By Bill Meyer
ABBOTTSTOWN, PA 8/18/2018 – “Isn’t that crazy, I never even thought of it,” says Brian Montieth predictably.
After celebrating his 44th birthday earlier in the week, Phoenixville racer Brian Montieth sat in victory lane once again on a Saturday night at the Fabulous Lincoln Speedway. In just under six and a half minutes, the driver affectionately called “The Edge” by his legion of fans, raced non-stop for 25 laps en route to his 60th career win at the Pigeon Hills oval.
“I had to make up for last week,” said Montieth with a smile, reflecting in his mishap a week earlier while battling Rahmer for the win. “I put us out of where we should have been…racing is racing though.”
With the 25-lap starting feature line-up determined by a heads-up alignment from the three heat race finishes, Montieth started fourth following his second place finish in the first heat.
“In the heat races you’ve definitely got to go,” Montieth exclaimed. “There ain’t no messing around or you’re going to start back where you don’t want to on a race track like this.”
Outside front row starter Landon Myers grabbed the lead at the outset over polesitter Scott Fisher. Montieth wasted no time and passed both third-starting Matt Campbell and Fisher before the end of the opening lap to move into second and set his sights on the leader.
After a close side-by-side battle for 2 laps, Montieth grabbed the lead from Myers on the fourth lap and began to pull away.
By the 10th lap Montieth had opened up a one and a half second advantage over Myers as he entered lapped traffic.
As the non-stop laps continued to click off, Montieth continued his assault through lapped traffic and increased his advantage to over four seconds after 17 laps as second place Myers had his hands full trying to hold off fifth-starting Tim Glatfelter for the runner-up spot.
“I’m always waiting for the accident to happen in front of us,” said Montieth about the race through lapped traffic. “I don’t like running first, last week I didn’t like running second, in lapped traffic that is…”
With five laps to go Glatfelter finally secured second place from Myers. But all eyes looked behind him as last weeks’ feature winner Freddie Rahmer was charging to the front from his 12th starting spot.
Rahmer was able to get by Myers, Campbell and Glatfelter over the final four laps but ran out of laps as Montieth took the checkered unchallenged for his fifth win of 2018 at Lincoln, and, the 60th of his career.
“Triple-X, Rider, and, these Smith Titanium Brakes,” Montieth quickly pointed out. “I test’em (brakes) and they definitely work…anybody that knows me knows we go through a lot of pads and this is the first set of pads in pretty much my entire career that doesn’t go away no matter how hard I push on them.”
With six track titles already under his belt and only two Lawrence Chevrolet 410 Sprint point races on the 2018 schedule, Montieth stands to pick up his seventh track title in the last 11 years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2017). Montieth currently holds a 280 point advantage over his nearest rival, Chad Trout, after his fifth win at Lincoln Saturday night.
Impressively, since Montieth’s first win at Lincoln on July 15th in 1995, he has recorded 59 more wins and stands alone in fifth place on the all-time win list with 60 total wins over the last 23 years.
Rahmer settled for second, with Glatfelter, 10th-starting Cory Haas, and Myers finishing third through fifth respectively.
Completing the top-10 were 15th-starting Danny Dietrich, Campbell, Kyle Moody, Adam Wilt, and Alan Krimes.
Heats for the 22 410 Sprints were won by Fisher, Myers, and Campbell.
Rains arrived on lap 8 of the 358 sprint car feature, postponing the remaining 13 laps until Saturday, September 15th.
At the time the rain began to fall, halting the 20-lap feature after seven laps were in the books, sixth-starting Tyler Walton had just taken the lead from Chris Frank who had taken the lead form polesitter Brett Strickler on the second lap.
The top-10 running order behind Walton and Frank when the race was halted included Kody Hartlaub, Kyle Denmyer, Strickler, Brett Shearer, Troy Wagaman, Jr., Hank Donovan, Jr., Travis Scott, and Matt Findley.
Heats for the 23 358 Sprints were won by Tyler Ross, Hartlaub, and Wagaman.
The final event of the evening, the 20-lap street stock feature, was also curtailed due to rain and could not be rescheduled on any of the remaining dates this season. To compensate, the special increased street stock purse for the evening by sponsor Pam Madden of P. Madden Accounting & Taxes was evenly divided to all 18 cars that qualified for the feature ($180 each).
Heats for the 20 Street Stocks were won by Jason Townsend and Ryan Smith.
