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RaceNewYork Discussion => Press Releases and Results => Topic started by: RUSH Racing Series on June 12, 2019, 11:42:30 AM

Title: Sweeney RUSH Racing Series 6/9/19 weekend recap
Post by: RUSH Racing Series on June 12, 2019, 11:42:30 AM
SANTEE, PIPER, SWANK, COOK, RICOTTA, LEBARRON & PIETZ ALL BREAK INTO VICTORY LANE FOR THE 1ST TIME IN 2019 IN SWEENEY RUSH LATE MODEL ACTION; CAREER 1ST RUSH PRO MOD WIN FOR NATE HARTZELL AT BRADFORD
By Jim Zufall & Mike Leone
 
June 12, 2019               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
(Pulaski, PA)...Finally, a weekend where weather wasn’t the underlying topic of conversation!  The Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC RUSH Racing Series powered by Pace Performance family of speedways were able to pull off a full weekend of racing as all tracks have now got underway.  In fact, it was the first dry weekend in western Pennsylvania since the first weekend of February!  Seven drivers in the RUSH Late Model division were able to pull off their first wins of the season, while Nate Hartzell captured a career first in the Pro Mods.

It all got underway Friday when Ransomville (NY) Speedway held their first RUSH Late Model race in three years and a solid turnout of 20 drivers from New York and Ontario, Canada.  The Sweeney Weekly Series event paid $700 to-win and it was Jeremy Wonderling continuing his hot streak.  Fresh off three Tour wins in the last four races, Wonderling passed Paul Grigsby on a restart with two laps to go for the victory.  Grigsby was second.  Jim Johnson was driving his son Jimmy's car and had a solid third over David Pangrazio and Canadian Sam Pennacchio.

Down Route 90 and into Ohio at Raceway 7, it was Breyton Santee picking up his first win since July 13 of last year.  After three heats won by Dave Airgood, Chad Sines and Chris Withers, pole-sitter Santee held off all comers to take the win over the 20-car field.  Sines had his best career finish as Kyle Zimmerman, Darrell Bossard and Airgood rounded out the top five.  It will be a RUSH-filled night this Friday at Raceway 7 featuring the weekly Late Models, the RUSH Sprints and the RUSH Sportsman Modifieds.  It'll be the first ever appearance by the RUSH Sprints at the track and first of two straight appearances by the Mods.

Friday at Sarver, Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway where the RUSH Pro Stocks often provide the best racing of the night, they did not disappoint.  Joey Zambotti held off an array of multiple time champions and winners on his way to the victory in the 20-lap feature event.  Zambotti held off the likes of Joe Kelley and Corey McPherson, who alone hold nearly a dozen combined track championships.  At the checkers behind Zambotti's second win were McPherson, Ryan Moyer, Brett McDonald and John Hartman.  Racing returns to Lernerville this Friday with another round of “Fab 4” racing and Mid-season championships. 

Saturday at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, Michael Duritsky, Jr., fresh off time spent following the RUSH Late Model Touring Series, admitted to using some of the knowledge he’s gained from watching some of the top-level tour drivers to pick up his first win in the RUSH Late Model division at PPMS.  Duritsky was followed across the line by last week’s winner John Mollick, Christian Schneider, Tommy Schirnhofer, Jr., and Russ Matejka. A big seven division show is on tap at PPMS this Saturday with the return of the winged Sprint Cars and the first appearance of the year of the RUSH Sportsman Modifieds.

Jakob Piper collected his first win of the season at Winchester Speedway on Saturday night in the 20-lap RUSH Late Model feature.  Lining up second for the start, Piper out-dueled Levi Crowl into the first turn to take the top spot.  As Piper led, seventh starting Logan Roberson was coming to the front in a hurry and reached second by the 10th lap.  The remaining 10 laps saw Piper and Roberson race nose to tail with Piper taking the win by a whisker at the start/finish line over Logan Roberson.  Devin Brannon, Kyle Lear and Jennae Piper (Jakob's brother) rounded out the top five as another 20-car field was on hand.  Racing this Saturday at the Virginia oval, where there will be double points for all divisions.

