9/1/2022
RUSH Late Model Series
CAREER 1ST SHARON RUSH SPRINT WIN FOR BLAZE MYERS; AYDEN CIPRIANO RED HOT IN RUSH SPORTSMAN MODS; TIM LAUGHARD TRAVELS TO ERIEZ & WINS RUSH STOCKS
CAREER 1ST SHARON RUSH SPRINT WIN FOR BLAZE MYERS; AYDEN CIPRIANO RED HOT IN RUSH SPORTSMAN MODS; TIM LAUGHARD TRAVELS TO ERIEZ & WINS RUSH STOCKS
By Marcie Barlow
September 1, 2022 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Pulaski, PA)...Competitors in the various Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Racing Series presented by Born2Run Lubricants ended the month of August with lots of weekly racing action at the various RUSH-sanctioned facilities. Young lions Blaze Myers (Sprint Cars) and Ayden Cipriano (Sportsman Modified) held off the challenges of veterans to score convincing victories at Sharon Speedway. Dennis Lunger, Jr. returned to his winning ways in RUSH Pro Mod action while familiar faces, Kyle Hardy, Joe Martin, Jeremy Wonderling and Ben Policz, tallied victories in RUSH Late Model Weekly Series action.
Youngsters took center stage in both Hovis RUSH Sportsman Modified and RUSH Sprint Car action at Sharon Speedway on Saturday evening. Eighteen-year-old Blaze Myers started in the second spot and immediately took the top spot from Jeff Metsger. Myers had built up a 3.5 second lead by lap 10 and soon thereafter entered lapped traffic. Chad Ruhlman slowed on lap 16 to bring out a caution and Don Blaney got into the turn four fence to bring out another caution on lap 18. Second place runner Gale Ruth, Jr. was unable to mount a serious challenge for the top spot as Myers went on to score a 1.040 second victory to garner his first career Sprint Car win of the season at the Hartford, OH oval, and third overall of the season in Equipment Rental Options Weekly Series action. Ryan Fraley came home in third with Andy Priest and Nolan Groves rounding out the top five.
Sixteen-year-old Ayden Cipriano has been the hottest driver on the RUSH Sportsman Modified tour the past eight weeks. He captured his first ever divisional victory July 8 at Raceway 7 and followed up with wins at both Sharon Speedway and Tri-City Raceway Park on August 13-14. This past Saturday he claimed his second consecutive victory at Sharon to score a very popular win.
Ben Easler and Rob Kristyak waged a side-by-side battle for the first four laps before a caution slowed the field. When the racing action resumed Easler was docked a row for jumping. Two more cautions slowed the field on lap five and sixth place starter Cipriano made the winning move around Kristyak on lap seven. Cipriano worked the lapped traffic to score a 1.632 second win over Kristyak. Garrett Krummert, Easler and Bill Cunningham completed the top five.
Making just his third start of the year at Dog Hollow Speedway on Friday night, Joe Martin led the RUSH Late Model main event from start to finish to score the victory over Michael Duritsky, Jr., Mike Laughard, Kyle Lukon and Noah Brunell. It was Martin’s first win of the season at the Strongstown, PA track and his fourth overall in RUSH action, which have come at four different tracks.
Kyle Hardy continued his winning ways at Potomac Speedway Friday as he scored a convincing victory over Joey Love, Megan Mann, Ed Pope, Jr. and Jeremy Pilkerton. It was Hardy’s sixth RUSH Late Model victory of the season in eight tries at Potomac and his ninth in Hovis Auto and Truck Supply Weekly Series action.
Kyle Lukon and Dan Lepro led the RUSH Late Model main event to green at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. The duo swapped the lead several times during the first several laps. Cautions on laps four and eight slowed the field and something broke on the right side of Lukon’s car sending him into the wall on lap 10 ending his night. The action resumed with Ben Policz taking the lead and going on to score his fourth victory of the season at "Dirt’s Monster Half-Mile". Mike Reft came from the 11th position to score the runner-up spot with Tim Shaffer, Cole Petrelle and Jake Gunn completing the top five.
