ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. — Aaron Bollinger has been turning heads since his debut in the 410 sprint division last year at Lincoln Speedway.
The young driver put together a solid night to park his family-owned No. 16A sprint car in victory lane for the first time on Saturday night.
“I don‘t even know what to say. We just won a feature with the baddest race cars on the planet,” Bollinger said.
Making his first victory even sweeter is that it came on his father‘s birthday.
“It‘s just me and Dad in the garage. It‘s tough,” Bollinger said.
Bollinger held true to the promise he made to his dad, that he would win the race for his birthday. He also won the race without brakes.
“About five to go we blew every single brake pad out of this thing. Yeah, they blew out, I was nervous. We got it done and that‘s all that matters,” Bollinger said.
Brie Hershey started on the pole of the 30-lap feature with Chris Arnold lined up second.
Hershey and Arnold were wheel to wheel coming out of turn two with Hershey taking the advantage down the back stretch to lead lap one.
Jordan Givler fell off the pace on lap 2 but pulled into the infield preventing the yellow flag from coming out.
Scott Fisher, Matt Campbell and Bollinger battled for third behind the leaders with Campbell taking the spot on lap 4.
Bollinger got by both Fisher and Campbell on lap 5 to take third.
On lap 10 Bollinger took second from Arnold at the line.
Bollinger made quick work of reeling in Hershey and used the bottom of turns 3 and 4 to take the lead on lap 12.
Lapped traffic loomed in front of Bollinger at the half-way point of the race.
Cory Haas was working his way to the front of the field from his eighth starting spot. Haas was running fifth on lap 14.
Haas made it a three-car battle for third with Campbell and Arnold.
Bollinger was checked out from the rest of the field as plenty of battles for position waged on behind him. Haas tracked down Hershey for second and made the pass in turns three and four to take it with 10 laps to go.
Campbell followed and took third from Hershey as they raced down the back stretch on lap 22.
Brandon Rahmer by Hershey for fourth and brother Freddie Rahmer followed entering the top five with four laps to go.
Bollinger won his first career 410 feature by 2.814 seconds over Haas. Campbell crossed the line third. Freddie got by Brandon late in the race for fourth, with Brandon holding on to finish fifth.
In other action Saturday, Alex Bright triumphed in USAC East Coast Sprint Car Series action while Steve Buckwalter won the ARDC Midget feature.