armstrong placed fifth.

“It was tough. I don’t quite know what I’m doing when it’s so much defensive driving!” Danner said afterwards. “Tyler was really good rolling the middle groove. I felt like I could roll the bottom of [Turn] 3 and 4 really good. That’s where I felt the best. As the race went on the sun was getting lower and lower, and it made it hard to see the frontstretch wall. So I felt like that’s where I struggled the most. Tyler was gaining on me at the exit off 4 and the entry into 1 at the end. I was just trying to keep all four tires underneath me and conserve what I could and push when I had to. That’s the name of the game for all these races. That’s why I love them so much.

“Kevin [Doran] did a really good job on the radio of letting me know what was going on behind me, when I needed to push, and when I could settle down and save my stuff a little bit.

“I’ve just got to hand it to everybody on this team. These guys give me a really fast car. Our speed showed today. I know we probably would’ve liked to have been a little bit better at the end, and I know Tyler had a shot to do something. But to qualify as good as we did in my first time coming here and to be able to hold them off, it was great.

“Thanks to all our sponsors, and congrats to C.J. for winning the title.

“I had a lot of fun, and hopefully it was a good show. It was a great way to end the season!”

Cabre’s top time to win the pole on Saturday afternoon was 15.159 seconds. Clouser ran a 15.256. Danner’s best lap in qualifying was his second one, which he did in 15.290. That was only 0.131 off the pole.

Danner was sixth in the first practice session with a 15.447 to Leary’s 15.140. He was third in the second practice session with a 15.326 to Cabre’s 15.235. Overall in the results from both practice sessions he was fourth, behind Leary, Cabre, and Grant.

Saturday’s race, like all USAC Silver Crown events, was streamed live on Flo Racing.

For more information see Briggs Danner Racing on Facebook.
For more information on Doran Racing, see DoranRacing.com.
The team also has a Facebook page.
Series information on USACRacing.com