Saturday night at Strongstown, Pennsylvania’s Dog Hollow Speedway, Colin Casale led the first lap of the 20 lap RUSH Late Model feature , but got out of shape out of four on lap two allowing fourth starting Jamey Swank to blow by.  Swank looked fast and led 19 laps, but he had heavy pressure from Jared Kane and Bryan Benton.  Those three pulled away with Swank taking his first career RUSH win in just his second start!  Kane was a career best second over one-time winner Benton.  John Britsky and Casale were fourth and fifth.  The RUSH Late Models will be off at Dog Hollow now until Thursday, July 4.. 

Saturday at Fulton Speedway in the RUSH Late Model feature, Max Hill and Kevan Cook would lead the opening couple laps with two and three-wide racing behind the two in early fights for position.  Chris Fleming would move into position behind Cook with five laps in the books.  A two-car battle was the story for the remainder of the 20-lap event, with Cook able to hold off Fleming for his first win of the season.  Chad Homan, Harry Halliday and Dale Caswell rounded out the top five. Action returns to Fulton Speedway this Saturday for a $1,000 to-win special.  Also, the RUSH Late Models will try and get their first show of the year in at sister speedway, Brewerton, on Friday night.

Saturday at Delaware International Speedway, it was Matt Hill holding off a 19-car field and a five-minute rain delay to capture the RUSH Late Model feature.  Sparky White used a restart to gain second place and outlasted a few more cautions to track down Hill, but could only manage runner-up spot.  For Hill, it was his second DIS win in the past three weeks.  Derek Magee, Tyler Reed and Joe Warren would round out the top five.  The RUSH Late Models will be back at it this Saturday at the Delmar half-mile.

Doug Ricotta won the first two RUSH Late Model features ever contested at Genesee Speedway back in 2016 and since then has been a mainstay in the division; however, not until Saturday night was he able to return to victory lane.  Ricotta led all 25 laps of the caution-free RUSH Late Model feature to return to victory lane for the third time of his career at the Batavia, New York oval.  After the race he could not say enough about the effort his crew had made to get him back to the hallowed ground. “It has taken a lot of work to get this car right to the point where we can be competitive,” said the veteran in victory lane.  “This car worked well even right through the black.” David Pangrazio, Jon Rivers, Bill Holmes, and J.J. Mazur wrapped up the top five.  After a week off, racing action returns to Genesee Speedway on June 22. 

Saturday night at Hartford, Ohio’s Sharon Speedway, Garrett Krummert picked up the victory in the RUSH Sportsman Modified feature, making him the third winner in as many races during the rain-plagued 2019 campaign.  In the non-stop event, Krummert, the 2018 Weekly champion, held off the likes of Jim Rasey, Tony Tatgenhorst, Kole Holden and Rob Kristyak for the top five. Pat Adams led from green-to-checkered in the 10-lap RUSH Sportsman Modified “Wheelman” event for non-winners.

The RUSH Sprint Car division has had an uphill battle with the weather just to get its’ sophomore season underway.  The fast growing, non-winged sprinters finally got one in the record books on Saturday at Sharon when Chad Ruhlman picked up the win.  It was a Ruhlman top-five sweep for the Bemus Point, New York family of drivers, as the top five showed Chad as the winner, Brian Woodhall second followed by Chad's son Kevin Ruhlman, Chad's brother Brian Ruhlman and Zach Morrow. Both RUSH divisions will return to action at Sharon on June 22nd, but the Sprints will also be at Sharon on Tuesday, June 18 as they join up with the All Star Circuit of Champions as part of their Ohio Speedweek.

Saturday night at New York’s Woodhull Raceway, Steve LeBarron picked up his first win in the RUSH Late Models this year.  Following LeBarron, it was Jason Knowles, Kurt Stebbins, Brian Knowles and John Waters for the top five. Racing returns to Woodhull on Saturday for a “King of the Bullring” event for the RUSH Late Models. 

