BUFFALO TWP— Let the countdowns begin.

Ed Lynch Jr. christened the 42nd season of racing at Lernerville Speedway Friday night by picking up his 94th career Sprint feature win at the Sarver track.

Lynch became the first driver to reach victory lane this season when he passed pole-sitter Bob Felmlee on the back straightaway of the 12th lap and cruised to victory.

Lynch is trying to become the third driver to secure 100 feature wins in a single division in Lernerville history. Bob Wearing Sr. has 117 and Lynn Geisler 107 in the Late Model division.

Terry Young of Butler ended the evening by picking up his first Lernerville feature victory — leaving him 99 shy of 100 — taking the checkered flag in the Street Stocks event.

Both drivers talked about getting monkeys off their backs.

"It feels good to get the monkey off early,"Lynch said. "This is nice."

"I'm glad to finally get rid of it,"Young said. "It was getting kinda heavy."

Young has been in the Street Stock division for five years at Lernerville and had to endure some anxious moments before realizing victory Friday.

Lynch?Not so much.

The Apollo driver of the No. 2Lstarted the Sprint feature fourth, moved into second by the fourth lap and quickly got on Felmlee's tail.

Both drivers maneuvered through lapped traffic, with Lynch tailing Felmlee for three laps before getting around him.

"I was smiling the entire time,"Lynch said of the chase. "When you know you have the faster car, you use patience. And when the opportunity comes, you take it."

That opportunity came when Felmlee's car got loose on the back straightaway of the 12th lap.

"I'm not sure what happened there,"Felmlee said. "I know my car was too loose. Ed had the better set-up.

"This is Lynch-ville, after all. I'll take this (second place). I've got a new car and we're still trying to figure it out. We'll get faster."

When Felmlee's car fishtailed, Lynch zipped past him.

"He zigged, so I zagged and went the other way,"Lynch said. "That's the advantage of running second."

Young started the Street Stock feature from the ninth position. He worked his way through the field and finally passed leader Tim Bish of Ringgold off Turn 2 on the 17th lap.

Cruising toward victory, Young was dismayed when the red flag came out with less than a lap to go. Bish's engine had caught fire.

"I didn't know what to think when I saw flames shooting up by the flag stand," Young said.

The 20-lap feature became 21, but Young held off Paul Schreckengost to attain career win No. 1.

"I was running second and the leader (Bish) got pinned behind lapped traffic,"Young said. "I took advantage of it."

Rain fell during the Modified feature and only eight of the 21 cars to start the race finished. Brian Swartzlander of Leechburg grabbed his 61st career Lernerville Modified feature win, tying Blackie Watt for third on the track's all-time list.

Swartzlander got the lead when he came into contact with race leader Chad Brachman off Turn 3 of the 16th lap.

"I didn't mean to bump him,"Swartzlander said. "I don't race that way. I thought I had a wheel up on him and when I slid up, I couldn't stop and came into him.

"The track was rough out there tonight."

Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills won the Late Model feature, getting past pole-sitter Dave Hess Jr. on Turn 1 of the 17th lap.

Notes:there were 85 cars in the pits. ... Todd Bachman of Natrona Heights picked up his first checkered flag in a Late Model heat race. ... Sprinters Scott Bonnell and Dan Shetler flipped their cars during the start of the Sprint feature. Neither was hurt. ... Brian Sadler flipped his Modified car on the 15th lap of the Modified feature and was unhurt. ... Points racing begins next Friday.