EVANS CITY — The 2011 Sprint car racing season has already gone from gloomy to glory for Brandon Spithaler.

Spithaler, 19, of Evans City flipped his Sprint car March 12 at Lincoln Speedway in Central Pennsylvania.

“We got the car fixed up and ready for the test and tunes at Lernerville and Mercer the next weekend,” Spithaler said. “Then there was nowhere to race for a while.”

The weather finally broke last Saturday and Spithaler was among a 15-car Sprint field at Mercer Raceway Park.

He started third in the feature, but Butler’s Brian Ellenberger had the pole.

“Our equipment doesn’t match his,” Spithaler admitted. “He had the fastest car on the track.

“We pulled up alongside him on a couple of restarts, but we couldn’t get around him.”

Spithaler was running a solid second to Ellenberger when the latter’s left rear tire exploded, forcing Ellenberger’s car to back into the fence with three laps remaining.

Spithaler held the lead from there to find victory lane in one of Western Pennsylvania’s first races of the season. Bob Felmlee finished second and Carl Bowser of Sarver took third.

Spithaler won a race last season as well.

“All we’ve had are 20 career starts (in a 410 Sprint) and we’ve got two wins,” Spithaler said. “I’ll take that.”

Spithaler raced Limited Sprints at Sharon Speedway for three years before getting behind the wheel of his father’s (Frank Spithaler) Sprint last season.

Spithaler was 2007 Rookie of the Year at Sharon, finished second in Limited Sprint points in 2008 and claimed the points championship there in 2009.

Ohio resident Tom Burkey owns the motor in Spithaler’s car and also owns a Sprint car that Spithaler drives on occasion.

“We’re not racing for points anywhere this year,” Spithaler said. “I’ve got a lot to learn yet and we don’t want to run on the same track all of the time.”

Tri-City, Mercer, Pittsburgh Pa. Motor Speedway and Lernerville will be the tracks most frequented by the Spithaler team this season.

He plans on running at Lernerville and Mercer this weekend