LOGAN ROBERSON WITHSTANDS CHALLENGES FROM JEREMY WONDERLING TO WIN THE 1ST EVER HOVIS RUSH LATE MODEL FLYNN’S TIRE TOUR RACE AT LAND OF LEGENDS

By Mike Leone

 

September 10, 2022               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

(Canandaigua, NY)...The Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Dirt Late Model Series presented by Born2Run Lubricants trekked north to Land of Legends Raceway on Saturday night.  Last year’s “Full Fender Frenzy” marked the first time a RUSH-sanctioned event had ever been run at the formerly known Canandaigua Speedway, and while the RUSH Late Models returned to the event for the second straight year on Saturday night it was the first ever Flynn’s Tire Touring Series event at the half-mile oval. 

 

Making nearly an eight-hour tow from his home in Waynesboro, Virginia, Logan Roberson passed Matt Latta on lap two and fended off the strong challenges by hard charging, three-time Touring Series Champion Jeremy Wonderling to win the 30-lap, $3000 feature on a fast and heavy surface.  After going nearly three months between victories, it was Roberson’s second straight Tour win, both coming on half-mile tracks, and his fifth Flynn’s Tire Tour win of the year.

 

“That was probably one of the hardest ones I’ve had to fight for in a long time,” acknowledged the 24-year-old Touring Series point leader.  “Jeremy (Wonderling) raced me super clean and I really appreciate that.  He got to my bumper about halfway through the race and stayed there a long time.  If I would have messed up a little more he would have definitely won the race.  I was actually dangerous with those lapped cars and knew I was a sitting duck with Jeremy on me.  When you get a hole you have to shove it in there and go on with it.  Jeremy is good and has won about everything up here so I knew if there was a hole he’d use it.  I do have to apologize to my buddy Ashton Briggs for getting into him there at the end.  The track ended up widening out a little bit so all in all it was a good night.  We have a bad ass race car right now.”

 

An opening lap accident in turn one collected six local New York racers including 2017 Tour Champion Bryce Davis and last year’s “Full Fender Frenzy” winner Chris Fleming.  It was a rough night for Davis, who also got tangled up with Roberson on the opening lap of his heat race from the pole position.  Davis was selected as the TBM Brakes “Tough Brake of the Night” recipient. 

 

When racing resumed, Matt Latta took off in the lead fresh off his first Sunoco Dash win of the season with Roberson in tow, while David Pangrazio passed Chad Homan for third.  Virginia driver Russell Erwin, Jr. was making his first ever RUSH start behind the wheel of central New York racer Mike Kazmierczak’s #118, but lost the handle in turn two while running in eighth to bring out the caution with just one lap scored.  It was the last stoppage of the event as final 29 laps went green-to-checkered.

 

When racing resumed for the final time, Roberson made the outside work grabbing the lead from Latta, while Jeremy Wonderling and Joe Martin moved past Homan for fourth and fifth respectively.  Sixth starting Wonderling was halfway to the front when he slipped under Pangrazio for third on lap four and quickly caught Latta.  Wonderling got under Latta racing off turn four to steal second on lap five.  Martin then drove around Pangrazio for third on lap six. 

 

By the time Wonderling got to second, Roberson had a fairly comfortable lead, but that gap closed each and every lap and by lap 11, Wonderling was right on the leader.  After slipping back to fifth, Pangrazio was able to pass both Martin and Latta for third on lap 14. 

 

On several occasions throughout the second half of the event, Wonderling was all over the back bumper of Roberson especially off turn four and down the frontstretch, but Roberson was better getting through turns one and two.  Once Roberson’s drifted high in turn four on a couple occasions, which nearly allowed Wonderling to get by, Roberson moved down in turn four to stop Wonderling’s advances.  Roberson drove a great race through traffic lapping all but positions two through nine and got away from Wonderling in the closing laps to take the checkered flag first for his eighth career RUSH Tour win by 1.315 seconds in his Gunter's Honey/Clary's Used Cars/RBS Auto/All About Wraps-sponsored #17.