Next Saturday night, August 25th, The ALL-STAR CIRCUIT OF CHAMPIONS come to Lincoln Speedway to take on the PA Posse and are joined by the Central PA Legends. Competition Pit gates will open at 5 PM, Spectator Pit Admission & General Admission gates will open at 5:30 PM. Hot laps will get underway at 7 PM, followed by time trials at 7:30 PM.
Lincoln Speedway
Abbottstown, PA
Saturday August 18, 2018
Winged 410 Sprint Cars
410 Sprint Heat One Finish (10 laps) – 1. 21T-Scott Fisher; 2. 21-Brian Montieth; 3. 88-Brandon Rahmer; 4. 39-Cory Haas; 5. 87-Alan Krimes; 6. 11-Greg Plank; 7. 2W-Glenndon Forsythe; 8. 99M-Hank Donovan, Jr. Time – 2:27.459
410 Sprint Heat Two Finish (10 laps) – 1. 19-Landon Myers; 2. 69-Tim Glatfelter; 3. 99M-Kyle Moody; 4. 59-Jim Siegel; 5. 1X-Chad Trout; 6. 55-Robbie Kendall; DNS – 3B-Randy Baughman. Time – 2:25.740
410 Sprint Heat Three Finish (10 laps) – 1. 16-Matt Campbell; 2. 73B-Brett Michalski; 3. 15-Adam Wilt; 4. 51-Freddie Rahmer; 5. 48-Danny Dietrich; 6. 4R-Chase Dietz; 7. 1*-Tim Wagaman (DNF). Time – 2:27.286
410 Sprint Feature Finish (25 Laps) – 1. 21-Brian Montieth; 2. 51-Freddie Rahmer; 3. 69-Tim Glatfelter; 4. 39-Cory Haas; 5. 19-Landon Myers; 6. 48-Danny Dietrich; 7. 16-Matt Campbell; 8. 99M-Kyle Moody; 9. 15-Adam Wilt; 10. 87-Alan Krimes; 11. 59-Jim Siegel; 12. 88-Brandon Rahmer; 13. 1X-Chad Trout; 14. 55K-Robbie Kendall; 15. 4R-Chase Dietz; 16. 2w-Glenndon Forsythe; 17. 21T-Scott Fisher; 18. 1*-Tim Wagaman; 19. 73B-Brett Michalski; 20. 11-Greg Plank; 21. 99M-Hank Donovan, Jr. (DNF); DNS – 3B-Randy Baughman. Time – 6:22.068
Lap Leaders – Landon Myers (1-3), Brian Montieth (4-25)
358 Sprint Cars
358 Sprint Heat One Finish (10 laps) – 1. 41B-Tyler Ross; 2. 21-CJ Tracy; 3. 28-Matt Findley; 4. 38D-Kyle Denmyer; 5. 44-Dylan Norris; 6. 5A-Zachary Allman; 7. 89-Ashley Cappetta; 8. 34-Mark VanVorst. Time – 2:27.65
358 Sprint Heat Two Finish (10 laps) – 1. 11D-Kody Hartlaub; 2. 14T-Tyler Walton; 3. 38-Brett Strickler; 4. 6M-Hank Donovan, Jr.; 5. 2D-Aaron Spahr; 6. 66A-Cody Fletcher; 7. 5T-Travis Scott; 8. 59-Steve Wilbur. Time – 2:28.19
358 Sprint Heat Three Finish (10 laps) – 1. 19-Troy Wagaman, Jr.; 2. 12-Brent Shearer; 3. 97-Brie Hershey; 4. 00-Chris Frank; 5. 50-Alyson Dietz; 6. 66-Jeff Halligan (DNF); 7. 44-Dave Brown (DNF). No Time
358 Sprint Feature Running Order (7 Laps/To Be Completed Sept. 15th) – 1. 14T-Tyler Walton; 2. 00-Chris Frank; 3. 11D-Kody Hartlaub; 4. 38D-Kyle Denmyer; 5. 38-Brett Strickler; 6. 12-Brett Shearer; 7. 19-Troy Wagaman, Jr.; 8. 6M-Hank Donovan, Jr.; 9. 5T-Travis Scott; 10. 28-Matt Findley; 11. 41B-Tyler Ross; 12. 44-Dylan Norris; 13. 21-CJ Tracy; 14. 50-Alyson Dietz; 15. 89-Ashley Cappetta; 16. 5A-Zachary Allman; 17. 34-Mark VanVorst; 18. 59-Steve Wilbur; 19. 2D-Aaron Spahr.
Lap Leaders – Brett Strickler (1), Chris Frank (2-6), Tyler Walton (7)