EVANS CITY— Forget about adjustment time. Brandon Spithaler's time is now.

Spithaler, 15, of Evans City, won his first career Limited Sprint feature July 7 at Sharon Speedway and appears primed to win some more.

"Iwas driving better than my dad was setting it up,"Spithaler said of the family's No. 22 Sprint car. "But now I think we're caught up."

Frank Spithaler, Brandon's father, is the owner of the car and his son's crew chief.

"Our problem was that Brandon's body weight is about 100 pounds lighter than everyone else,"Frank Spithaler said. "That makes a big difference in a Sprint car.

"We weren't getting enough bite out of the turns. We had to adjust for that."

Since making the rear of the car lower and the front of the car higher, the Spithaler race team has become a force in the Limited Sprint division.

After a series of fifth-place finishes, Brandon Spithaler finished third in a feature. He was running second the following week and had a restart with six laps to go.

The car stalled on the restart, dropping him six car-lengths behind. He finished the race one length short of taking the checkered flag.

"That was a shame," his father said. "We were the fastest car that night."

They've been the fastest car since.

Spithaler broke through July 7 in a dominating fashion. He started on the pole for the feature and led the race throughout, reaching the finish line a straightaway in front of the second-place car.

"We had a good car and we won,"the younger Spithaler said. "We could see we were getting better from week to week.

Winning is nothing new for Spithaler. A go-kart racer from 2003-06, he won 28 percent of the features he started during that time — 27 of 99 — and won 55 of the 181 of his heat races.

Spithaler said he never expected to win a Sprint feature this year — but knew he could win.

"Once you win a race, it gives you that much more confidence that you can do it again,"he said. "I guess that's where I'm at right now. I know I can compete at this level."

By far, Spithaler is the youngest driver in the division. Two other drivers are in their low to mid-20s while everyone else is older still.

Yet Spithaler enters this weekend third in the points standings at Sharon. His 1,081 points trail Guy Griffin (1,210) and Eric Williams (1,125).

There are 10 regular drivers in the division at Sharon, which is the only dirt track in this region offering Limited Sprints on a weekly basis.

"The division is going to grow," Spithaler said. "A couple more cars are supposed to be joining us later this season and Tri-City Speedway is thinking about offering a series next year."

As the division grows, Spithaler figures to grow with it.

"Our goal this year was to win a feature and finish third in points,"his father said. "We're there right now. ... We've progressed quicker than expected. We've learned a lot."