Tri-City Saturday, Tyler County Sunday For RUSH Late Model Tour
7 min read
Zach Yost Photo
(Pulaski, PA)… After an ultra-successful “Manufacturers Night” presented by MSD Performance that saw 54 racers compete at Eriez Speedway on August 11, the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Dirt Late Model Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Touring Series is set for a doubleheader holiday weekend in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. On Saturday (August 31), the Tour returns to Tri-City Raceway Park in Franklin, PA followed on Sunday (September 1) by Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, WV for the “Cider Jug 40”, which will take place as part of the “Hillbilly 100” with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Sunday’s event will be streamed live on FloRacing. On track action gets underway at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and 6 on Sunday.
Saturday’s event was originally scheduled for Hummingbird Speedway for the first time ever; however, due to track’s recent announcement that they were suspending the remainder of the 2024 season, Tri-City Raceway Park quickly picked up the event. It was the second time this season new track owners Josh and Kyrsten Shiffer picked up a show in less than a week’s notice! Back on May 26, Tri-City hosted the return by the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour event for the first time in six years. The event was won by Brock Pinkerous for his first career Tour victory.
The Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Touring Series has made eight visits to Tri-City, with seven of them occurring from 2015-2018. Max Blair and Mike Pegher, Jr. each won a pair of events, while single victories have gone to Bryce Davis, Jeremy Wonderling, Brady Wonderling, and Pinkerous. Tri-City still owns the all-time highest car count for the RUSH Racing Series with 58 cars on September 11, 2016 for “Manufacturers Night” presented by MSD Performance!
The 2024 season for the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour was supposed to kick-off at Tyler County Speedway on April 6, but that event as well as the April 13 make-up was lost due to flooding rains and then severe thunderstorms washed out the July 4 event that was part of a Independence Day holiday doubleheader with Ohio Valley Speedway. The Tour has fought Mother Nature just about every time they have been scheduled at Tyler County over the past three years. Jeremy Wonderling has two victories, while Max Blair won last year’s second appearance during the “Hillbilly 100”.
Tyler County is in their third year under the RUSH banner for its Chevrolet Performance Late Model class. Thus far this season there have been six different winners in nine races as Ryan Hare is the only repeat winner with four. Single victors include Braeden Dillinger, Kyle Thomas, A.J. Spagnuolo, Michael Moreland, and Logan Reed. Past City Chevrolet “Track Pack” Champions at Tyler County are Donnie Dotson in 2022 and Brandon Weigle last season.
“First off we can’t thank the Shiffers enough for once again picking up a Tour event at the last minute,” explained RUSH Director Vicki Emig. “They were able to keep our three-race Memorial Day holiday swing intact and now allowed us to maintain our Labor Day holiday doubleheader. The weather has also certainly been a challenge this year as we’ve had 11 weather postponements/cancellations with three of them coming at Tyler County. Everyone is always excited to race at Tyler County so it’s certainly been a disappointment especially when they stepped up to host three $4,000 to-win Tour events this season and even with two shots, we still lost our opener. It’s an honor to be part of the ‘Hillbilly 100’ with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and be live on FloRacing.”
Fourteen-year-old Brock Pinkerous leads the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour into the weekend thanks to 9 top five finishes in 11 starts including his first two career Tour wins. Pinkerous though has just a two-point lead over four-time Series Champion, Jeremy Wonderling, who is the only other driver with multiple victories this season. In fact, Wonderling has reeled off four straight podium finishes including wins in the last two events at Marion Center and Eriez.
Joe Martin, who has finished runner-up in points each of the last four years, is third in points as he is still in search of his first win of 2024. Daryl Charlier is fourth in points and leads the $3,000 to-win 3C Graphix Rookie-of-Year standings. After a slow start to the season, Mike Wonderling has climbed into fifth in points. The oldest of the three racing Wonderling brothers finished third in both of the 2023 Tyler County Tour events. Jim Rasey is having his best season to date in his third year on the Tour driving for Jim Wrightsman and is sixth in points. Damian Bidwell and Allen are seventh and eighth in points respectively and are two more drivers battling for the Rookie-of-the-Year crown. Ashton Briggs, who won his first career RUSH Late Model race last Friday at Raceway 7, is ninth over Kyle Zimmerman.
