ABBOTTSTOWN

 There’s nothing better than starting a new racing season off with a victory.

 Niki Young kicked off the 2008 racing season with a popular win in Saturday’s Icebreaker 30 at Lincoln Speedway.

 For Young, it was more than just a win.

 The East Berlin racer spent the final part of the 2007 racing season sitting on the sidelines after undergoing back surgery. Car owner Denny Neiderer filled the seat with another driver during some of those races but never turned his back on Young, who is not a big time winner in Central Pennsylvania.

 Young turned in a perfect performance on the afternoon in the Neiderer Sanitation No. 10N sprinter. He won his heat race after starting eighth, accumulated the most passing points for the heat races and drew the number zero for feature inversion.

 He then led flag to flag despite three red flags and three caution periods during the feature event.

 “This sure does feel good,” Young said to the chilled crowd on the windy cold afternoon to kickoff the Northeast racing season. “I’ve got to thank a lot of people. First and foremost Denny Neiderer for sticking with me last year when I was down and out and hurt and all of my sponsors.”

 Young drove a near perfect race on a near perfect opening day race surface prepared by track guru Fred Putney. The track had a few holes in turn four but otherwise, Putney had the surface right on.

 “Fred Putney does a heck of a job and he pours his heart and soul into this place and I know I appreciate it,” said Young, a three-time career winner in the Pigeon Hills. “This is my favorite place to race and I’ve got a ton of fans here and I appreciate each and every one of them that yell for me every week even though we don’t win a lot. Today was our lucky day and things just went our way.”

 Doug Esh’s “super team” didn’t get off to a good start as Esh rolled his sprinter on the first lap of the feature event.

 Young held the point during the early laps when John Rudisill hit the second turn wall to bring out a caution on lap three.

 Brian Leppo showed some strength on the restart, moving from fifth into third and took second place from Mark Smith on lap five only to get high in turn two and give the spot back up to Smith.

 Doug Dodson and Bobby Weaver tangled on lap seven resulting in a Dodson flip and another red flag.

 Young continued to set the pace until Jeff Busby’s first of two yellow flags came out on lap 11 and then again on lap 16.

 Fred Rahmer, who won the consolation worked his way up to the sixth spot by lap 14 and was battling Greg Hodnett for fifth on lap 18 when he drifted high in turn four, losing a few spots.

 John Westbrook brought out the third red flag on lap 19 when he flipped in turn one.

 Over the final ten laps, Young maintained the top spot and went virtually unchallenged to the checkered flag, worth $3,500 to his team.

 “I felt a lot of pressure today coming back after being off for so long,” Young said. “I was a little nervous and then after drawing the zero pill I thought, I tell you what, that’s even more pressure. I heard Mark back there a couple times and I wasn’t really sure how to get through the holes down there. I wasn’t sure if those guys were getting around them on the top or the bottom. But my guys kept telling me to just keep doing what I was doing, and I’d be alright.”

 Smith, of Tower City settled for the runner-up spot with Leppo, of New Oxford third over Harrisburg’s Chad Layton and Thomasville’s Hodnett.

 Completing the top 10 were Alan Krimes, Rahmer, Brian Paulus, Cris Eash and Cody Darrah.

 Heats for the 28 sprint cars on hand were won by Smith, Young and Busby with Rahmer topping the consolation.

 Lincoln returns to action next Saturday afternoon with the 410 Sprints and the Lawrence Chevrolet Spring Thaw for Thundercars. Racing begins at 2pm.
 PIT STOPS….All systems are go for today’s Sprint car season opener at Williams Grove Speedway. The track is ready to go and green flag racing begins at 2pm. Gates open at noon….Cris Eash has returned with the familiar No. 17E on the top wing of his sprint car owned by his brother Darren…Paulus was the only outsider to make the tow to Lincoln for the opener…Mechanicsburg’s Jason Leet picked the Top Five correctly and won $150. He was the first to pick the correct top five in over two years at the speedway…