KYLE HARDY RETURNS TO PROMINENCE WINNING PACE RUSH LATE MODELS SUNDAY AT ERIEZ
OVER THE 38-CAR FIELD FOR 4TH FLYNN'S TIRE/BORN2RUN LUBRICANTS TOUR VICTORY IN 5
RACES
By Mike Leone
May 16, 2021 FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
(Erie, PA)...The Pace
Performance RUSH Dirt Late Model Series together with Sweeney Chevrolet Buick
GMC wrapped up a very successful two-night swing at Stateline and Eriez
Speedways, which are separated by 50 miles, this past weekend.
Sunday night was race #5 of the 2021 Flynn's Tire/Born2Run Lubricants
Touring Series slate and was the first of two appearances at Eriez.
Sunday's event attracted 38 cars, which was the highest at the northwest
Pennsylvania oval since the 2015 "Manufacturers Night".
In total, 52 different cars participated in the two events!
After five Tour events, the average car count is nearly 43 per event.
After sweeping the three "Battle
of the Bay" Speedweek events in mid-April and taking home $10,175, Mid-Atlantic
racer Kyle Hardy made a decision to chase after the $12,000 to-win Flynn's
Tire/Born2Run Lubricants Touring Championship.
In the first post-"Battle of the Bay" Tour event, Hardy was only able to
manage a 10th place finish on Saturday night in his first visit to Stateline.
Hardy though flipped the script quickly figuring out Eriez Speedway on
Sunday night as he led all 30 laps withstanding heavy pressure from three-time
champion, Jeremy Wonderling, to capture the $2,000 victory.
It was the second consecutive caution-free 30 lapper as Sunday's was
timed in 9:21 compared to Saturday's that took 9:41.576.
"I'm just glad it's over because
Jeremy (Wonderling) was breathing down my neck," explained the 27-year-old
Linden, Virginia racer. "I knew
Jeremy was on my bumper. He showed
me a nose through (turns) three and four;
I caught my left front on the berm and gave it some gas to get it back in
front of him. I know I gave him a
little contact there; he's a hell of a racer, I have a lot of respect for him,
and wouldn't expect him to do anything less.
It's going to be a long year racing with him.
This is a heck of a race track and I'm glad to be here.
It's also a very tricky track; you can't overdrive it, and have to be on
your toes. I can't thank everyone at
Eriez and the RUSH Series enough for putting this on along with all you fans for
sticking it out and watching all this racing tonight."
Despite winning the first three
Tour events to open the season, Sunday's pole position start was the first for
Hardy thanks to winning the Sunoco Dash.
After dueling with Joe Martin in the dash, Hardy quickly jumped into the
lead at the start of the feature, while Wonderling raced past Martin for second.
Hardy opened up a fairly comfortable lead of about a half-straightaway
when he caught lapped traffic on lap 11.
Hardy's lead began to shrink on
lap 12 as both Wonderling and Martin closed in.
Meanwhile, Andy Boozel and Chub Frank were putting on quite the battle
for fourth as the two traded the position numerous times before Frank nailed
down the position on lap 16. Finally
on lap 20, Wonderling was right on Hardy, while Frank caught Martin in the
battle for third on lap 21.
Heavy lapped traffic would then
come into play for Hardy and Wonderling.
Wonderling had been continuing to test the top in turn four and would get
nearly alongside Hardy, but Hardy maintained the lead off the bottom.
Hardy had his hands full trying to
maneuver past Paul Norman and Jimmy Johnson, Jr., who were battling for
position. On lap 23, Hardy and
Wonderling made contact racing off turn four with Hardy barely leading the lap.
That though allowed Wonderling to pull even with Hardy on lap 24, but
Wonderling was unable to make the pass stick.
Wonderling continued to hound
Hardy right to the finish, but Hardy denied Wonderling of a sweep of the weekend
taking
his American Paint Co./AGX/Anthony's
Pizza/Ingram Engines/Cline Construction/Sommey Lacey Paint-sponsored #99 to
victory by 1.022 seconds. Hardy also
received his fourth 5-Gallon Race Jug from Precise Racing Products.
The win allowed Hardy to extend his Tour points lead after seeing it
shrink following Saturday night, and was also able to maintain his lead in the
Pace National Weekly Series standings.
