BIRDSBORO, Pa. – If there was a uniform award for most-improved sprint car driver of the year in Central Pennsylvania, even on the national level perhaps, Aaron Bollinger deserves to be high among any list of possible candidates.
The 21-year-old just completed his second season in the Central Pennsylvania 410 ranks driving his family-owned No. 16A, a year in which Bollinger went from an onlooker to one of Lincoln Speedway’s weekly contenders.
During his first year in 2020, Bollinger failed to qualify for the main event in 11 of the 20 races he entered and never cracked the top 10. This year he won his first sprint car race, put it in the show 32 of 42 events and rattled off 10 top-10 finishes.
“I was happy with how it went,” Bollinger said of this past year. “I surprised myself this year. I think we had some good speed, at least. Something to work on this coming year.”
Bollinger considers himself to have just graduated from the freshman class.
He entered the sprint car scene with a splash, not with glitz or money, but through the plunge into sprint car racing’s deep end without the favored resources that helps drivers and teams better stay afloat.
Firstly, Bollinger had no sprint car experience before his debut race at Lincoln Speedway on May 25, 2020 – also Central Pennsylvania’s first sprint car event in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic conditions.
Bollinger had raced micro 600 sprint cars all his life, picking off 14 wins through the years at breeding grounds such as Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway – 30 minutes from his Birdsboro, Pa., home in Newmantown, Pa. – Path Valley (Pa.) Speedway and Action Track USA in Kutztown, Pa.
His family has owned Bollinger Septic Services for nearly three decades, inspecting septic systems and managing 100 portable toilets in the Northeast, and always wanted to venture into sprint car racing.
Exiting his teenage years, Bollinger wanted to take that next step into his 20s, and naturally he considered the 358 ranks for starters.
Central PA, on the other hand, was in the middle of revamping the division’s rules, and Bollinger didn’t know what that would look like for him and his fledgling, family-run sprint car team.
“I’m kind of glad we made the jump to the 410s,” Bollinger said. “I think if you can go to the 410 and adapt to it, it won’t be as difficult as trying to make the jump from the 358.”
Bollinger’s team is a team of three – he, his father and a family friend, all who never worked on a sprint car until 2020 – and a team housed in the Bollinger family two-car garage.
“It’s pretty crazy we can be somewhat, not even somewhat I’d say, competitive out of a garage,” Bollinger said. “It’s pretty crazy if you think about it.”
In 2020, the season distorted by COVID-19, Bollinger had an average finish of 16.8 in the nine features he qualified for.
He was dealt a rigid hand, too, with nine of those 20 opening events either nationally sanctioned or supplying car counts of 38 or more.
He also earned a Friday night ride at Williams Grove Speedway in John Westbrook’s No. 1w midway through the summer.
“This was a lot nicer,” Bollinger said of this past season. “We got laps under our belt, that’s when I got competitive. That’s when we found out what to do and we found our speed.”
Five races into the season, Bollinger’s eyes were opened to the requirements of winning a sprint car race from the proverbial sucker punch he received April 10 at Lincoln Speedway.
Bollinger, who was eight laps away from his first win, hopped the cushion in turn three, darted too far down the corner, and collided with second-running Chase Dietz.
“I’ll never forget that,” Bollinger said.
The week later, however, he completed his first top 10 run, and two weeks after that, his first top five. On June 5 at Lincoln, he made all the right moves from the fifth-starting spot for his first win.
“I’m kind of glad it happened the way it did there,” Bollinger said of his April 10 mishap. “I kind of learned from my mistake. I wish when I was leading that race, I would’ve stayed calm. I don’t know if I would have won, but I would have gotten second or third.
“That’s something I’ll always keep in mind. You got to stay calm, worst comes to worst, even if you get passed, at least you’ll get second or third and not wreck.”
Next year Bollinger intends to chase track titles at Williams Grove with Westbrook and at Lincoln with his family-owned No. 16A.
He is perfectly content in Central PA, thrilled with the idea of running 45-60 races around his family business and hopefully, one day, racing for championships while doing it.
“I’m excited to see what we can do,” Bollinger said. “[Westbrook] and I had some good speed in that car last year at some shows. I think based on what we learned last year, I think we should be pretty competitive this year.
“I do want to win a championship at some point, somewhere.”