Esh Wins A Thriller In The Pigeon Hills

ABBOTTSTOWN

Never count Doug Esh out.

It’s no secret that the Lancaster driver has struggled through the past two seasons on the local sprint car scene.

But Saturday night, the former Lincoln Speedway track champion came out on top of a classic battle for the lead to win his first 25-lap 410 Sprint car feature of the season.

The win was the first for new car owner Pancho Lawler, who recently put together a team for Esh to race after he split with the John Trone owned team.

And Esh had to earn this one, despite starting sixth on the grid.

“I backed up on the start and once you get behind, its hard getting back to the front,” said Esh after his 23rd career track win. “You don’t realize how hard you have to race to get back up front but we were able to get there and it feels good to be back on top.”

Doug Dodson led until lap nine when Jim Siegel took the top spot.

Siegel maintained the lead through several yellow flags as Esh moved into the second spot on lap 11.

Danny Dietrich moved into contention midway through the event as it was Siegel, Esh, Dietrich and Alan Krimes battling for the top spot.

Dietrich got around Siegel but Siegel came back hard in turn three forcing Dietrich out of the groove and allowing Esh to fly around the outside of both cars to lead lap 22.

Brian Montieth, who came from 17th to win Friday at Williams Grove moved into the picture with three laps to go as Esh, Montieth, Dietrich and Siegel ran under a blanket for the top spot.

Siegel did a 360 degree spin to bring out a caution with 24 laps complete and Esh was able to keep the field at bay on the final lap to score the win.

“Pancho has this thing rolling pretty good,” said Esh after collecting $3,000. “We are just starting to get consistent and it’s nice to get a win. I probably wasn’t deserving of a ride but Pancho and I had a lot of fun together in the past and he was able to put a car under me.”

Dietrich, of Aspers got back around Montieth, of Phoenixville on the final lap for the runner-up spot with Krimes, of Denver fourth and Tower City’s Mark Smith fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Aaron Ott, Dodson, Brent Marks, Adam Wilt and Brad McClelland.

Mark Bitner led most of the way to win his first 25-lap URC Sprint feature of the year over Nick Schlauch, Jr., Josh Weller, Kevin Nouse and Curt Michael.

Heats for the 33 sprint cars were won by Dietrich, Krimes, Cory Haas and Rahmer. Brian Leppo won the consolation.

Heats for the 23 URC Sprints went to Rory Janney, Kramer Williamson and Schlauch.

Lincoln Speedway returns to action next Sunday night, July 25 with the 410 Sprints, thundercars and Speedsters. The track will be dark on Saturday night due to the Summer Nationals at Williams Grove.