After entering the weekend sixth
in Tour points, Wonderling's victory and runner-up propelled him into second
place in the standings. "We got in
lapped traffic but couldn't pass them because we weren't fast enough," explained
the 41-year-old from Wellsville, NY. "I
rolled on the outside of Hardy in traffic that one time and he jumped the berm
and we got together. I thought we
were about to give the show away as we were both about pointed right towards the
wall. He raced clean.
I was trying my best, but he was a little better than I was."
Frank was able to reach the
podium in his first Tour start of 2021.
After battling with his CFR employee, Boozel, for fourth in the first
half of the race, Frank had a tremendous race with Martin for third in the
second half. The two traded the
spots several times with Frank winning out for good on lap 27.
"This is an older car that we
redid and put together," revealed the 59-year-old Bear Lake, Pa. veteran.
"It's the first night we ran it so I'm happy finishing third as I know
how good these guys (Hardy and Wonderling) are.
We still have to do a little more tweaking and work to do, but we were in
contention so we'll be alright. I
wanted to get this car out earlier, but the weather hasn't been too good and
I've been busy."
Martin, who finished runner-up in
the 2020 Tour points, continues to improve on his finishes throughout 2021.
After starting the season with back-to-back 11th place runs at Georgetown
and Potomac, Martin improved to a pair of fifths at Winchester and Stateline.
Sunday saw Martin turn in his best Tour performance of the season with a
fourth place. Breyton Santee made
his 2021 Tour debut and had a solid fifth place effort after starting seventh.
Santee also received a $150 spoiler kit from Mark McClellan of Ontime
Body & Graphic.
Boozel dropped to sixth at the
finish. After three disappointing
feature finishes at the "Battle of the Bay", Darrell Bossard returned home and
turned in a sixth on Saturday and a seventh on Sunday.
Kyle Lukon was eighth as he continued his impressive streak of all top 10
Tour finishes this season joining Hardy as the only driver to accomplish that
feat. David Pangrazio was ninth,
while Tour regular Logan Zarin turned in his best Tour finish of the season in
10th. After having to take a
provisional to start the feature, Bud Watson earned the $100 Precise Racing
Products "Pedal Down" Hard Charger gift card by going 25th to 17th.
After finishing runner-up in the
feature on Saturday at Stateline, Jason Genco had a tough night on Sunday
getting caught up in a couple of run ins during his heat race along with
suffering mechanical issues that forced him to scratch from the last chance B
main. Genco though was able to
salvage the night winning the eight-lap Non-Qualifier.
Genco started sixth and took the lead on lap six by driving around David
Parker off turn four. Genco earned
$200 aboard the Jimmy Craig/Jason Badgley #29J for his second career
Non-Qualifier victory. Parker was
second over Jacob Peterson. Tommy
Schirnhofer, Jr. was fourth as Saturday's Stateline Non-Qualifier winner, Khole
Wanzer, completed the top five.
Bobby Rohrer, whose parents were
former owners of Eriez, missed the feature by one spot and was awarded the
"Nosed Out" $100 gift card contingency from Performance Bodies.
Newcomer Scott Jordan was selected as the TBM Brakes "Tough Brake of the
Night" recipient after making heavy contact with the turn three wall in the
first last chance B main. The two
$100 Sunoco gift cards part of the "Fill'er up with Sunoco Bucks" presented by
Sunoco and Zarin Truck & Auto went to Hardy for winning the dash and Cory Sines
in the random draw.
Despite going out 34th,
Wonderling set fast time with a lap of 16.824 in FK Rod Ends "Shock the Clock"
Qualifying for the first time this season and earned $100.
Picking up $25 FK Rod End heat race wins were Wonderling, Lukon, Martin,
and Hardy. Matt Sipes and Ryan
Frazee won the last chance B mains.
The Flynn’s Tire/Born2Run Lubricants Touring Series will return to action May
28-30 with $2,000 to-win events at Outlaw Speedway (Dundee, NY) on Friday night,
Genesee Speedway (Batavia, NY) on Saturday night, and Bradford (PA) Speedway on
Sunday night.
Pace Performance RUSH Late Model Flynn’s Tire/Born2Run Lubricants Touring Series
Race #5
(30 laps, $2,000 to-win): 1. KYLE HARDY (99)
2. Jeremy Wonderling (3J) 3.
Chub Frank (1*) 4. Joe Martin
(Snyder 10s) 5. Breyton Santee (9)
6. Andy Boozel (12B) 7.
Darrell Bossard (Winans 213) 8. Kyle
Lukon (184) 9. David Pangrazio (136)
10. Logan Zarin (1z) 11.
Scott Gurdak (Hollabaugh 5G) 12.
