EVANS CITY — Nobody could have expected this.

Brandon Spithaler and his father and crew chief, Frank, certainly didn’t.

Spithaler, 22, of Evans City entered this racing season having never won a feature at Lernerville Speedway. He had rarely had a good run at the Sarver oval.

“We dreaded coming here,” Frank Spithaler admitted. “We never seemed to be able to figure this place out.”

The Spithaler race team — also consisting of engine owner Tom Burkey and Rich McConnell — exited the Fab Four racing season as Lernerville’s Sprint points champion.

Spithaler wound up with 404 points, beating out Brandon Matus by 10 points and Sarver’s Carl Bowser — the 2011 champion — by 16.

“That last race night (Aug. 30) was all about the points for us,” Brandon said. “All I wanted was to secure enough points to win that championship.

“It’s huge for me. It’s a big accomplishment for our race team. A lot of drivers have won points titles at Lernerville and gone on to do great things. I want to become one of them.”

Spithaler finished fourth in the feature Aug. 30, his eighth top-five finish of the season. No other driver in the Sprint division had more.

The consistency enabled Spithaler to claim the points crown despite winning just one Lernerville feature all season.

“I would have liked to have won more. We came close a couple of times, but I’ll take this,” Spithaler said. “We improved the set-up as the year went on and figured some things out.”

Spithaler becomes the second youngest driver to win the Sprint title at Lernerville. Danny Holtgraver was 20 when he won the crown in 2010.

The Spithalers had not planned on racing for points at Lernerville this season. Brandon also has the lead in the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series (BOSS) wingless points race with three race nights remaining.

“The BOSS series was first on our list because that’s Tom Burkey’s car and he put the engine in our 410 Sprint,” Frank Spithaler said. “I actually prefer the wingless series because I think it emphasizes more driver ability.”

Burkey, from Ohio, met Spithaler when they pitted alongside each other at the Chili Bowl race in Tulsa, Okla., in 2009.

“He was impressed with Brandon, watched him race a few times, and we eventually teamed up,” Frank Spithaler said.

“Without Tom’s help, I’d be watching the races like everybody else,” Brandon said.

A BOSS wingless race was scheduled in Wayne County, Ohio, on a Friday night this season and the Spithalers committed to going. Lernerville’s Fab Four race show happened to get rained out that evening.

“Had they run, we would have been out of the points race there,” Frank Spithaler said of Lernerville. “You need to get lucky sometimes in racing and we caught a break that night.”

Spithaler has 1,964 points in the BOSS series, leading Tony Beaber by 43 points and Mike Miller by 67. The three remaining races on the schedule are Sept. 28 at Pittsburgh Pa. Motor Speedway, Oct. 5 in Fremont, Ohio, and Oct. 12 at Eldora Speedway.

Spithaler won the Limited Sprints points title at Sharon Speedway in 2009 and was Rookie of the Year there in 2007. He won roughly 30 of 100 go-kart races from 2003-06.

He has only been racing a 410 Sprint car since 2010, but owns seven career feature wins at Mercer Raceway Park, including two wingless.

“I’ve gotten some lucky breaks, but hard work has been a big part of this, too,” Spithaler said. “My dad started taking me to Sprint car races when I was 3 or 4 years old.

“I’ve always wanted to race Sprints. I never considered another division.”

Next year, Spithaler hopes to race in more all-star events and do more traveling.

“We’re pretty proud of this,” Frank Spithaler said of the Lernerville points title. “Brandon was up against guys with two decades of experience and with better equipment in many cases.

“Our equipment is getting better and better. It’s not new stuff, but we’re competitive in that part of the game now. To pull this off ... it’s very rewarding.”