ABBOTTSTOWN
 “I love this place,” said a pumped up Jeff Shepard after blowing away the field in a rare Saturday night start at Lincoln Speedway.

 Shepard’s eighth career Lincoln win came in the 30-lap Weldon Sterner Memorial and was worth a cool $5,000 to the Upperco, Maryland driver and the John and PeeWee Zemaitis-owned sprint car team.

 Shepard inherited the lead on lap 15 when Cody Darrah suffered a flat tire while the race was under red flag conditions and he never looked back over the final half of the race, winning by a straightaway over 10-time track champion and current points leader Fred Rahmer of Salfordville.

 “I love to come here and it’s about time that I’m here instead of the 51,” stated Shepard in his victory over Rahmer. “Because last year he was in front of me every stinking night and I hate it. And even though I wear ear plugs in the car, I could still hear you (track announcer Wayne Harper) say Fred Rahmer from 20th and I thought, oh no not again! But he’s a hell of a racer and you can’t take that from him. Fred would make anybody nervous especially just talking to him.”

 But it was all about Shepard on this night, making a rare Lincoln start and taking the big money from the local teams.

 Darrah was the star of the show during the early going.

 After setting fast time in time trials, Darrah started on the pole of the feature and quickly drove off from the field as T.J. Stutts ran second.

 Darrah worked his way through traffic and held a big lead when Jeff Busby flipped on lap 15 to bring out the red flag.

 But misfortune struck Darrah under the red flag when his tire went flat. He went pitside to change the tire and restarted at the rear of the field.

 Shepard, who started fifth, took third on lap 12 and then grabbed the runner-up spot from Stutts with 15 laps complete.

 Rahmer again put on a driving clinic through the field after starting 20th.

 He was up to 10th by lap fourh and then was fifth on lap 15 before moving into third following the red flag.

 Rahmer disposed of Stutts on lap 20 but could not track down Shepard, who held a two second lead when Rahmer took second but took the checkered flag 3.59 seconds ahead of Rahmer, who settled for second place pay.

 “I know earlier in the race Cody played hell keeping the front end on the ground but once the fuel load got lighter, it was nothing but counting laps,” said Shepard, a two-time winner this season. “Nothing against him but it takes 30 laps and we’ve had the same misfortunes. I’ve done this for 21 years and I’ve had the same things happen to me.”

 Shepard and the team are picking and choosing their races this season.

 “The car’s been real good this year but it doesn’t hurt once in a while to clear your head and take a night off,” he added about the Zemco Speed Equipment, Rider Racing Engines team. “The guys work real hard on the car and it’s actually fun and I’m having a really good time this year.”

 Stutts held on for the third spot with Lance Dewease fourth and Alan Krimes fifth.

 Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Michael Carber, Cris Eash, Brian Leppo, Brian Montieth and Chad Layton.

 Darrah’s fast time was 13.875 seconds.

 Heats for the 27 sprint cars were won by Leppo, Jim Siegel and Eash. The consolation was won by  Niki Young.

 The 358 sprint car feature and thundercar features were both rained out. The 358 feature will be made up May 31st.


 PIT STOPS…Lincoln returns to action next Saturday night with the 410 Sprints plus the makeup feature for the 410 sprints that was rained out last weekend. The 358 sprints and thundercars are also on the program…Greg Hodnett was a spectator for the feature event as his team chose to compete at Port Royal Speedway but was rained out. The team did not make the trek to Lincoln for the Sterner Memorial…