BUFFALO TWP - Jack Sodeman Jr. wasted no time grabbing the lead. But he knew he couldn't hold it.

The Butler driver of the No. 49 Sprint car started the feature in the second row Friday night at Lernerville Speedway, but he quickly jumped the two cars ahead of him and led before the first lap was over.

Sodeman Jr. - who has never won a Lernerville feature - maintained that lead through restarts on the third, fourth and eighth laps.

But Ed Lynch Jr., who started fifth, pulled into the second spot by the sixth lap.

"When Eddie's chasing you, your car better be right and mine wasn't," Sodeman said. "It was way, way too loose.

"I felt good through 10 laps. By the 15th, I was wondering if I had enough to finish."

Lynch grabbed the lead on the second turn of the 13th lap, extended it during a 16th-lap restart and cruised to the finish line. It marked the fifth successive opening night win for Lynch at Lernerville.

He also extended his track career Sprint car victory record to 75.

"He (Sodeman) had the preferred line, so I kept looking for something else," Lynch said. "Sooner or later, I found it and got around him.

"It's always good to win on opening night. You want that first one. It gets the monkey off your back right away."

Sodeman tried giving Lynch a challenge on that 16th-lap restart, "but it wasn't there. I had nothing left," he said.

Sodeman, who is in his 12th year of Sprint racing, has won features at eight different tracks, but he has never won at Lernerville, but has finished second here four times.

In other Lernerville features Friday night, Allan Dellinger of Hermitage won his first career Late Model race here, Todd Burley of Spenserport, N.Y., won the Modified race in his first-ever appearance here and Rob Shook of Creighton won in Pure Stocks.

David Scott had won four of the previous five Lernerville opening night Late Model features, but this was Dellinger's night. After finishing third in the Modified feature, he grabbed the lead in the sixth lap of the Late Model race and held it the rest of the way.

"I wanted to get the car as tight as I could to fit this track tonight, but you still have to be able to turn the car," Dellinger said.

Dellinger has won four Lernerville features in his career: one each in Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, E-Modifieds and now Late Models.

Burley has won more than 60 features in a lengthy career, but he plans to run at Sharon Speedway on a regular basis.

Starting sixth, Burley took the lead from Kevin Bolland on a 19th-lap restart and outraced him to the checkered.

The 19th-lap restart took place three times before no other cars spun out.

"I felt like I had him each time," Burley said. "He (Bolland) kept trying different things and I had to guess what he was going to try next.

"He stuck ever so slightly in the second turn after that last restart and I had him."

"For the first night, though, I'll take this," Bolland said. "Those guys (Burley's team) have been racing since February. They raced down in Florida, so they're a little ahead of the game."

Bolland won four Modified features at Lernerville to lead all drivers last year. He has been driving the same car for the past three seasons and will debut a 2005 car in a few weeks.

Bolland has won 32 features over three years in his current car.

Brian Swartzlander had won four of the past six opening night Modified features at Lernerville. He finished fifth Friday.

Shook became the ninth different Pure Stock driver in as many years to win on opening night at the Sarver track. He took the lead from Scott Bocheck on the 13th lap.

Bocheck was bidding for his 30th career Pure Stock feature win here. He is No. 1 on the track's all-time victory list in that division.

Notes:

There were 118 cars in the puts, including 35 Late Models and 34 Pure Stocks. … Tom Winkle of Mars led the Modified feature during laps 2 through 14. … Fab Four points racing begins next Friday.