Mike Knight (Blodgett 23GB) 13. John
Lacki (7) 14. J.J. Mazur (13)
15. Matt Latta (21) 16.
Michael Duritsky, Jr. (90J) 17. Bud
Watson (225) 18. Billy Henry, Jr.
(21*) 19. Logan Jaquay (Briggs 99*)
20. Matt Sipes (25) 21. Jimmy
Johnson (39J) 22. Jake Gunn (14G)
23. Paul Norman (6) 24. Ryan
Frazee (11F) 25. Josh Ferry (33).
(Note: Bud Watson took a Tour
provisional).
Non-Qualifier
(8 laps, $200
to-win): 1. Jason Genco
(Craig/Badgley 29J) 2. David Parker
(2) 3. Jacob Peterson (McGhee 112)
4. Tommy Schirnhofer, Jr. (8S)
5. Khole Wanzer (01W) 6.
Brian Kotarski (129) DNS: Bobby
Rohrer (11), Jared Keeney (33K), Cory Sines (25S), Darrin Waldron (97), Scott
Jordan (04), Mark Sundt (94B), Gary Youngs (Y26).
Car Count: 38
Feature Time of the Event:
9:21
Feature Margin of Victory:
1.022 seconds
Feature Lap Leaders: Kyle Hardy
(1-30)
Ontime Body & Graphic “Spoiler Alert” Spoiler Kit:
Breyton Santee
Performance Bodies “Nosed Out”:
Bobby Rohrer
Precise Racing Products “Pedal Down” Hard Charger:
Bud Watson (+8)
Precise Racing Products 5-Gallon Race Jug:
Kyle Hardy
Sunoco and Zarin Truck & Auto $100 Sunoco Fuel Cards:
Kyle Hardy & Cory Sines
TBM Brakes “Tough Brake of the Night”:
Scott Jordan
FK Rod Ends “Shock the Clock” Qualifying
($100 for fast time)
(Track record 15.655 by Max Blair 6/10/18):
1. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling, 00:16.824[34]; 2. 184-Kyle Lukon, 00:16.855[15]; 3.
10S-Joe Martin, 00:16.879[13]; 4. 21L-Matt Latta, 00:16.943[12]; 5. 1*-Chub
Frank, 00:16.969[20]; 6. 1Z-Logan Zarin, 00:16.976[19]; 7. 5G-Scott Gurdak,
00:17.001[3]; 8. 99-Kyle Hardy, 00:17.017[9]; 9. 136-David Pangrazio,
00:17.018[23]; 10. 90J-Michael Duritsky Jr, 00:17.024[10]; 11. 213-Darrell
Bossard, 00:17.111[18]; 12. 9S-Breyton Santee, 00:17.124[28]; 13. 29J-Jason
Genco, 00:17.145[24]; 14. 12B-Andy Boozel, 00:17.166[31]; 15. 11F-Ryan Frazee,
00:17.199[6]; 16. 7L-John Lacki, 00:17.208[21]; 17. 112-Jacob Peterson,
00:17.242[26]; 18. 11R-Robert Rohrer, 00:17.250[17]; 19. 2-David Parker,
00:17.256[33]; 20. 39J-Jimmy Johnson, 00:17.257[2]; 21. 99*-Logan Jaquay,
00:17.265[36]; 22. 225-Bud Watson, 00:17.265[25]; 23. 13-JJ Mazur,
00:17.270[35]; 24. 14G-Jake Gunn, 00:17.273[22]; 25. 23GB-Mike Knight,
00:17.274[16]; 26. 21*-Billy Henry, 00:17.302[29]; 27. 33-Josh Ferry,
00:17.334[11]; 28. 25S-Cory Sines, 00:17.335[30]; 29. 25-Matt Sipes,
00:17.342[1]; 30. 129-Brian Kotarski, 00:17.487[27]; 31. 33K-Jared Keeney,
00:17.590[37]; 32. 8S-Tommy Schirnhofer Jr, 00:17.622[32]; 33. 6N-Paul Norman,
00:17.691[4]; 34. 01W-Khole Wanzer, 00:17.695[5]; 35. 97-Darrin Waldron,
00:18.144[7]; 36. 94B-Mark Sundt, 00:18.567[14]; 37. 04-Scott Jordan,
00:19.941[8]; 38. (DQ) Y26-Gary Youngs.
