Each vote was predicting the day that Fred Rahmer would break the track's super sprint career victory mark of 150 wins.

On the other side, the man who holds that record was holding court beside his son's Race Against Abuse of Children Everywhere Foundation super sprint race hauler.

Among the handouts for fans were posters featuring not only the driver, Stevie Smith, but his crew chief and father, Steve, the holder of that Lincoln record for now.

With Rahmer only three wins away from surpassing a number which Smith has held since 1996, Smith is resigned to the idea that his standard will fall soon.

"I have other records. This is only one record," the New Oxford resident said. "I've got plenty of records at Lincoln. I've got records at the (Williams) Grove (Speedway). I won the most races in a row at the Grove. Nobody's beaten that yet either."

If Rahmer breaks the Lincoln victory record this year, he will have taken about 20 years to do what Smith achieved in less than 15.

Those 15 years provided plenty of memories for Smith, who continued to see fans last weekend who remembered those days of the "Black Bandit" No. 19.

"It just so happened I was good there. We had a lot of good luck there (at Lincoln)," Smith said. "I'm not going to sit there and cry when my record gets broke because they do get broke."

Instead, Smith clearly cherishes other memories at Lincoln, such as the night he won the wingless super sprint, winged super sprint and the late model features on the same night.

"That (150 wins) is not as important as some other stuff that's hard to do," Smith said. "I won four 15-lappers (in one night) starting from the rear. That's way harder to do. That was hard. I just barely made it on the last one."

These days, Smith is again trying to achieve something difficult because he is trying to both benefit his son's own racing career and the charitable group whose logo is on his car.

The crew chief said the RAACE Foundation team will likely compete in about 60 programs in 2007 as it continues to use the car to champion prevention against abuse of children.

"It's a sticky subject," Smith, who has learned much about child abuse through promotional appearances for the group, said, "A lot of people want to back away, but then others want to step up."

One of the latter is Smith's brother, Kenneth, a Baltimore resident and owner of a construction business who developed the foundation through work at his church and through friends also in the the construction business.

"He's into helping the kids and he made up his mind," Smith said. "He said, 'This is what we're going to do and how we're going to do it.'"

Racing is the vehicle to spread the message, but Smith said the foundation itself is not supporting the race team. Instead, any support is designated either for the team or the foundation.

"Whatever goes in the foundation is going to the kids," Smith said. "Racing people say, 'Well, I'm still helping the cause if I'm helping the race team out there.'"

The support has enabled Smith to return to a job, building engines, which he both loves and which supported his own racing career.

"We had Ingersoll (-Rand) and we had them (as a sponsor) for almost four years and they did a good job," Smith said. "We tried it (racing) the next year and we just about lost everything."

But after a year off, the foundation began to form and, with it, the revival of the Smiths' careers.

"The first year we came back, we were behind. Last year, we wasn't up to snuff on our motors, but we feel we're going to be a lot better the first time out (in 2007)," Smith said. "We're going to be challenging for some wins."

And that is what Smith's brother and the Smiths' fans will love to see.

"The whole thing in a nutshell is if you win, you're going to get more awareness," Smith said.

Chuck Curley is The Evening Sun sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].