Joe Layfield and Rickie Loucks led the RUSH Late Model main event to green at Woodhull Raceway, but it was Steve LeBarron’s night to shine as he charged to the front, weathered two cautions and built up a full straight away lead to capture his second victory of the season at the Southern Tire New York oval. Austin Allen came home in the second position with Brett Marlatt third. Bryce Davis and Jason Knowles finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Chad Homan led the first seven laps of the RUSH Late Model main event at Genesee Speedway before Jeremy Wonderling took command. A late race caution gave Homan one final opportunity to take the top spot but he was unable to do so and Wonderling went on to claim his sixth RUSH Late Model victory in 11 tries at the speedway. Overall it was Wonderling's 10th Weekly Series win of 2022 as he remains in the hunt for the National Weekly Series Championship. Homan, Doug Ricotta, Dave DuBois and Scott Pangrazio finished in second through fifth respectively.
Damian Bidwell held off the challenges of David Parker for the first six laps in the RUSH Late Model main event at Stateline Speedway. Parker took command on the seventh circuit and went on to earn his second victory of the season at the Busti, NY oval by holding off the newly crowned divisional champion and National Weekly Series points leader, Jason Genco. At the checkered in the final race of the season, Bidwell fell to third with Matt Sipes fourth and Dennis Lunger, Jr. fifth. Stateline had 19 or more cars for all 10 RUSH Late Model events this season and averaged 24 cars per night!
Rich McNeal tallied his first ever Skyline Raceway Motorsports Park RUSH Late Model win on Saturday night over Todd Chapman, Alan Chapman and Patrick Parker. McNeal became the eighth different winner of the season at the Cortland, New York track in its first year running the RUSH Late Models weekly! McNeal also won this season at The Hill Speedway on July 15.
Sunday evening racing action at Eriez Speedway saw Breyton Santee pick up his first victory of the season at the oval as he held off 10th starting Jeremy Wonderling. Santee, a Flynn's Tire Touring Series regular, also won this season at Raceway 7. Ashton Briggs picked up the third position with Billy Henry, Jr. and Kurt Stebbins completing the top five.
The lone RUSH Pro Mod event this weekend took place at Stateline Speedway for their final race of 2022. Veteran Dennis Lunger, Jr. continued his domination of the division as he took the lead on lap three and went on to score victory number nine of the season in 10 tries at Stateline. It was Lunger's 11th overall RUSH Pro Mod win of 2022. Tyler Oakes, Chad Carlson, Victor Earle, Jr. and Nathan Hill rounded out the top five. Stateline had over 20 cars in eight of their 10 events this season.
The RUSH Stock Cars competed in two feature events at Dog Hollow Speedway last Friday night with John Eckenrod winning the first race and Tim Laughard bringing home the victory in the second event. Laughard was also victorious Sunday at Eriez Speedway in his first visit to the northwest Pennsylvania oval. Laughard beat out Mikael Beaver and Cody Rickard for his seventh overall win of the season
Picking up RUSH Karting Series victories at Stateline Saturday afternoon were Alex Daniels, Jr. (Amateur), Keaton Destre (JR-1) and Morgan Curry (Adult). Stateline will wrap up the season this Saturday night with racing in the morning and then at night under the lights.
Friday night racing action at Raceway 7 and The Hill Speedways was rained out and Delaware International, Tyler County, Winchester and Bradford Speedways were all off.
RUSH Late Model Flynn's Tire Touring Series action is slated for Sunday at Tyler County Speedway. The "Cider Jug 40" event will pay the winner $4,000 and is part of the 54th Annual "Hillbilly 100" Weekend.
Coming up this weekend The Hill Speedway and Delaware International Speedway will be in action on Friday night for the RUSH Late Models. Saturday night will see Genesee, Pittsburgh, Skyline, Winchester and Woodhull hosting RUSH Late Model action. Bradford will race on Sunday for both the Late Models and RUSH Pro Mods. RUSH competitors will have the weekend off at Dog Hollow Speedway, Raceway 7, Potomac Speedway, and Eriez Speedway.
The RUSH Sportsman Modifieds Series will be in action at Sharon Speedway Friday evening for a Flynn's Tire Series event paying $1,000 to-win presented by Jerry Rents LLC. Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway will have a Hovis Weekly Series event on Saturday night.
The RUSH Sprint Cars will compete on Friday night at Lernerville Speedway and Sunday night at Tri-City Raceway Park in Equipment Rental Options Weekly Series events.
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 info@rushracingseries.com and snail mail to 4368 Route 422, Pulaski, PA 16143. Office phone is 724-964-9300. The RUSH Racing Series website is www.rushracingseries.com. Like our Facebook page and Twitter pages by searching for each individual RUSH Series.
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Article Credit: Marcie Barlow
