SELINSGROVE - It was a victory that had been eluding Blane Heimbach for quite some time.
The Selinsgrove sprint car driver has 36 career wins at his hometown track and three championships in the 358 limited sprint cars. But, a 410 sprint car win had always been just out of reach for Heimbach.
Until Sunday afternoon.
Heimbach grabbed the lead from Greg Hodnett and powered away to the $4,000 win on a blustery season opener at the Snyder County track.
"This place has eluded me from a 410 win for a long time," said Heimbach. "I've either wrecked, crashed, burned, blown up tires - anything you can think of to not win a race here. Today, it happened. It's good to roll out of the gate nice and strong."
Heimbach started seventh in the main event as New York driver Justin Barger grabbed the early lead. The caution flew before one lap was completed when Pat Cannon's car stopped in turn two with front end damage.
Barger would grab the lead again on the second start over York's Greg Hodnett and Harrisburg's Chad Layton. Heimbach worked his way into the fourth spot as Barger increased his lead.
The caution flag flew again on lap nine when Brent Marks stopped with a flat right rear tire. Chad Kemenah also pitted at the time to change a flat.
Heimbach took third from Layton on the restart. Barger began to slow with a flat tire on lap 13. This handed the lead to Hodnett for one lap before Heimbach drove inside of him entering turn one to take over the top spot.
"My car was really good, especially toward the middle of the race," said Heimbach. "I didn't expect it to be that good. We made a couple of minor adjustments after the heat race. I had a terrible first start. I'm glad that one came back. I got going on the next start. The car was working good."
Heimbach was leading by nearly two seconds when Hodnett's engine blew and he stopped in turn two.
Layton took a shot at the lead on the restart, but Heimbach was too strong. One more caution slowed the pace, but Heimbach pulled away to a 2.026 second win over Layton, Elizabethville's Mike Erdley, Mechanicsburg's Lucas Wolfe and Steve Buckwalter of Royersford, who started last.
"I gave it everything I had to try and get him on those restarts," said Layton. "I did my best, just came up a little short. Hats off to Blane, he's doing real well. I kept plugging away at it, but we had a second place racecar and that's the way it goes sometimes."
"I said to my guys today when we left the shop with the cold temperatures and windy and you never know what you're going to get, I said, 'if we come out of here with a top five and don't hurt a motor it would be a good day for us,'" said Erdley. "We need to be better. We're back on Pro Shocks and that has put some feel back in my car. We went the right direction all day, which we haven't done in a long time."
Erdley has a 31-race schedule put together for the season including all Saturday nights at Port Royal Speedway and all special 410 Sprint Car races at Selinsgrove. Erdley's car owner, Randy Lisi, is one of the longest standing car owners in the pit area at 14 seasons.
"He's had some staying power and we try not to use him up so he stays around," said Erdley. "Everybody's situation is different. My job is very demanding. I've got two kids. I don't do this for a living so I don't need to race 65 times a year. The abbreviated schedule is tough sometimes because I don't think you race enough to stay sharp. But, I've also had those years where I raced a lot and struggled and it gets to be like you're just going through the motions and that's no good either."
Robbie Stillwaggon, Rick Lafferty, Kemenah, Davie Franek and Ryan Wilson were in the top 10. Wolfe and JJ Grasso won heat races for a short 16-car field.
NOTES: On Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway, Gettysburg driver Danny Dietrich passed Brent Marks in lapped traffic and went on to score his first win of the season. Marks, Hodnett, Kyle Moody and Lance Dewease followed. Niki Young won the 358 limited sprint feature and J.R. Rodriguez won the 358 limited late model main event.
Williams Grove Speedway is set to open its 75th Anniversary season on Friday night and Port Royal Speedway is set to open its season on Saturday after three weather-related postponements already.