FK Rod Ends “Shock the Clock” Qualifying will be held each night with the fastest qualifier earning $100 followed up the $25 to-win FK Rod Ends heat races. Also at Tyler County, the driver that turns that fastest lap during warm-ups will receive a $100 gift certificate from SRI Performance. The Sunoco Dash will set the beginning of the feature lineup each night with the winner receiving a $100 Sunoco fuel card.
The “Fill’er up with Sunoco Bucks” program will include an additional $400 of Sunoco fuel card giveaways; two $100 random draws for drivers in the top 15 of Tour points and another four $50 random draws for all other competitors each night. The podium finishers will each receive a three-pack of Heritage Wine Cellars premier products each night. Precise Racing Products will award a $50 gift card for the “Pedal Down” Hard Charger that passes the most cars in the feature each night. Ontime Body & Graphic’s “Spoiler Alert” will award a spoiler kit to the 12th place finisher on night one and 13th place finisher on night two. The first feature non-qualifier will receive a $50 certificate from Holley Performance brands each night. There will also be five BOGO Landrum Performance Springs certificates given away through drawings each night. Forty lucky fans each night will receive a bottle of Dusted Steak Seasoning.
Tri-City Feature Payoff: 1. $3,000 2. $1,500 3. $800 4. $650 5. $600 6. $500 7. $475 8. $450 9. $425 10. $400 11. $325 12. $300 13. $275 14. $270 15. $265 16. $260 17. $255 18-24. $250.
Tyler County Feature Payoff: 1. $4,000 2. $2,000 3. $1,000 4. $800 5. $700 6. $600 7. $550 8. $500 9. $475 10. $450 11. $425 12. $400 13. $375 14. $360 15. $350 16. $340 17. $330 18. $320 19. $310 20-24. $300.
D&V Jewelers Non-Qualifier Payoff: 1. $200 2. $190 3. $185 4. $180 5. $175 6. $170 7. $165 8. $160 9. $155 10-24. $150. Tow $125
You do not have to be a member of RUSH to compete only to receive Weekly and/or Tour points. The entry fee is $100 each night. AMB/MyLaps transponders will be used. Units are available to rent for $25 and no cost to Tyler County regulars at Tyler County. Driver radio channel will be 454.000 each night.
On Saturday at Tri-City, pits will open at 2 p.m. with RUSH registration beginning at 3 p.m. The RUSH drivers meeting will be held at 6 p.m. with warm-ups at 6:30 followed by qualifying and racing at 7. On Sunday at Tyler County, pit passes will go on sale at 2 p.m. RUSH registration will open by 2:30 p.m. with the drivers meeting at 5:30. Warm-ups are slated for 6 p.m. followed by qualifying and racing.
Both events will also count towards the RUSH City Chevrolet National Weekly Series Championships and 3C Graphix Futures Cup for those eligible racers. In addition at Tyler County, points will also be awarded for the City Chevrolet Track Pack that features a $2,500 per track point fund for the top six racers in RUSH member points at year’s end with $1,000 going to the champion.
Tri-City Raceway Park is a ½-mile dirt track located at 3430 PA-417, Franklin, PA 16323. Like their Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063565753208
Tyler County Speedway is a 1/4-mile dirt oval located at 1 Boreman School Rd., Middlebourne, WV 26149. Tyler County ran its first race on June 9, 1974 as the 2024 season will be celebrated as the 50th anniversary. Tyler County Speedway annually hosts some of the largest and most popular events in the Ohio Valley region. For more information, check out their website at www.tylercountyspeedwayonline.com. Like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thebullringwv and follow them on X @The_Bulling.
The RUSH Racing Series is brought to you by Hovis Auto & Truck Supply together with Born2Run Lubricants along with the support of Hoosier Tire, Rick Hendrick City Chevrolet, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, Flynn’s Tire, Gunter’s Honey, Sunbelt Rentals, MSD Performance, Holley Performance Products, FK Rod Ends, Joseph J. Oliva Attorney at Law, Schoenfeld Headers, Jones Racing Products, Landrum Performance Springs, 3C Graphix, Dave Poske’s Performance Parts, Velocita-USA, Wieland Metal Services, Frankland Racing Supply, Dusted Steak Seasoning, Ontime Body & Graphic, Sherwood Wheels, D&V Jewelers, Dusted, Heritage Wine Cellars, Precise Racing Products, Wedge Motorsports, Racing Electronics, and Billy’s Garage.
E-mail can be sent to the RUSH Racing Series at info@rushracingseries.com 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 X (formerly known as Twitter) @RUSHLM.
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