By NICK SCHWIEN

nschwien@dailynews.net

JUNCTION CITY -- It might have been the longest race of his career.

Well, it seemed that way to him.

But that's what happens when you have the luck Corey Lutters has had this season in the United Rebel Sprint Series 305 sprint cars circuit.

But at the end of what seemed like the longest race of his life was something Lutters had waited for even longer -- a win.

That first URSS feature victory came Friday night at Junction City's Whiskey Lake Raceway.

"I swear that race must have been 65 laps long," Lutters joked. "I was thinking, 'I've got a shot at this thing, throw the white (flag).' "

Finally, the white flag flew, then the checkered flag -- and Lutters' dry spell without a win, and actually finishing a feature race, was finished.

"I kept thinking, 'Don't screw up,' " said Lutters, who grew up in Ransom and now lives in Kansas City, Kan. "I was just concentrating on doing what I had done the lap before."

The victory came after another rough start. Lutters' brakes broke during mud laps, continuing his trend of bad luck that plagued him all season long.

He damaged his car at RPM Speedway on June 6, ending his run in the feature race just laps after it began.

Then the next night, he broke the rear end at Oberlin -- ending another night early.

So he was down on his luck and ready to leave after the bad luck continued in mud laps.

"I was ready to load it on the trailer and call it a night," Lutters said. "Thank goodness we didn't."

Lutters got help from fellow drivers to get things fixed -- and the help of some baling wire, too -- and finished second to Paul Flynn in his heat race.

"He set sail," Lutters said about Flynn. "He's fast. He was off like a rabbit after that."

But all of Lutters' bad luck helped him get a front-row starting spot for the feature because of a bad point average in URSS races this season.

That left Lutters trying to hold off the rest of the field for the entire feature race -- which he was able to accomplish.

"I was just kind of waiting," he said. "It was nerve-racking being up front. I just concentrated and tried to drive the same line I had been driving."

It worked to perfection -- and the race ended just in time, too.

"I drove into (turns) one and two and ran out of fuel," Lutters said. "I was shouting and screaming and banging on the dashboard. I was pumped."

He coasted to a stop of the backstretch, still excited about his win.

But he wasn't the only one.

"I was pretty excited about it," Lutters said. "Then I could hear my wife (Jen) in the grandstands on the backstretch."

His wife, a Hays native, was helping score the race and had a perfect view of her husband's first win. Then she made a beeline to the winner's circle to pose with her husband for pictures as the car got a push.

"It definitely puts a little spring in your step," Lutters said. "Now when I go out and work on stuff, it's a lot more fun."