Briggs Danner on Path to Stardom

Briggs Danner of Allentown, Pennsylvania is quickly turning heads on a national level with his recent success with the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series during the Keystone Invasion. Danner drove the Bill Gallagher owned No. 5G to a quick time at Grandview Speedway in just his third start with the national series while also grabbing a heat race win at the Big Diamond Speedway. The racing community was left wondering where the teenager with little sprint car experience came from. Danner is a dirt racing superstar in the making.

Danner is a young, but extremely versatile racer across multiple forms of racing in the northeast. The 2021 slate has Danner competing in modifieds, winged and wingless sprint cars, micro sprints, and a SpeedSTR on a near weekly basis.

Danner started his racing career like many in the quarter midget ranks which was then followed by a second step into the SpeedSTRs. After success against the likes of Billy Pauch Jr. and Tim Buckwalter in the SpeedSTR division, Danner then found himself racing modifieds at Grandview Speedway which is known as one of the toughest fields for northeast modified competition.

While a successful career was already in the making to that point, the 19-year-old’s first career start in a sprint car is the most impressive statistic thus far. On September 26th, 2020, Danner would come out victorious in the USAC East Coast Sprint Car A-Main at the Bridgeport Motorsports Park in the Gallagher No. 5G.

“I couldn’t compare it to anything I’ve raced before. The car is a very good car, and I knew the track which nobody else was on before which helped,” said Danner when comparing his experience in a modified at the New Jersey facility to the sprint car competition. “It played in our way, and we were able to pick off the lead coming to the white flag which was really cool,” said Danner.

That same weekend, Danner was also driving a modified and SpeedSTR. Three divisions in one weekend and Danner doesn’t lose a beat. Danner takes pride and enjoys being versatile throughout the racing season.

“I always think the best driver around is a guy that can jump into anything and do really good in it. Some people may say it screws you up jumping from this type of car to a complete opposite, but I always think the most seat time you can get always benefits you.”

As for the future, Danner has big goals, but also doesn’t mind staying close to home to run against some of the best competition in the country.

“A big goal of mine would be to run the USAC National Sprint Car Series tour. It is tough to get on to and takes a lot of dedication, but I’m happy where I’m at too. The USAC East Coast tour is really taking off and a lot of people have taken notice to it to where it’s as big as the west coast.”

Briggs Danner has the qualities that a lot of people look for in a young racer. He races anything from modifieds to micros and everything in between and is fast in all of them. Not even in his twenties yet, Danner has a very bright future in front of him just as the racing community on a national scale gets to learn more of who Briggs Danner is and where he came from.