SWEENEY RUSH SPORTSMAN MODIFIED SERIES SET FOR 5TH SEASON; 30 EVENTS CURRENTLY
SCHEDULED FOR 2018
By Mike Leone
December 29, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
(Pulaski, PA)...While the 2017 season will officially wrap up with
the awards banquet on January 20 at Gatherings Banquet & Event Center, Sweeney
Chevrolet Buick GMC RUSH Sportsman Modified Series Directors have been busy
planning for the upcoming 2018 racing season.
The fifth season of operations currently has 30 events between Bicknell
Racing Products Weekly and Tour Series shows scheduled at five different
speedways. There's the possibility
of a couple additional events to be added.
Sharon Speedway will once again be the anchor home
track for the RUSH Sportsman Modifieds.
While the Mods will compete in most of the Saturday night "Steel Valley
Thunder" weekly events for 2018, this year they have been added to the Friday,
April 20 season opener with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series along with the
traditional Ohio Speedweek event with the All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint
Cars on Tuesday, June 19. Two
Bicknell Tour events are scheduled at the Hartford, Ohio 3/8-mile; one on June
23 part of "Manufacturers Nights" presented by MSD Performance along with the
"Apple Festival Nationals". Details
of the September 7-8 event have yet to be finalized.
The growth of the RUSH Sportsman Modifieds is evident
through Sharon's average car counts over the years.
In the 2014 inaugural season, Sharon averaged 10.6 cars per night.
The 2015 season saw the division officially added to the weekly program
and increased to 14.3 cars per night.
A huge growth took place in 2016 as the average soared to 22.5 per night.
This past season saw another increase with an average of 23.9 per night.
Impressively over the past two seasons, the car count was under 20 only
one time each season.
Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway continues to be a big
supporter of the RUSH Sportsman Modifieds.
"Dirt's Monster Half-Mile" will host the class eight times on Saturday
nights including four of the five Saturday nights in September.
Six events were completed in 2017 at PPMS with five different winners.
Sharon Speedway champion, Kole Holden, was the only repeat winner, while
Rocky Kugel, Chas Wolbert, Jessica Kriegisch, and Justin Shea were also
victorious.
Tri-City Raceway Park is another western Pennsylvania
big half-mile track. Tri-City again
has three shows for the RUSH Sportsman Modifieds planned, but this year all
three (May 13, June 17 & July 15) will be Bicknell Tour designations for the
first time.
A Bicknell Tour event is again expected at Expo
Speedway as part of the opening night of racing at the Trumbull County Fair on
Wednesday, July 11. Expo was the
site of the first ever Tour event in 2015 when Greg Martin picked up the victory
and would go on to win the inaugural title.
Chelsie Kriegisch made history in 2016 becoming the first female to win a
Tour event in the history of crate racing in the Northeast, first female to win
in the 46-year history of Expo Speedway, and first female to win a RUSH
Sportsman Modified event. This past
season saw Kugel victorious.
The RUSH Sportsman Modifieds will again be part of
Lernerville Speedway's "Modified Mania" on Friday, July 20 then will close out
the year once again with the "Steel City Stampede".
The exciting 2017 event saw Kugel charge through the field to finish
second on the final lap to overtake Holden to win the $3,000 Bicknell Weekly
Series Championship, while 2016 "Futures Cup" Champion, Kyle Martell, secured
his first Bicknell Touring Series Championship.
Ohio Intra Express of Niles, Ohio will present the
"Shock the Clock" award at selected Touring Series events in 2018.
The fastest qualifier during warm-up groups will receive $100 cash and a
presentation check. On these nights,
the Sportsman Modifieds will mimic the RUSH Late Model Touring Series format
with qualifying times setting the heat race lineups and the top two finishers of
each heat race will redraw for the K&N Dash starting line-up that will determine
the beginning rows of the feature.
All of other cars will be straight up on heat race or B main finish.
At this time, the format will be used at the three Tri-City events and
"Manufacturers Night" at Sharon.
In October, the Series announced changes to the
eligibility requirements.
All western Pennsylvania and
eastern Ohio "358" Small-Block Modified drivers will be eligible to participate
in the class, and changes have been made to allow more of the regional Big-Block
Modified drivers to be eligible for the entire season as well.
The change in eligibility will now allow local Big-Block Modified racers
that did not finish in the top five in Big-Block Modified points at any speedway
or touring series in the previous season the ability to compete provided they
did not win four or more features in one of the past two years (2016 or 2017).
Obviously, all drivers must have 100% RUSH Sportsman Modified legal cars
to compete.
"We're
very proud of our Sportsman Modified division," stated RUSH Director Vicki Emig.
"The class has grown each year in numbers and competitiveness, and we
expect another bump in participation and quality of competition in 2018.
It's going to be exciting to see veteran racers Alan Dellinger and Rob
Kristyak who entered the class in the final events of 2017, along with newcomers
Garrett Krummert and Tony Tatgenhorst mix it up with our veteran Sportsman
Modified racers, including many young guns who are beginning to make their mark
in Modified racing such as Kyle Holden, Kyle Martell, the Kriegisch sisters and
many more. We have to thank all of the
participating speedways for continuing their belief in the RUSH Sportsman
Modifieds and partnering with us to continue the growth and stability of
the class for Modified enthusiast throughout the region."
2018 Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC RUSH
Sportsman Modified Schedule*
·
Fri, April 20 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH) - With Lucas Oil Late Models
·
Sat, April 28 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, May 5 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Sat, May 12 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sun, May 13 Tri-City Raceway Park (Franklin, PA) - Touring event
·
Sat, May 19 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, May 26 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, June 2 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, June 9 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Sat, June 17 Tri-City Raceway Park (Franklin, PA) - Touring event
·
Tue, June 19 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH) - With All Star Sprints (Ohio
Speedweek)
·
Sat, June 23 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH) - Touring event for "Manufacturers
Night" presented by MSD Performance
·
Sat, June 30 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, July 7 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Wed, July 11 Expo Speedway (Cortland, OH) - Touring event for Trumbull County
Fair
·
Sat, July 14 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Sun, July 15 Tri-City Raceway Park (Franklin, PA) - Touring event
·
Fri, July 20 Lernerville Speedway (Sarver, PA) - "Modified Mania"
·
Sat, July 21 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, July 28 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, August 4 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, August 11 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, August 18 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, August 25 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH)
·
Sat, September 1 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Fri-Sat, September 7-8 Sharon Speedway (Hartford, OH) - Touring event for "Apple
Festival Nationals" (details TBA)
·
Sat, September 15 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Sat, September 22 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Sat, September 29 Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway (Imperial, PA)
·
Fri-Sat, October 12-13 Lernerville Speedway (Sarver, PA) - Touring event for
"Steel City Stampede"
*Schedule is subject to
change. Additional dates may be
added
RUSH Sportsman
Modified marketing partners include Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC, Pace
Performance, Hoosier Tire, Bicknell Racing Products, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco
Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, MSD Performance, Holley
Performance Products, Earl's Performance Plumbing, Quick Fuel Technology, FK Rod
Ends, Maxima Racing Oil, Sherwood Racing Wheels, Schoenfeld Headers, Jones
Racing Products, Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, TBM Brakes,
K&N Filters, Lincoln Electric, Velocita-USA, Classic Ink USA, CrateInsider.com,
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/rushsportsmanmods and follow us on
Twitter @RUSHSportMods.
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