NEW "TRACK PACK BONUS PROGRAM" TO OFFER OVER $1,000 IN CASH & CONTINGENCIES TO TOP MEMBER RACERS AT EACH SWEENEY RUSH LATE MODEL WEEKLY SERIES TRACK IN 2016; RETURN OF 1 TOURING SERIES
By Mike Leone
October 5, 2015 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Pulaski, PA)…Though a few weeks still remain in the 2015 Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC RUSH Dirt Late Model Series season, directors Vicki Emig and Mike Leone have been hard at work already beginning to plan for the 2016 racing season. One of the exciting announcements to come from the recent RUSH Promoters Meeting was the new "Track Pack Bonus Program" that will be introduced in 2016 for RUSH weekly-sanctioned speedways in conjunction with the return to one Bazell/Insinger Sunoco Race Fuels Touring Series.
The "Track Pack Bonus Program" that was explained and proposed was met with tremendous approval by all of the attending RUSH-sanctioned speedways at the recent promoters meeting. In 2016, RUSH will offer each weekly-sanctioned speedway $800 cash to its top five member drivers along with contingencies for positions six through eight using RUSH points! With the additional contingency value, each individual RUSH-sanctioned track will receive well over $1,000 in value over and above what their racers receive in all of the other valuable RUSH "Weekly" programs!
The 2016 champion at each RUSH weekly-sanctioned track will earn $300 with $200 going to second, $150 third, $100 fourth, and $50 fifth! Contingency prizes will then be posted for those racers in sixth through eighth in the RUSH member points.
The exciting program is expected to infuse over $11,000 in cash alone back to weekly racers! Of course the $27,525 Sweeney Weekly Series will return for the top 40 member drivers throughout the entire region, the $10,050 Pace Performance “Summer Chase” for the top 10 member drivers’ average points from July through Labor Day, the $13,150 “Bilstein Bandits” program for the top 15 drivers that run the $135 sealed, spec Bilstein Shocks, and the $3,000 “Futures Cup” for eligible teenage member racers. These programs mean approximately $65,000 will be posted for RUSH weekly racers alone!
“We’re very excited about this new program,” expressed Emig. “The number of RUSH weekly-sanctioned tracks and racers continue to grow each year. This year we’ve had over 350 different racers participate at one of the 23 tracks that hosted a RUSH-sanctioned event. The amount we’re offering to each track’s racers is more than the cost of their annual sanction fee. Times change and it is important to slightly adjust business models in order to keep moving forward. We realize that there are many loyal racers at each weekly track, but many don’t travel and race as much as in years past. The program will give incentive for local racers to continue to support their weekly tracks and take home additional monies."
If the program was in effect during 2015, an additional 13 drivers would have received cash from the "Track Pack Bonus Program" that would not under the current programs for weekly racers. A great example of this would be Damian Bidwell, who did not tour, but finished first in Bradford's RUSH point standings and second at Stateline as he would have received an additional $500 for his weekly efforts over and above the $2,950 he has coming for Sweeney Weekly and Pace "Summer Chase" point funds! Potomac/Winchester Speedway regular, Darin Henderson, would have earned an additional $450 over and above his Sweeney Weekly monies if the new program was in effect in 2015.
The Touring Series will revert back to one overall series in 2016 paying $5,000 to-win down 12 positions rather than the split Northern/Southern like in 2015. With two events remaining, 168 different drivers have competed in one of the 16 events with car counts still strong averaging over 30 cars per event. The Touring events are expected to remain stable as the purses are substantially more than weekly events and will still offer the racers who choose to tour a valuable championship.
“With the growth of our region in 2015, we wanted to experiment splitting into two separate tours,” explained Leone. “However with the exception of a few different drivers in the north and one in the south, we just didn’t get that many more racers to participate in each region over and above the racers that followed the entire tour. With drivers just not traveling like in the past, we feel those extra monies will be better served by distributing them back to the core weekly racers at each individual track.”
To be eligible for the "Track Pack Bonus Program" in 2016 in addition to all of the non-Touring point funds, drivers need to simply be a RUSH Weekly Series member at the same cost of $125. For the third straight year, a RUSH membership also includes $100,000 of excess participant accident insurance when competing in a RUSH event.
In 2015, the Sweeney RUSH Racing Series will pay out over $100,000 in season ending cash point funds to its Late Model, Sportsman Modified, and Pro Stock divisions! In addition, over $70,000 in contingency prizes were posted for these divisions’ racers in 2015!
RUSH Late Model marketing partners include Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC, Pace Performance, Hoosier Tire, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, MSD Ignition, Maxima Racing Oil, Jones Racing Products, Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, ARbodies, TBM Brakes, K&N Filters, Lincoln Electric, TurboStart, Beyea Headers, FK Rod Ends, Bobby Lake Motorsports, Crate Innovations Inc., Velocita-USA, High Gear Speed Shop, CrateInsider.com, B.R.A.K.E.S., 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/rushlatemodels and follow us on Twitter @RUSHLM.
###