DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND FOR SWEENEY RUSH LATE MODEL TOUR; FRIDAY AT SHARON FOR “GARY KNOLLINGER MEMORIAL” & SATURDAY AT PITTSBURGH FOR “STEEL CITY ROULETTE”; LAJOIE’S SAFER RACER TOUR FEATURED

By Mike Leone

September 10, 2014               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Pulaski, PA)…The Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC RUSH Dirt Late Model Touring Series is gearing up for a big fall season to close out 2014 and it begins this weekend with a doubleheader of action.  On Friday night (September 12), Sharon Speedway will host the “Gary Knollinger Memorial”, while on Saturday night (September 13) action shifts south to Pittsburgh’s PA Motor Speedway for the rescheduled “Steel City Roulette”.  Warm-ups begin at 6 p.m. with racing at 7 both nights.   There is a rain date of Sunday for Pittsburgh.  Randy LaJoie’s Safer Racer Tour will be on hand both nights. 

Friday night will be the prestigious fourth annual “Gary Knollinger Memorial” with $1,500 on the line.  The event is also part of Sharon’s “Apple Festival Nationals”.  “It’s an honor to again be able to hold a memorial for Gary,” expressed RUSH Co-Director Vicki Emig.  “Gary was a standout Crate Late Model racer from Triadelphia, West Virginia.  We, and many of the racers, became very close to Gary and his family when he was a fierce competitor before his tragic passing on Christmas 2010.  Sharon was Gary’s favorite track as he had a lot of success there, and has been the site of the memorial the last three years with Max Blair, Joe Martin, and Ryan Montgomery capturing the meaningful events.”

Sharon had one Sweeney Tour event this season back on July 5 as part of the “Bill Emig Memorial Wild Card Weekend” when Rick Singleton won his first career event at the speedway.  Singleton has four Tour wins this year in just six starts as he’s finished third in the other two events.  Sharon has also run 11 Sweeney Weekly Series events, but just three drivers have been able to score victories.  Defending champion Dennis Lunger, Jr. and 2012 champion Will Thomas III each have four wins, while Alan Dellinger has won three races utilizing the $135 Bilstein “sealed” spec shocks. 

The Sweeney RUSH Tour heads 75 miles south on Saturday to take part in the annual “Pittsburgher”.  While $1,200 will be on the line for the feature winner, each feature starting driver will draw a pill during driver intros to earn bonus monies as part of the rescheduled “Steel City Roulette”.  The top prize is a $1,000 bonus, while every starting driver will earn at least a $50 bonus! 

In the event of a rainout on Saturday, the Sweeney Tour event will be run on Sunday evening otherwise Sunday will be a $1,000 to-win Sweeney Weekly Series event!

Ryan Montgomery will certainly be looking forward to the weekend as Sharon and Pittsburgh are tracks he has had great success at. Already this season at Pittsburgh, Montgomery has three victories including the July 12 Sweeney Tour event over a 37-car field.  Montgomery has won five of the last six events he’s competed in at Pittsburgh.  In fact, the 17-year-old Fairmont, West Virginia racer hasn’t finished worse than second in any of the eight events he’s raced at the “Monster Half-Mile” the past two seasons! 

Montgomery enters the weekend as the Sweeney Tour point leader; however, has seen his lead shrink as John Waters has beaten him in four of the last five events.  Montgomery leads Waters, who is in his first year of Touring, by 55 points with six events remaining.   Chad McClellan and Jason Rider are third and fourth in points.  Eric Wilson is fifth and will be returning to his home track on Friday night.  Maryland’s Cody Dawson, Singleton, W.L. Stile, Lunger, Ralph Morgan, Jr., Robby Marhefka, Andrew Wylie, Reese Masiello, Bryce Davis, and Josh Holtgraver complete the top 15 points paying positions.  Six of the top seven racers are from six different states!

While Sharon has been dominated by three racers, it’s been a very competitive year at Pittsburgh with nine different winners in the 15 events.  Besides Montgomery’s three wins, Ben Policz, Josh Holtgraver, Russ Kolesar, and Daryl Charlier have been able to score a pair of victories, while single wins have gone to Nico Dabecco, Corey McPherson, and Andrew Wylie.  Charlier enters the weekend hot winning two of the last three events and also has a pair of runner-up finishes the two weeks prior!

Two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Randy LaJoie will bring his Safer Racer Tour to the Sweeney Tour events this weekend.  LaJoie will have a display set up each night with various equipment from his The Joie of Seating.  In addition, LaJoie will give a presentation that will be open to everyone before the nights' events as well as speaking to each RUSH racer individually. 

"I'm looking forward to bringing the Safer Racer Tour to RUSH- the Premier crate division in the USA," stated LaJoie, a Connecticut native and winner of 15 NASCAR Nationwide events.   "This will allow many drivers in various divisions to be informed on current safety systems, answer questions and display better containment seats.  Safer Racer will give recommendations to all drivers that would like one.  With the addition of Sharon and Pittsburgh, the Tour will have been to 18 tracks this year and a total of 115 since its inception seven years ago!  Driver safety is our goal and thanks to RUSH for caring about its racers."

Sweeney RUSH racer Eric Wilson has used The Joie of Seating seats for five years.  In 2010, Wilson moved into the Mod Lite division after a six-year karting career and began using LaJoie’s full containment seats.  Wilson then moved into the Crate Late Models in 2011 and The Joie of Seating’s full containment seat has been the only seat he’s used ever since. 