Saturday’s action wrapped up on the asphalt at Jennerstown Speedway in the Laurel Mountain region of Central Pennsylvania. Coulter, PA’s Teddy Gibala picked up the win in the RUSH Late Model division followed by Joe Maruca Barry Awtey Brian Shipp and Zane Ferrell.  In RUSH Modified action, it was Veteran Gary Scott picking up the popular victory ahead of Adam Kostelnik, RJ Dallape, Anthony Aiello and Chris Brink. The RUSH Street Stock feature went to Casey Fleegle. Aaron VanFleet came in second with Mike Davis, Jeremy Shaffer and Zac Todoro rounding out the top five.

Better late than never as Old Bradford Speedway finally got the 2019 racing season underway on Sunday night. In the RUSH Late Models, Damian Bidwell and Jeff Hoffman led the field to the green flag with Hoffman jumping out to the lead.  Bidwell would run second until lap six when his car broke ending his night.  On the restart, Hoffman would jump back out to the lead with Ward Schell in second.  The race would stay green the rest of the way with Hoffman picking up his first win since July 8 of last year.  Hoffman was followed by Schell, Andy Michael, Chad Schauers, and Zach Wiech.

In the RUSH Pro Mod division, Nate Hartzell and Adam Peterson led the field to the green flag with Hartzell jumping out to the lead.  Steve Dixon would move in to second followed by Chad Carlson in third.  At the checkers it was Hartzell picking up his first career win followed by Dixon, Adam Ashcroft, Chad Carlson, and Critter Hemphill.  Racing returns to Old Bradford Speedway on June 23 when the Pro Mods will be in action.

It was week number three at Port Colborne, Ontario’s Humberstone Speedway on Sunday evening.  John Pinsonneault led the field at the drop of the green.  David Pangrazio would take the lead away and was being pressured by Adam Ferri and Rob Pietz.  Ferri would take the lead and then Pietz would take the lead away at the midway point and would not look back as he would go on to score his first win since May 27 of last year.  Sam Pennacchio, David Pangrazio, Stan Zanchin in his first start of the year, and Tim Gillespie made up the top five.  Humberstone's counts have been at least 15 cars for all three shows this year.  They get back to action this Sunday.

Max Blair made it three-for-three in RUSH Late Model competition in 2019 at Eriez Speedway.  Like he does so many times, Blair swept the night winning the Super Late Model feature and the RUSH Crate main event.  Kyle Zimmerman has had a strong season as he's been on the podium all three nights in addition to a pair of top threes at Raceway.  Scott Gurdak was third.  After winning on Friday night at Raceway 7, Breyton Santee's fourth place finish on Sunday was his best Eriez finish of the year as was Darrell Bossard's fifth place effort.

Potomac Speedway in Mechanicsville, MD was off last weekend, but returns this Friday night for a "Shock the Clock" qualifying special for the RUSH Late Models.

Stateline Speedway in Busti, NY hosted the All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprints and will be back to weekly racing action this Saturday, when the RUSH Sprints, RUSH Late Models and RUSH Pro Mods join the racing program.

Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex was off last weekend and the RUSH Late Models are not scheduled this Sunday.  Their next race for the RUSH Late Models is scheduled for June 23 at the Markleysburg oval.

RUSH Racing Series is brought to you by Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC & Pace Performance along with the support of Hoosier Tire, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, MSD Performance, Holley Performance Products, Hovis Auto & Truck Supply, FK Rod Ends, Wehrs Machine & Racing Products, Schoenfeld Headers, Jones Racing Products, TBM Brakes, Performance Bodies & Parts, Racing Electronics, Dirt Defender, Wrisco Industries, Frankland Racing Supply, Landrum Performance Spring, Ontime Body & Graphic, Trailer-Alarms.com, Bonnell's Rod Shop, Zarin Truck & Automotive, Sherwood Wheels, Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, Lincoln Electric, Velocita-USA, Classic Ink USA, CrateInsider.com, and Valley Fashions. 

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 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.

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