KRIMES WINS RACE, MONTIETH CLAIMS FIRST TRACK TITLE IN LINCOLN 410 SPRINTS
Aug 31, 2008, 01:49

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ABBOTTSTOWN, PA , 8/30/08 - There’s a new track champion at Lincoln Speedway.

And the driver known as "the Edge" did it without a single win in 2008. Brian Montieth capped off his championship season with a fourth-place finish in Saturday night’s 25-lap 410 sprint car feature Saturday night.

Though he has not yet visited victory lane this season, Montieth’s fourth-place finish was his ninth top five finish and 19th top ten finish of ‘08.

It was a rough night for the four drivers still in points contention for the Lincoln title. Montieth was the only driver who finished high enough in his heat to gain a handicapped spot at the front of the feature field, and he started tenth. Both 1996 champ Cris Eash and 10-time track champ Fred Rahmer qualified in their heats, but missed the handicapping and started 16th and 19th, respectively. Niki Young finished fifth in the consolation event and missed qualifying by one spot. But he made the field when Pat Cooper scratched from the feature.

A flip by sixth-starting Chad Jumper in turn two of the opening lap also took out the YTI Career Institute #25 of Chad Layton and damaged the sprinter of defending champ Rahmer. Several other cars went to the pits during the red, including Young. Rahmer was able to report out before the race re-started, and started in the exact same 19th starting spot.

Once the race got underway, Mechanicsburg’s Bill Stine took the lead and paced the field the first eight laps before doing a wheelie exiting turn four and collecting the Pearl Technologies #9 of Craig Keel, who was setting up for the pass and struck the inside front stretch guardrail. Keel was done for the night, and Alan Krimes, who started sixth after the initial red flag, assumed the runner-up spot.

Krimes made quick work of Unlimited Fencing #71X on the restart, grabbing the lead on the restart and leading the rest of the way. For Krimes, is was his second win of the year and the sixth of his Lincoln career.

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The 87 landed in victory lane 2 Saturdays ago. Krimes’ bid for back-to-back wins was delayed due to violent thunderstorms, last Saturday. Let’s first rewind to Saturday, April 19th. From the seventh starting position, in his heat, Alan pushed the 87 to the second qualifying spot. The heat race was definitely prophetic of the night’s feature. Krimes took the green flag in ninth position and wasted no time working his way through the field. On lap-6, the 87 dove under the Brian Leppo machine to secure the early lead. From that point “He Gone,” was not just a catch phrase, Krimes checked-out from the field time-and-time again, enduring several cautions and restarts. It was a dominating performance from start to finish, in a seemingly ageless ride.


Now skip back to this past weekend. The afore mentioned ageless 87, powered its way past 4 cars to take the checkered flag in heat #2, leaving the 51 of Fred Rahmer and Cory Haas’s 11C half of a track behind, for second and third respectively. What started out to be another fantastic night for Krimes, ended early, thanks to Mother Nature. With qualifying already completed last Saturday, Lincoln Speedway was pounded by rain, hail, and lightening. The 410 sprinters never made it out onto the track. A tentative date, of May 10th, has been set for the make-up feature to be run, but no line-up has been determined thus far. Visit www.lincolnspeedway.com to stay updated on the date and time for the make-up feature.