EVANS CITY— Winning go-kart races has become old hat for Brandon Spithaler.

The 15-year-old Butler sophomore has compiled 27 feature victories in 99 races since racing — and winning — his first kart feature in 2003 at Slippery Rock Speedway.

He's finished among the top three in nearly 74 percent of his kart races.

Now Spithaler's strapping himself into a bigger vehicle against bigger competition. He will compete in the Limited Sprint division on Saturday nights at Sharon Speedway.

"We figured we were headed for another year of kart racing,"said Frank Spithaler, Brandon's father, car owner and crew chief. "Then I got a call in January telling me Sharon was lowering its age limit for Limited Sprints from 16 to 14."

Brandon Spithaler turns 16 in August.

The call to his father came from Guy Griffin, the promoter of Limited Sprint racing at Sharon. Nextel Cup driver Dave Blaney, whose family owns and operates the track, started that division in 2004 as a way for drivers to grow accustomed to racing a Sprint car.

The regular Sprint car has a 410 cubic inch, 800 horsepower engine. A Limited Sprint car has a 327 cubic inch, 450 horsepower engine.

"The Limited Sprints still turn a lap faster than a Late Model,"the elder Spithaler said. "Only the budget is maybe a quarter of that of a regular Sprint car."

Upon learning of the age-limit change, Spithaler bought a Sprint car from Bob Crawford — a car previously driven by Jimmy Hawley — and went to work on it with his son.

"I told him racing isn't just getting into the seat on race day,"Spithaler said. "You'll have to work on the car with me."

And he has.

Living with his mother in Connoquenessing, Brandon Spithaler visits his father three nights a week, at least two of which are spent working on the car.

Now, Spithaler's silver No. 22 car is ready to roll for the opening night of racing Saturday.

"My main goal is to keep the car in one piece,"the younger Spithaler said. "I don't want to break anything we spent all winter putting together.

"While I'm on the track, I have to race as if all of the parts on this car were free. The key is making smart choices out there."

Sharon Speedway had about 12 Limited Sprint cars in its field last year. Spithaler will be the youngest driver in the division by far. No other driver in the division is younger than his mid-20s.

"That doesn't bother me,"he said. "I'll run as fast as I can, win a feature if I'm able to, do the best I can in points and have fun."

Veteran Sprint car driver Ralph Spithaler is Frank's cousin, but Brandon's race team has received the most help from Mike Kekich, a Sprint driver at Sharon.

"We saw Mike at the kart races all the time because his son, Adam, raced in the same division as Brandon,"Frank Spithaler said. "He's been a big help to us.

"I've never raced myself. I spend my spare dimes toward Brandon's hobby, and I've been enjoying it just as much as he does."

While the elder Spithaler never was a race driver, he has been a race fan all his life. His son grew up in the same mold.

"(Brandon) has been going to the track since he was 3 months old,"said Paula Jordan, Frank's wife. "It's in his system."

Brandon admitted his dream has always been to race a Sprint car.

"I just never thought it would happen this soon,"he said. "My ultimate dream is to race in a 410 Sprint car in Central Pennsylvania, because that's where we went to watch racing when I was younger."

Brandon said he's not through with kart racing just yet.

"The Sprint season ends a month before karts do, so I'll run some more kart races toward the end of the season," he said.

Besides running for points at Sharon, Spithaler will participate in a Limited Sprint race July 3 at Tri-City Speedway and at an event at Raceway 7 in June.