"Randy and his team can use a driver’s measurements to build a custom fit, full containment seat for any application," explained Wilson.  "We believe the quality and craftsmanship of Randy's seats are the best in the industry.  Racers should take this opportunity to visit the safer racer display and learn more about their products"

 The K&N “Cold Air Induction” Dash will be run each night paying $100 K&N certificate to win, $50 K&N certificate for second with $25 cash for third and fourth place.  Rick Singleton leads the K&N Dash Championship.  If enough cars are present, a non-qualifier event will be run each night.  Zack Carley is the current point leader.

Precise Racing Products will award a $100 gift card for the "Pedal Down" Hard Charger that passes the most cars in the feature each night.  The Brake Man “Tough Brake of the Night” will award three bottles of Xtreme6 Racing Brake Fluid valued at approximately $45 along with a certificate good for either $50 off of a purchase of $100 or more or 20% off any The Brake Man purchase each night.  

Driven Racing Oil's “Slick Move of the Night” winner will receive a bottle of Driven Racing Oil Race Wax, a can of Driven Racing Oil Speed Clean, and a certificate for $50 off a case of Driven XP Synthetic Racing Oil! 

Crate Innovations will present both the "Ignite" and "Performance Plus" Awards.  The 12th place finisher on Friday night and 13^th place finisher on Sunday night (provided he hasn’t won the award before) will receive a carb spacer kit that includes one billet aluminum Accelerator-1, one upper and one lower spacer gasket, and four specifically designed washers used for installation, while the driver that finishes last on the lead lap each night (provided he hasn’t won the award before) will receive the Moroso Custom Fit Plug Wire Set, which are custom tailored for use with the Chevrolet Performance 602 and 604 circle track engines.   

Also on Saturday night, the first non-qualifier will win an ARbodies nose kit valued at $245 as part of the “Nosed Out” contingency program.

Sharon Feature Payoff : 1. $1,500  2. $800  3. $550  4. $410  5. $375  6. $340  7. $325  8. $295  9. $285  10. $280  11. $255  12. $250  13. $230  14. $225  15. $200  16. $195  17. $190  18-24. $185. 

Sharon Non-Qualifier: 1. $150  2. $125  3. $115  4. $110  5. $105  6. $100  7. $95  8. $90  9. $85  10-24. $80. $75 to any driver failing to start either feature. 

Pittsburgh Feature Payoff: 1. $1,200  2. $700  3. $500  4. $370  5. $350  6. $315  7. $300  8. $270  9. $260  10. $255  11. $230  12. $215  13. $205  14. $200  15. $175  16. $170  17. $165  18-24. $160.

Pittsburgh Non-Qualifier: 1. $125  2. $100  3. $90  4. $85  5. $80  6. $75  7. $70  8. $65  9. $60  10-24. $55.  Tow $50.

Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC Touring Series DRIVER Points (must be Touring member to receive points): 1. Ryan Montgomery 1031  2. John Waters 976  3. Chad McClellan 956  4. Jason Rider 932  5. Eric Wilson 921  6. Cody Dawson 906  7. Rick Singleton 592  8. W.L. Stile 538  9. Dennis Lunger, Jr. 504  10. Ralph Morgan, Jr. 496  11. Robby Marhefka 475  12. Andrew Wylie 426  13. Reese Masiello 373  14. Bryce Davis 356  15. Josh Holtgraver 342  16. John Imler & Russell Baird, Jr. 318  18.  Max Blair 292  19. Adam Sixt 269  20. Josh Double 263  21. Joe Martin 261  22. John Over 260  23. Jamie Wrightsman & Chad Ruhlman 250  25. Michael Lake 230  26. Kyle Lukon 220  27. Jeremy Adamik 148  28. Will Thomas III 94  29. Jeff Dayman 92  30. Jamie Brown & Nolan Dalton 89  32. Matt Glanden 86  32. Bob Kish 85  34. Jacob Burdette 78  35. Junior Peters 70.  

You do not have to be a member of RUSH to compete.  There is a $75 entry fee on Friday night and a $50 entry fee on Saturday night.  RACEceivers are required.  Both tracks use the red AMB transponders.  Pits open at 4 p.m. with warm-ups at 6 and racing at 7 both nights. 

Sharon Speedway is a 3/8-mile dirt track with a GPS address of 3241 Custer-Orangeville Rd. NE, Burghill, OH 44404.  For more information, check out their website at www.sharonspeedway.com or call 330-772-5481.  As for their social media outlets, you can like their page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SharonSpeedway or follow them on Twitter @SharonSpdwy.

Pittsburgh’s PA Motor Speedway is a ½-mile dirt track with a GPS address of 170 Kelso Rd, Imperial PA 15126, which is located just off the Noblestown exit on Routes 22/30.  For more information, check out their website at www.ppms.com or call 412-279-7223.  The track number on race day is 724-695-3363 or 724-695-0393.  As for their social media outlets, you can like their page on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/PittsburghsPennsylvaniaMotorSpeedway or follow them on Twitter @PAMotorSpeedway.

RUSH Late Model marketing partners include Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC, Pace Performance, Hoosier Tire, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, ARbodies, The Brake Man, K&N Filters, Bilstein Shocks, Lincoln Electric, TurboStart, Beyea Headers, FK Rod Ends, Bobby Lake Motorsports, Driven Racing Oil, Crate Innovations Inc., Moroso Performance Products, Velocita-USA, High Gear Speed Shop, CrateInsider.com, Utsinger’s Towing, B.R.A.K.E.S., RockAuto.com, and Valley Fashions.

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 and fax is 724-964-0604. The RUSH Racing Series website is www.rushracingseries.com. Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rushlatemodels and follow us on Twitter @RUSHLM.
 

###