 

Wonderling matched his season’s best Tour effort with his second runner-up in the last three races for his sixth top five of the season, worth $1,500.  “Racing with Logan (Roberson) is always a lot of fun,” expressed the 42-year-old Wellsville, NY standout.  “I could get a real good run on him coming out of two, but the way the race track was you really didn’t dare race side-by-side going down into (turns) three and four.  Unless I could get alongside of him down the frontstretch, there really wasn’t much I could do.  He did what he had to do and always does.  We had a lot of problems in the dash and I really don’t want to comment on that.  Logan helped me out a ton as did Latta and Martin’s crews.  Everyone that runs the RUSH Tour races each other with as much respect as they can.  What’s nice about these races is most guys pull together and are here for the sport and have fun.”

 

Pangrazio matched his career best Tour finish of third from July 19, 2018 at Genesee Speedway.  “We were pretty good but it would have been nice to be a little better in the dash,” stated the 23-year-old Elba, NY driver.  “Third place- we’ll take it.  We needed some more laps.  Experience at this place is big.  Getting through the corners is different because it’s so big.  We could work on that a little bit, but other than that it was a good night.”

 

Martin was fourth for his ninth top five of the season and 12th top 10.  Homan, who has nine RUSH Weekly Series wins in 2022, completed the top five.  Latta dropped to sixth for his seventh top 10 of the season with four of them being sixth place efforts.  Jason Knowles beat out his brother Brian for seventh; however, Brian earned a $50 Precise Racing Products gift card for being the hard charger.  Erwin came back to finish ninth as the last car on the lead lap.  Brady Wonderling was 10th. 

 

Martin earned his third $100 FK Rod Ends “Shock the Clock” award of the season by setting fast time in qualifying with a lap of 18.327 beating out Davis by just 0.005 and Latta by 0.048 seconds!  Martin, Roberson, and Jeremy Wonderling added $25 by winning FK Rod Ends heat races.  Latta received a $100 Sunoco gift card for winning the Sunoco Dash.  Tour drivers Andy Michael and Craig Graham were the lucky recipients of the $100 Sunoco gift cards by luck of the draw, while Austin Allen, Todd Chapman, T.J. Downs, and Chris Fleming received $50 Sunoco gift cards.  Making his first Tour start of the season, Billy DuBois received a spoiler kit from Ontime Body & Graphic.    

 

Note: Saturday’s Flynn's Tire Touring Series event at Land of Legends was a Platinum Event allowing Tour members to use the event to replace their worst Marquee Event finish or replace a missed Marquee Event.

 

The Flynn’s Tire Tour will return to action in the Empire State on Friday and Saturday, September 23-24 at Genesee Speedway in Batavia for the annual “Topless Nationals”.  Each night will pay $3,000 to-win with Friday night’s show a Platinum and Saturday night’s show a Marquee designation.

 

Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Model Flynn’s Tire Touring Series Race #14 (30 laps, $3,000 to-win): 1. LOGAN ROBERSON (17)  2. Jeremy Wonderling (3J)  3. David Pangrazio (136)  4. Joe Martin (Snyder 10s)  5. Chad Homan (91)  6. Matt Latta (21)  7. Jason Knowles (4)  8. Brian Knowles (7)  9. Russell Erwin, Jr. (Kazmierczak 118)  10. Brady Wonderling (z1)  11. Ashton Briggs (11A)  12. Brandt Graham (14)  13. Craig Graham (98)  14. Andy Michael (17x)  15. Billy DuBois (21B)  16. Brett Marlatt (99)  17. Chris Fleming (10)  18.Alan Chapman (64c)  19. Todd Chapman (T54)  20. Austin Allen (32)  21. Aaron Miller (20)  22. T.J. Downs (33)  23. Bryce Davis (94).

