ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. — When it comes to the Pennsylvania Posse, Lance Dewease, with his National Sprint Car Hall of Fame status, is firmly seated on the throne. Anthony Macri, Danny Dietrich and Freddie Rahmer are next in hierarchy.
Then there are grinders such as Jimmy Siegel, who represent the heart of the fervent contingent with as much vigor as Dewease, Dietrich, Rahmer and Macri.
Siegel is a drafter at Conewago Enterprises Inc. in Hanover, Pa., and a loyal Saturday night racer at Lincoln Speedway. He doesn’t win in bunches nor grab headlines, mostly because all of his races the past two years have come at the three-eighths-mile clay oval in the Pigeon Hills.
But wins have been at his fingertips as of late, fueling Siegel’s spirit in advance of Saturday’s clash with the All Star Circuit of Champions. Those races are what Siegel lives for: an opportunity to match his frugal team against national-touring teams.
“Hopefully, we can get up front and defend our home track here,” said Siegel, who won a feature at Lincoln in March. “We have a lot of good cars coming in. ‘Sunshine,’ [Tyler Courtney], he’s tough.”
Siegel, whose dad Steve raced at Lincoln for decades, finished just short of his second win of the year Saturday night at Lincoln. He threw everything he had at winner Chase Dietz, but none of his slide jobs and bottom-groove charges prevailed.
He had a restart with five laps to go to overtake Dietz, but Dietz got the jump he needed while Siegel’s engine lagged behind, a hindrance Siegel is trying to fix.
“I think that was the difference,” Siegel said. “Once we get that tuned out of this thing, it runs really well. Newman’s Racing Engines, it just ripped all night. It just had a couple of stumbles on the starts. We’re going to get it.”
Nonetheless, it’s Siegel’s third top-10 in his last five races and second runner-up during that span. It’s a nice turnaround considering the previous five races he failed to crack the top-13.
“I think we’re getting closer,” said Siegel. “We had a really bad slump there for a while. I feel like we’re starting to get it figured out.“We have to get better at time trials,” he added. “We’ve been close, but not good enough. I feel like, Pennsylvania Speedweek format, we often start on the front row of the heat, which is always nice. We need to get better. We’ve been working on that.”
Since Lincoln uses a handicap system, basically inverting the field from the week prior to set heat race lineups, Siegel resorts to warmups to work on qualifying.
He put down the second-fastest lap in the session on Saturday and hopes those metrics translate to the start he desires this weekend.
“Even if we don’t time the best, it’s always fun to try at least,” Siegel said. “I’m looking forward to it.”