NOTES &

As the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Model presented by Born2Run Lubricants Flynn’s Tire Touring Series season is set to kick-off in just a few weeks at the much anticipated “Battle of the Bay” Speedweek presented by 3C Graphix, Series Directors have been working diligently over the past few weeks to substantially increase the “Filler’up With Sunoco Bucks” program, which will be presented by Sunoco and other soon to be named contributors. To assist racers with increased travel costs in 2022, RUSH Touring Series participants will receive over $12,000 of Sunoco fuel cards an increase of more than $7,000 over last season!

Last season, the “Fill’er up with Sunoco Bucks” program was introduced and awarded $5,000 in fuel cards. At each event, a random draw took place at the drivers meeting for all competing racers that awarded the selected driver a $100 Sunoco fuel card in addition to the dash winner, who also received a $100 fuel card.

In 2022, once again the Sunoco dash winner will receive a $100 Sunoco fuel card; however, this year, two drivers in the top 15 of Touring Series points will receive a $100 Sunoco gift card plus four other competing racers will receive a $50 Sunoco fuel card, all by random draws at the drivers meeting. By distributing the fuel cards in this manner, both Touring and regional RUSH racers who support the event will receive Sunoco fuel cards!

“We all know that inflation has driven up prices on just about everything this season, and it’s no secret that the cost of fuel has skyrocketed,” said RUSH Director Vicki Emig. “With that said, we felt it was important to do whatever we could to support the racers who participate in our Touring events, many of which involves lengthy travel. The program will distribute fuel cards to both Touring Series and regional racers who support the events.”

“The Touring Series events have been phenomenal with tremendous car counts

Knoxville Raceway To Upgrade Lights

One of the brightest, best-lit speedways in the country is going to be even better going forward as Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, recently announced that they are upgrading their lighting system.

The project, approved recently by the Marion County Fair Association, will have a cost of over one million dollars but the raceway felt the change was necessary to keep the raceway at the forefront of dirt track facilities.

“It is a huge investment; the lights that are up were put in back in 1997. We spend a lot each year keeping them up and we decided to do a remodel so we thought about staying with the lights we have because it would be cheaper, but that would be going backwards to what’s available so we decided to go with the LED Project. Musco [Lighting] is just 25 miles down the road so it was a good fit as they had put in all of the current lights,” said Knoxville Raceway Director John McCoy explained in a radio and awesome racing,” added Emig.

“Because of this, our promoters stepped up for 2022 and have increased the Touring purses to a minimum of $3,000 to win. It’s our job now and always as a Series to do everything in our power to preserve what the speedways and their fans have come to expect when RUSH rolls into town. We can’t thank Sunoco Race Fuels for their ongoing support, as well as many others who will be contributing to the program whose names will be released in the near future.” interview KNIA/KRLS.

Sunoco Race Fuels has been an important corporate marketing partner of the RUSH Racing Series as 2022 will mark the 10th year of their longstanding, successful relationship. Sunoco, the “Official Fuel” of RUSH, has fueled the Series over the past several years and will be offering their Sunoco E85R as an exciting cost-effective option for the RUSH Late Models in 2022.

The new Musco lighting system will begin to be phased in during the months of May and June of 2022.

ANOTHER NEW CHAMP WEARS KING OF AMERICA CROWN;

Humboldt Speedway the 11th edition of the Summit King of America event in late March in Kansas and, once again, there was a first time winner in the USMTS-sanction event. Jake O’Neil bested an extremely tough field of modifieds to score the $15,000 winner’s check.

O’Neil followed Dustin Sorenson and Dereck Ramirez through the early stage of the race before got to second on lap 15. On the 25th circuit, he got by Sorenson in lapped traffic and took the top spot for the rest of the 60-lapper despite some late yellow flags to bring his competitors close. Homestate hero Darron Fuqua was second while Sorenson, Ramirez and Jason Hughes filled the first five.

This was O’Neil’s first win in the event that has now seen ten winners in the 11 editions – only Ryan Gustin has won more than one Summit King of America event.

Steel Block Bandits is a steel block late model touring series with events throughout the southeastern US.

They have a 14 race schedule in six different states planned for 2022. Several races are already in the books, with more racing action scheduled. Steel Block Bandits have three 10k-to-win races including the season finale Cash Money 100.

The Steel Block Bandits travel to each track once a year to create a carnival like atmosphere that brings crowds in. The Steel Block Bandits points championship is worth $10,000 to the champion and $3000 to the Rookie of the Year.

More info is available on the website at: banditsdirt.com