ABBOTTSTOWN

 

 On a night when NASCAR star Kasey Kahne was in town to race his sprint car and when fans had to be shuttled in from parking a half mile away from the track, Brian Montieth stole the show as he destroyed the field to win the 25-lap Spring Championship at Lincoln Speedway.

 The two-time defending track champion started on the front row of the feature by virtue of time trials but followed Friday night Williams Grove winner Stevie Smith for the first three laps before making the race-winning move in turn two.

 Once in front, the Phoenixville veteran drove off from the field to an impressive four-second margin of  victory for his 17th career track win.

 “We waited until the late model consi was basically over before we tore the car apart and put it back together,” said Montieth who earned $4,000 for his first win of the season in the Premiere Motorsports owned, Bricker’s French Fries, Auto Locator sponsored XXX Chassis. “I guess we made the right choice tonight.”

  Kahne’s night didn’t turn out he had hoped as he was involved in a first lap crash on the backstretch when Cory Haas got turned around and collected five cars.

 Doug Esh spun on lap five to bring out another caution and Aaron Ott brought out the yellow four laps later with a spin in turn four.

 Montieth drove off from Alan Krimes, who got around Smith on lap nine, until Danny Dietrich spun on lap 13 for another caution.

 Smith retook second from Krimes on the restart but had nothing for Montieth over the final laps. Krimes got back around Smith for second spot on lap 21 but never challenged Montieth for the win.

 “Over the winter we made a business decision to go to a different chassis and it’s paid off for us,” Montieth spoke of the switch from Maxim to the XXX chassis. “The car has been comfortable to me since day one and we’ve been real good at the Grove but struggled a bit here. We made a couple of changes tonight and I guess we’re gonna write them down.”

 Montieth’s car owner Jerry Parrish was thrilled with another win by a driver who he said “could drive a wheelbarrow around here and is the best driver I’ve ever seen.”

 Krimes, of Denver was second with Smith, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma third, Fayetteville’s Lance Dewease fourth and Salfordville’s Fred Rahmer fifth.

 Completing the top 10 finishers were Brad McClelland, Brian Leppo, Jim Siegel, Johnny Mackison, Jr. and Josh Wells.

 York’s Jeff Rohrbaugh led all 20 laps to score the win in the 20-lap 358 Sprint car feature over Dale Hammaker, Chad Trout, Billy Dietrich and Tim Berkheimer. Logan Schuchart, Steve Owings, Glenndon Forsythe, Billy Johns and Eric Tomecek were the top 10 finishers.

 Rohrbaugh won the season opener last season as well aboard the Roy Vincent Racing sprinter.

 Siegel set fast time over the 27-car field with a lap of 13.303 seconds.

 Kahne, Mark Smith and  Mackison, Jr. won heat races for the Sprints. Gerard McIntyre won the consolation.

 Billy Dietrich, Brook Weibley,  Rohrbaugh and Schuchart were heat winners for the 33 ‘358’ Sprints.  The consolation went to Bree Hershey.

 Cam Zeigler, Craig Wagaman and Steve Billet were heat winners for the 27 358 late models. Chaz Walls topped the consolation.

 Lincoln Speedway donated its share of the 50/50 raffle to the Kasey Kahne Foundation. A total of $4,324 was donated.

 Lincoln Speedway returns next Saturday night with the 410 Sprints, 358 Sprints and thundercars with racing beginning at 6pm.