Saturday, November 23, 2019
LINCOLN SPEEDWAY
Abbottstown, PA
2019 LINCOLN SPEEDWAY CHAMPIONS, BRIAN MONTIETH AND DOUG HAMMAKER, HONORED AT AWARDS BANQUET
Saturday, February 22, 2020 (2PM) Ice Breaker 30 featuring 410 Sprint Cars
York, PA (November 23, 2019) – The 2019 Lincoln Speedway racing season officially came to a close on Saturday night with the annual awards banquet at the Wyndham Garden in York. Track champions and special award honorees were recognized along with the top 10 in points from both the 410 and 358 sprint car divisions.
GENE LATTE FORD TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE GOES TO MONTIETH
Brian Montieth claimed his eighth Lincoln Speedway track title in an exciting point battle that took the chase for the championship down to the last race. Going into the final point race of the 2019 season Montieth, Alan Krimes and Chad Trout were all mathematically in the picture for the championship. With Montieth’s third place finish on August 31 he was able to seal the deal and take home the title.
Montieth started off the season with a pair of top 10 finishes, opening his 2019 campaign with a sixth-place finish in the Ice Breaker. Brian followed up the Ice Breaker with a solid third place finish the next week.
After a solid start Montieth found himself with a 16th place finish to close out March. In a-typical fashion, Montieth did not find victory lane in March or April. Again, Brian started the month off strong with second and third place finishes to kick off April. While running the Sterner Cement #69 for the Weldon Sterner Memorial on April 20, Montieth finished 17th. Brian bounced back the following week with a fourth-place finish to close out April.
The first race of May was rained out but when racing picked back up on May 11, Montieth found victory lane for the first time in 2019. After a 21st place finish in the World of Outlaws Gettysburg Clash, Brian finished out May with his second win.
The month of June saw Montieth with a top 5 and a top 10 finish with two finishes outside of the top 10 leading up to PA Speedweek. The final race of June was Lincoln’s first of two Speedweek races, and it was an exciting, if not controversial, one. Montieth was leading, running a cylinder down, when Danny Dietrich tried a slide job for the lead and took them both out with only three laps to go.
Montieth rebounded two nights later with his fifth career PA Speedweek win. The rest of July Brian found himself with two finishes outside the top 10.
August was a good month for Montieth despite being kept out of victory lane. He scored three podiums with third place finishes in the DCS School of Driving Night, Valley Supply 30 and the Bob Leiby Memorial.
Montieth’s fourth and final win of the season was his biggest of the year. Brian claimed his second Dirt Classic with his Dirt Classic 6 win on September 21. Montieth closed out the 2019 season with another third-place finish in the Hank Gentzler Memorial. Montieth’s point title also won Scott Zellers Mechanic of the Year honors.
Overall Montieth had four wins, 14 Top 5 finishes and 16 Top 10 finishes in his Championship campaign.
After battling Montieth down to the wire for the track championship, Alan Krimes finished second in the season points standings after scoring two wins early in the season along with 10 top-5s and 19 top-10 finishes.
Coming off his most improved driver award in 2018, Chad Trout, was also in the mix for the points title going into the last race of the season. Trout would finish third with his first career PA Speedweek win under his belt. Trout racked up 7 top-5 and 15 top-10 finishes in 2019.
Completing the top five in points were Chase Dietz (8 top-5/14 top-10) who landed in victory lane for his fourth career win at the track in 2019 and Jim Siegel who was unable to score a win but had a consistent and successful year with 3 top 5 and 19 top 10 finishes.
Rounding out the top 10 in points were Brandon Rahmer (3 top-5/14 top-10); Tim Glatfelter (4 top-5/9 top-10); Glenndon Forsythe (2 top-5/9 top-10; Kyle Moody who had two wins in 2019 and could have easily been a factor in the championship battle if he had not lost time mid-season due to engine issues (5 top-5/14-top 10) and Freddie Rahmer who amassed four wins, 12 top-5s and 14 top-10 finishes while splitting his time on Saturday nights.
The 410 sprints rans 27 races in 2019 with 16 different winners and five first time winners [Brett Michalski, Jeff Halligan, Matt Campbell, Skylar Gee and Ryan Smith].