 

Car Count: 23

Feature Margin of Victory: 1.315 seconds.
Feature Lap Leaders: Matt Latta (1), Logan Roberson (2-30)

Ontime Body & Graphic “Spoiler Alert” Spoiler Kit: Billy DuBois

Precise Racing Products “Pedal Down” Hard Charger: Brian Knowles (+5)

Precise Racing Products 5-Gallon Race Jug: Logan Roberson

Sunoco Fuel Card Winners: Andy Michael ($100), Craig Graham ($100), Austin Allen ($50), Todd Chapman ($50), T.J. Downs ($50), Chris Fleming ($50)

TBM Brakes “Tough Brake of the Night”: Bryce Davis

 

FK Rod Ends “Shock the Clock” Qualifying ($100 for fast time): 1. 10S-Joe Martin, 00:18.327[8] (NTR); 2. 94-Bryce Davis, 00:18.332[7]; 3. 21L-Matt Latta, 00:18.375[11]; 4. 4-Jason Knowles, 00:18.436[17]; 5. 17R-Logan Roberson, 00:18.540[21]; 6. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling, 00:18.540[2]; 7. 91-Chad Homan, 00:18.575[14]; 8. 136-David Pangrazio, 00:18.664[3]; 9. 11A-Ashton Briggs, 00:18.794[5]; 10. 7-Brian Knowles, 00:18.832[20]; 11. 118-Russell Erwin, 00:18.898[4]; 12. Z1-Brady Wonderling, 00:19.043[1]; 13. 98-Craig Graham, 00:19.111[12]; 14. 14-Brandt Graham, 00:19.115[16]; 15. 32A-Austin Allen, 00:19.202[6]; 16. 33D-TJ Downs, 00:19.223[19]; 17. 21BD-Billy DuBois, 00:19.396[10]; 18. 99-Brett Marlatt, 00:19.448[15]; 19. 17X-Andy Michael, 00:19.520[18]; 20. T54-Todd Chapman, 00:19.642[9]; 21. 64C-Alan Chapman, 00:19.694[13]; 22. 10F-Chris Fleming, 00:19.743[23]; 23. 20-Aaron Miller, 00:20.088[22].

           

FK Rod Ends Heat 1 (8 laps, $25 to-win): 1. 10S-Joe Martin[1]; 2. 91-Chad Homan[3]; 3. 4-Jason Knowles[2]; 4. 98-Craig Graham[5]; 5. 7-Brian Knowles[4]; 6. 17X-Andy Michael[7]; 7. 10F-Chris Fleming[8]; 8. 33D-TJ Downs[6].

 

FK Rod Ends Heat 2 (8 laps, $25 to-win): 1. 17R-Logan Roberson[2]; 2. 136-David Pangrazio[3]; 3. 118-Russell Erwin[4]; 4. 14-Brandt Graham[5]; 5. 21BD-Billy DuBois[6]; 6. 20-Aaron Miller[8]; 7. T54-Todd Chapman[7]; 8. 94-Bryce Davis[1].

 

FK Rod Ends Heat 3 (8 laps, $25 to-win): 1. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[2]; 2. 21L-Matt Latta[1]; 3. 11A-Ashton Briggs[3]; 4. Z1-Brady Wonderling[4]; 5. 32A-Austin Allen[5]; 6. 99-Brett Marlatt[6]; 7. 64C-Alan Chapman[7].

 

Sunoco Dash (6 laps, $100 Sunoco fuel card to-win): 1. 21L-Matt Latta[1]; 2. 17R-Logan Roberson[3]; 3. 91-Chad Homan[2]; 4. 136-David Pangrazio[4]; 5. 10S-Joe Martin[6]; 6. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[5].

 

The RUSH Racing Series is brought to you by Hovis Auto & Truck Supply together with Born2Run Lubricants along with the support of Hoosier Tire, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, MSD Performance, Holley Performance Products, FK Rod Ends, Schoenfeld Headers, Jones Racing Products, TBM Brakes, Performance Bodies & Parts, Racing Electronics, Wrisco Industries, Frankland Racing Supply, Landrum Performance Spring, Ontime Body & Graphic, Sherwood Wheels, Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, Lincoln Electric, Velocita-USA, Waterstone Mortgage Hermitage, Wedge Motorsports, 3C Graphix, D&V Jewelers, DrumPreserve, CrateInsider.com, Marthinsen & Salvitti Insurance Group and Terry Bowser Excavating.   

 

E-mail can be sent to the RUSH Racing Series at [email protected] and snail mail to 4368 Route 422, Pulaski, PA 16143. Office phone is 724-964-9300.  The RUSH Late Model website is www.rushlatemodels.com. Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rushlatemodels and follow us on Twitter @RUSHLM.

 

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