Sometimes, it’s just your night. And race number two of Pennsylvania Speedweek belonged to Alan Krimes at Lincoln Speedway Saturday night.
Krimes turned fourth-quick time and finished fourth in his heat. Both Stevie Smith and Fred Rahmer finished in to top two of their heat, putting Krimes into the inversion for the feature. When Smith picked pill number four for the inversion, Krimes found himself on the pole for the “A” Main.
And he didn’t waste the opportunity, outrunning 168-time Lincoln winner and 13-time Speedweek champion Rahmer to the first turn and leading every lap of the 30-lap, $5,000-to-win event for his third Lincoln win of the year.
Lapped traffic also played into his favor in the feature.
“I was pretty good on the top early,” said Krimes upon exiting his Conestoga Valley Garage/Krimes Racing Engines #87 in victory lane, ‘And then that yellow came out and I wasn’t as good on the top. I kinda stayed up there, but once I got around lapped cars that were running the bottom I moved down, and I felt a little bit better down there.”
The bottom was where Rahmer was running, and although he couldn’t catch Krimes, he did complete a solid run to continue his string of top ten finishes in every race he’s run this year. Krimes’ final margin of victory in his 13th career Lincoln win was 3.28 seconds.
“If Stevie and Rahmer don’t finish first or second in their heat, we have no chance,” continued Krimes, “I knew it was gonna be tough to run first or second in our heat with Siegel and Lasoski and Hodnett all ahead of us. I’ve never been more happy to see Fred Rahmer finish second in his heat! I was sitting in the car getting ready to go out for our heat, and they told me he got second…and then he was back to third…and then he got Marks back, and I was pretty happy in the car.”
Third through fifth were Stevie Smith, Brian Montieth, and 16th-starting Lance Dewease, who caught Adam Wilt as the two passed under the white flag. Seventh through tenth behind Wilt were Sam Hafertepe, Jr., Brent Marks, 21st-starting Cory Haas, and Jim Siegel.
Heats for the Sprinters were won by Montieth, Wilt, Danny Dietrich, and Siegel, with Nicole Bower winning the B-Main.
Fast time in time trials over the 36-car field was set by Stevie Smith with a one-lap time of 13.251-seconds (101.879 MPH).