Story By: MIKE LEONE / RUSH RACING SERIES – PULASKI, PA – After a successful “Bill Emig Memorial” presented by Sunoco Race Fuels along with support from Joseph J. Olivia Attorney at Law last weekend at Lernerville, the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Dirt Late Model Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Touring Series will head north for a rescheduled doubleheader weekend at Stateline and Eriez Speedways. Stateline, in Busti, NY, will host action on Saturday night (June 29) at 7 p.m. followed 50 miles west at Eriez, in Erie, Pa., on Sunday evening (June 30) at 6:30 p.m. Both races, which were initially scheduled for May 11-12, will pay $3,000 to-win.
The “Bill Law Memorial” returns to Stateline for the seventh time on Saturday night. In 2011, Law was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer and passed away in July 2012. Law’s involvement in racing began in the late 1970s as he loved having muscle cars and going to the drag strip in his high school days. Even though he never actually raced, he stood behind racing 100%. In the early 1980s, Law and Leon Szweda put an asphalt car together and raced at New York’s Holland Speedway.
Law’s taste for racing moved to the dirt tracks in the mid 1980s as he helped Tom Taber for several years. He met a lot of great people that he became very good friends with; one was Bob “The Bird” Baldwin. The Law Family traveled with him and his family racing from Pennsylvania to West Virginia to Maryland.
As Bill’s son Jon was getting older, they got involved in Go-Kart racing as the family would travel all over New York and Pennsylvania. Bill was still involved in auto racing as they would race Go-Karts during the day and sell parts and fuel at night at the races. As Jon got older, Bill bought him an IMCA Modified. A few seasons later, Jon and Bill bought a Limited Late Model. That lasted a couple years until Jon was starting his own family and got away from the racing scene.
Law was the first person to have a Crate Late Model in the region when the class debuted in 2007 in the Northeast. Law had several drivers over the years behind the wheel of his #14 including Baldwin, Ward Schell, Rich Gardner, Jon Law, Curt VanPelt, David Scott, and Kyle Scott. Bill’s grandson, Kyle Murray, has raced RUSH Late Models over the years. With the Scott Family owning Stateline, it’s fitting the “Bill Law Memorial” takes place at their track as Jean and Jim Scott’s son David and grandson Kyle drove for Law.
The 2017 event was the first ever Tour event at Stateline in the 10-year history of Crate Late Models in the Northeast as a big crowd watched a thriller as Jeremy Wonderling held off standout and track dominator Max Blair for the victory. The 2018 event was just as good as Damian Bidwell made a late race pass of Scott Gurdak for his first Tour win in more than three years. In 2019, Wonderling again held off Blair after withstanding a mid-race rain delay. The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 event. Wonderling was victorious again in 2021 topping a Stateline record 43-car field. Joe Martin won his first career Stateline race in 2022 after waiting out an hour and a half rain delay. Last year, Wonderling won the event for the fourth time in six years this time over a 42-car field!
Meanwhile, there have been 13 RUSH Tour events completed all-time at Eriez. Max Blair has seven victories, while his father Rob has one in a substitution role for Max. Kyle Hardy swept both events in 2021 in route to the championship. In 2022, Logan Roberson won the May event for his first Eriez win, while Josh Ferry scored an upset career first Touring Series victory in July on “Manufacturers Night” presented by MSD Performance. Last year, Wonderling won the spring race finally getting his first Tour win at Eriez, while Blair topped a huge field of 52 cars at “Manufacturers Night” event in the summer.
Stateline has completed five City Chevrolet Weekly Series events thus far in 2024 with an average car count of 22 per night. Randy Hall and Jason Genco each have a pair of victories, while Dave Parker has also been victorious. Eriez meanwhile has completed three City Chevrolet Weekly Series events this season with three different winners including Andy Michael, Genco, and Parker.