Receiving Rookie of the Year honors after making the jump from 358 to 410 Sprints in 2019 is Trey Hivner. Hivner had two top-10s and a one top-5 finish. Trey’s top-5 was a third-place podium finish on June 15 in the make-up feature from May 25.
Landon Myers’ Most Improved Driver campaign included three top-10s, a top-5 finish and 14th place in the point standings at the end of the season. Myers finished an impressive twelfth in the World of Outlaws Gettysburg Clash in May.
410 Special Awards
Rookie of the Year: Trey Hivner
Most Improved Driver: Landon Myers
Sportsmanship Award: Glenndon Forsythe
Mechanic of the Year: Scott Zellers
HAMMAKER SCORES SECOND CAREER LINCOLN 358 SPRINT TITLE
In his second career championship campaign at Lincoln, Doug Hammaker only finished outside the top-10 once in the 2019 season. Hammaker ended the year with 4 wins, 16 top-5s and 19 top 10s. His finish outside the top 10 was a 15th place finish in the second race of the season on March 30.
Along with his 15th place finish, Hammaker started off the season with a seventh-place finish in March.
The month of April Hammaker scored two fourth place finishes and two wins. Doug’s first win of the season came on April 13 and his second on April 27.
May brought rain and the 358-division had two races postponed to June. The lone race they did get in on May 11, Hammaker finished a solid second.
With two make up races from May, the 358 sprints ran six features in the month of June. Hammaker averaged a 3.5 finish across the six races, including a top-10 in the 358/360 Challenge race on June 8.
Hammaker scored three top-5 finishes in July which included a make-up feature from June.
August was another two-win month for Hammaker whose wins bookended the month on August 3 and August 31. Doug added two top-10 finishes to his tally in August as well.
Doug completed his championship run with two top-5 finishes in September; a second-place finish on September 14 and a fifth-place finish to end the season.
Matt Findley scored his second career win at Lincoln on September 14 on his way to a second-place finish in the season point standings. Findley also tallied 6 top-5 and 14 top-10 finishes in 2019. Cody Fletcher highlighted his third-place finish in points with his first career win at Lincoln during the May 4 make-up feature on June 1. In an impressive season, Fletcher scored 6 top-5 and 14 top-10 finishes. Young-gun, Dylan Norris, amassed 6 top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes in his fourth place point run. Completing the top five in points was another first-time winner in 2019, Ashley Cappetta. Cappetta scored her first Lincoln victory on August 10. Along with her win, Ashley had 4 top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes during her 2019 run.
Rounding out the top 10 in points were 2018 358 Champion, Troy Wagaman Jr. Wagaman matched Hammaker’s four wins and also scored 9 top-5 and 12 top-10 finishes in 2019. Wagaman likely would have been in contention for the championship but missed races when he was running his 410 sprint towards the end of the season. Tyler Ross racked up 1 win, 5 top-5 and 14 top-10 finishes in his seventh-place run. Mark VanVorst only missed two features the entire season to finish eighth in the final point standings. Zachary Allman finished ninth with 1 top-5, a second-place finish on April 20, and 3 top-10 finishes. Alyson Dietz had 1 top-5 and 5 top-10 finishes in 2019 to earn a tenth-place finish in the point standings.
There were 21 races run by the 358 sprints in 2019 with 12 different winners including four first-time winners [Cody Fletcher, Ashley Cappetta, Steve Owings and Jon Stewart].
Zachary Cool earned Rookie of the Year honors in the 358 sprint division. Cool placed in the top-10 twice in his rookie campaign in 2019. The future is bright for Cool who showed improvement throughout the season.
The Most Improved Driver in 358 sprint competition during 2019 was awarded to Zachary Allman. The highlight of Allman’s season was his podium finish in April. He also finished in the top-10 twice and was consistent throughout the season.
358 Special Awards
Rookie of the Year: Zachary Cool
Most Improved Driver: Zachary Allman
Sportsmanship Award: Wyatt Hinkle
A new award was implemented at the 2019 Awards Banquet, the Leiby Achievement Ward in memory of Bob Leiby. The first recipients of the award were Bobby & Lisa Leiby and Wanda & Don Leiby.
