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Sunday, May 05, 2002

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Sprint car racing has been a part of Lernerville Speedway since it opened in 1968 with Ralph Quarterson winning three of the first four track titles.

The division has continued to evolve through the years, with the drivers this season providing a mix of conservative veterans and hard-charging youth.

Through the first four weeks, a group of drivers who started racing sprint cars in the early 1980s has been leading the way.

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Ed Lynch Jr., who started in 1983, has two victories and Rod George, who started in 1984, has one.

Friday night, Jamie Smith joined the club, winning his first feature since the '98 season.

"Yeah, I'm slacking," said Smith, who started racing at Lernerville in 1985. "It's been too long. We've got a really good team this year, and I expect to be up there again before the year's over."

Pushing Smith for all 20 laps were runner-up Ralph Spithaler, who started in '82, and Lynch, who finished third.

They all agree the sport has changed since they first rolled out of the pits. The cars haven't changed, too much, but the motors, tires and wings have all improved. The access to quality equipment has also improved, meaning drivers with less experience have the ability -- for a price -- to race the same cars as the top drivers.

"From the mid-'80s to now, the cars are about 200 to 250 pounds lighter, the motors have gained about 200 to 250 horsepower, the tires and shocks and components of the race car have gotten better grip and also safer," said Lynch, who has 51 career victories at Lernerville. "Nowadays, you can just go into a parts store and buy Steve Kinser's race car."

A quality sprint car costs about $15,000 without a motor, which has doubled in price from about $20,000 to about $40,000 in the past 20 years.

"Years ago, it was a big deal to have two cars -- there were only about three teams locally that had two cars," Spithaler said. "Now, half the people here have two cars. It's almost more of a business than a sport. I know I can't run without a sponsor."

And with sponsor money in auto racing on the rise, inexperienced drivers can make a quicker impact.

"At one time, there were only a handful of guys that had real good equipment," Smith said. "Now, you've got a lot of guys with good equipment and they're also pretty decent drivers, so that puts any one of eight or 10 cars every night capable of winning. That's probably one of the bigger changes."

Because of the access to top equipment, Hawley believes newer drivers aren't necessarily forced into learning all the aspects of racing.

"I think they have a lot better equipment to start with, which, in a sense, makes it easier where you can be faster," he said. "But by starting out like we did, we didn't have the best of everything, we had to make due with what we had. I think that's where a lot of newer guys are losing the basis and the basics of setting up a race car and running it."

With experience comes patience, which George says is key to his style of driving.

"I got older and slower, but maybe a little bit smarter. I'm a lot more of a conservative racer than a lot of these guys are," he said. "I think the older guys definitely have a little bit more seat time and are a little bit smoother. Ed Lynch is the class of the field. He definitely has fantastic car control. The older guys understand the cars a little more. They're not conservative, just a little smoother driving.

"The guys who work on their cars are always going to be a little bit better."

In the other divisions Friday night at Lernerville: John Flinner held off Bob Wearing Jr. to win his second late model feature of the season; Kevin Bolland led all 20 laps of the modified feature for his second victory; and Chris Schneider started sixth in the pure stock race and charged to the front for his second win this season.

Beck gets first win

After coming close in the first three races this season, Tommy Beck finally earned his first career late model victory at Motordrome Speedway with a dominating performance in the Agway Energy Products 75.

Gary Scott and Mike Bakalon won modified features, George T. Nicola won the truck race and Todd Knight was the winner in pure stocks.

Chris Dolack can be reached at cdolack@post-gazette.com.