“This is a nice, annual weekend for our northern RUSH Late Model teams to be able compete in two $3,000 to-win Tour events and also for our traveling teams as the two tracks are just 50 miles apart,” stated RUSH Director Vicki Emig. “We have to thank the Scott Family for their continued support of RUSH and the Alexander Family for continuing Sunday night RUSH racing that the Rohrers had done so successfully over the years. We’re thankful that the Law Family has allowed us the opportunity to continue be able to have the ‘Bill Law Memorial’ as a Tour event, and we look forward to honoring Bill on Saturday night. We also have to thank all parties for cooperating to reschedule this two-night weekend that was lost to rain seven weeks ago.”
Fourteen-year-old Brock Pinkerous leads the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour as the points leader heading into Stateline, which is the site of his first career Late Model victory that occurred last year in a City Chevrolet Weekly Series event. After four podiums including a career first Tour victory at Tri-City to start off the season, Pinkerous has finished seventh in the last two events to hold a slim five-point lead over defending and four-time Series Champion, Jeremy Wonderling. Wonderling is the only repeat winner on the Tour this season as there have been five different winners in the first six events.
Joe Martin, who is still in search of his first win of the season, is third in points as he trails Wonderling by nine for the position he’s finished in each of the past four seasons. Jared Miley is fourth in points and leads the $3,000 to-win 3C Graphix Rookie-of-the-Year points by nine over fifth place points man, Daryl Charlier. Sixth through 10th in points are Jim Rasey, Damian Bidwell, Austin Allen, Mike Wonderling, and Kyle Zimmerman.
$100 “Shock the Clock” Qualifying and $25 to-win heat races will take place each night and be presented by FK Rod Ends. The Sunoco Dash will set the beginning rows of the feature lineup each night and will award the winner a $100 Sunoco fuel gift card. The “Fill’er up with Sunoco Bucks” program will include an additional $400 of Sunoco fuel card giveaways each night; two $100 random draws for drivers in the top 15 of Tour points and another four $50 random draws for all other competitors.
Dave Hess, Jr., who is fresh off his first career Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Touring Series victory in the $20,000 to-win “Bill Emig Memorial” on Saturday at Lernerville, is expected to be in competition both nights.
The podium finishers each night will each receive a three-pack of Heritage Wine Cellars premier products. Precise Racing Products will award a $50 gift card for the “Pedal Down” Hard Charger that passes the most cars in the feature each night. Ontime Body & Graphic’s “Spoiler Alert” will award a spoiler kit to the seventh place finisher on night one and the eighth place finisher on night two. The first feature non-qualifier each night will receive a $50 certificate from Holley Performance brands. There will also be five BOGO Landrum Performance Springs certificates given away through drawings each night. Forty lucky fans will receive a bottle of Dusted Steak Seasoning each night.
Feature Payoff Each Night: 1. $3,000 2. $1,500 3. $800 4. $650 5. $600 6. $500 7. $475 8. $450 9. $425 10. $400 11. $325 12. $300 13. $275 14. $270 15. $265 16. $260 17. $255 18-24. $250.
Non-Qualifier Payoff Each Night: 1. $200 2. $190 3. $185 4. $180 5. $175 6. $170 7. $165 8. $160 9. $155 10-24. $150. Tow $125
For Saturday at Stateline, pit gates open at 4 p.m. (access prior). Drivers meeting will be at 6:15 p.m. Driver radio channel is different at Stateline as 469.500 is used. For Sunday at Eriez, pit gates open at 3:30 p.m. (access prior). Drivers meeting will be at 5:45 p.m. Driver radio channel is 454.000.
Both events will also count towards the RUSH City Chevrolet National Weekly Series Championships and 3C Graphix “Futures Cup” for those eligible racers. In addition, points will also be awarded for the City Chevrolet “Track Pack” that features a $2,500 per track point fund for the top six racers in RUSH member points at year’s end with $1,000 going to the champion.
Following this weekend, it’ll be a quick turnaround for a West Virginia doubleheader over the Independence Day holiday presented by Dave Poske’s Performance Parts. After losing the scheduled Flynn’s Tire/Guntrer’s Honey Touring Series opener on April 6 and April 13, Thursday the 4th will be the first appearance of the season at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne followed by the first ever RUSH-sanctioned event at Ohio Valley Speedway in Washington on Friday night. Both events will pay $4,000 to-win.