FK Rod Ends Heat 1 (8
laps, Top 5 transfer to A, $25 to-win): 1. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[1]; 2. 1*-Chub
Frank[2]; 3. 136-David Pangrazio[3]; 4. 23GB-Mike Knight[7]; 5. 6N-Paul
Norman[9]; 6. 25-Matt Sipes[8]; 7. 99*-Logan Jaquay[6]; 8. 04-Scott Jordan[10];
9. 29J-Jason Genco[4]; 10. 112-Jacob Peterson[5].
FK Rod Ends Heat 2 (8
laps, Top 5 transfer to A, $25 to-win): 1. 184-Kyle Lukon[1]; 2. 12B-Andy
Boozel[4]; 3. 1Z-Logan Zarin[2]; 4. 21*-Billy Henry[7]; 5. 90J-Michael Duritsky
Jr[3]; 6. 225-Bud Watson[6]; 7. 11R-Robert Rohrer[5]; 8. 129-Brian Kotarski[8];
9. 01W-Khole Wanzer[9]; 10. Y26-Gary Youngs[10].
FK Rod Ends Heat 3 (8
laps, Top 5 transfer to A, $25 to-win): 1. 10S-Joe Martin[1]; 2. 213-Darrell
Bossard[3]; 3. 5G-Scott Gurdak[2]; 4. 13-JJ Mazur[6]; 5. 33-Josh Ferry[7]; 6.
11F-Ryan Frazee[4]; 7. 2-David Parker[5]; 8. 33K-Jared Keeney[8]; 9. 97-Darrin
Waldron[9].
FK Rod Ends Heat 4 (8
laps, Top 5 transfer to A, $25 to-win): 1. 99-Kyle Hardy[2]; 2. 9S-Breyton
Santee[3]; 3. 7L-John Lacki[4]; 4. 21L-Matt Latta[1]; 5. 39J-Jimmy Johnson[5];
6. 14G-Jake Gunn[6]; 7. 8S-Tommy Schirnhofer Jr[8]; 8. 25S-Cory Sines[7]; 9.
94B-Mark Sundt[9].
Last Chance B Main 1 (8
laps, Top 2 transfer to A): 1. 25-Matt Sipes[1]; 2. 99*-Logan Jaquay[3]; 3.
11R-Robert Rohrer[4]; 4. 112-Jacob Peterson[9]; 5. 01W-Khole Wanzer[8]; 6.
129-Brian Kotarski[6]; 7. 225-Bud Watson[2]; 8. 04-Scott Jordan[5]; 9. (DNS)
29J-Jason Genco; 10. (DQ) Y26-Gary Youngs[10].
Last Chance B Main 2 (8
laps, Top 2 transfer to A): 1. 11F-Ryan Frazee[1]; 2. 14G-Jake Gunn[2]; 3.
8S-Tommy Schirnhofer Jr[4]; 4. 33K-Jared Keeney[5]; 5. 25S-Cory Sines[6]; 6.
2-David Parker[3]; 7. 97-Darrin Waldron[7]; 8. 94B-Mark Sundt[8].
Sunoco Dash
(6 laps, $100
Sunoco fuel card to-win): 1. 99-Kyle Hardy[2]; 2. 10S-Joe Martin[1]; 3.
3J-Jeremy Wonderling[5]; 4. 1*-Chub Frank[3]; 5. 12B-Andy Boozel[4]; 6. 184-Kyle
Lukon[7]; 7. 9S-Breyton Santee[6]; 8. 213-Darrell Bossard[8].
RUSH Racing Series is brought to you by Pace Performance together with Sweeney
Chevrolet Buick GMC 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, Born2Run Lubricants,
Flynn's Tire & Auto Service, FK Rod Ends, 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, Zarin Truck & Automotive, Sherwood Wheels,
Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, Stop-Fyre, Lincoln Electric,
Velocita-USA, Waterstone Mortgage Hermitage, CrateInsider.com, and Wedge
Motorsports.
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.
The RUSH Late Model website is www.rushlatemodels.com. Like our Facebook page
at www.facebook.com/rushlatemodels and follow us on Twitter @RUSHLM.
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