Story By: MIKE LEONE / RUSH RACING SERIES – IMPERIAL, PA – The Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Dirt Late Model Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Touring Series is set to return to action this weekend at Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway for the annual “Bill Hendren Memorial” part of the “Pittsburgher 100” weekend with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Friday night (October 4) will be a complete show for $4,000 to-win, while Saturday night (October 5) will be a complete show for $10,000 to-win! The following sponsors have made the “Bill Hendren Memorial” possible: FK Rod Ends, City Chevrolet, Pro Fab, Hendren Racing Engines, West Mifflin Collision, All Interior Painting, RD Holder Oil Company, Stan’s Transmission, Precise Racing Products and Branden Lockwich. Warm-ups get underway both nights at 6 p.m. Action will be streamed live by FloRacing.
RD Holder Oil Company will present Friday night’s show in conjunction with Precise Racing purse making it $4,000 to-win, which will be the kickoff to the 36th annual “Pittsburgher” weekend and the ninth straight year the “Bill Hendren Memorial” has taken place at “Dirt’s Monster Half-Mile”! Positions 2-6 will receive a $100 boost in payoff from the typical $3,000 to-win payoff. On Saturday night, the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour will have $10,000 on the line with $450 to-start the 40-lap event for the third straight year! For the first time ever, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will be in action with a complete show each night as Saturday night will pay a record $50,000 to-win!
Each night, the “Bob Bentz Memorial” Sunoco Dash presented by Stan’s Transmission will set the beginning rows of the feature line-up. Friday night’s dash will have a $500 cash purse with $200 to-win plus a $100 Sunoco fuel card, $100 for second, $50 for third through sixth! Saturday night’s dash will have a $1,000 cash purse with $400 to-win plus a $100 Sunoco fuel card, $200 for second, $150 for third, $125 for fourth, $75 for fifth, and $50 for sixth! Special thanks to Bob C. Bentz for putting up $1,500 cash to remember his late father.
There have been 30 RUSH Tour events completed all-time at Pittsburgh with 16 different winners. Michael Norris, who won the $7,010 “Jook George Steel City Classic” on July 27, leads the way with six victories over fellow PPMS standout, Kyle Lukon, who has five. Ryan Montgomery is a three-time winner. The only other repeat winners are Daryl Charlier, Jeremy Wonderling, and National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Tim Shaffer, who has won two of the last four races. Single wins go to Tommy Schirnhofer, Jr., Colton Flinner, John Mollick, Mike Pegher, Jr., Jacob Hawkins, Garret Paugh, Levi Crowl, Kyle Hardy, Logan Roberson, and Joe Martin, who picked up the 2023 $10,000 “Bill Hendren Memorial”.
Pittsburgh has contested 12 RUSH Late Model events this season with eight different winners part of the City Chevrolet Weekly Series. Defending City Chevrolet Track Champion Brandon Burgoon along with Ben Policz, Charlier, and Norris each have a pair of victories, while single wins have gone to Shaffer, Christian Schneider, Brock Pinkerous, and Michael Reft.
Fourteen-year-old Pinkerous leads the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour into the weekend thanks to 9 top five finishes in 11 starts including his first two career Tour wins. Pinkerous though has just a two-point lead over four-time Series Champion, Jeremy Wonderling, who is the only other driver with multiple victories this season. In fact, Wonderling has reeled off four straight podium finishes including wins in the last two events at Marion Center and Eriez.
Joe Martin, who has finished runner-up in points each of the last four years, is third in points as he is still in search of his first win of 2024. Daryl Charlier is fourth in points and leads the $3,000 to-win 3C Graphix Rookie-of-Year standings. After a slow start to the season, Mike Wonderling has climbed into fifth in points. The oldest of the three racing Wonderling brothers finished third in both of the 2023 Tyler County Tour events. Jim Rasey is having his best season to date in his third year on the Tour driving for Jim Wrightsman and is sixth in points. Damian Bidwell and Allen are seventh and eighth in points respectively and are two more drivers battling for the Rookie-of-the-Year crown. Ashton Briggs, who won his first career RUSH Late Model race last month at Raceway 7, is ninth over Kyle Zimmerman.
In 2005, Bill Hendren, the patriarch of the Hendren family and founder of Hendren Racing Engines, had the foresight to began building his affiliation with crate racing. As many of his open engine customers looked to crate racing as an opportunity to continue racing Bill began offering free advice via the well know 4M.net message board. As the concept grew throughout the country, his generosity and expertise was rewarded as many of those who had utilized his knowledge in the beginning utilized him as their engine rebuilder as their needs arose. Bill passed away on March 19, 2011, but his legacy and dedication to crate racing lives on through his sons, Steve and Mike, as the Hendrens are recognized throughout the entire country as a leader in this specialized form of racing as they continue to operate Hendren Racing Engines.
“I’ll never forget the day several years ago I received a surprise phone call from Steve Hendren expressing interest in having a memorial event for his late father Bill Hendren in conjunction with a RUSH Touring event,” explained Emig. “Although I never knew Bill Hendren personally, I certainly was well aware of his pioneering spirit and great success in the world of Chevrolet Performance crate engine racing. And to have the Hendren Family allow us to hold their patriarch’s only memorial event of the year under the RUSH banner for the 12th straight year is truly an honor! What Steve and his family continue to do for this event is tremendous! We have to thank all of the contributors as well as Blair Cress, Jr. for allowing this event to be part of the ‘Pittsburgher 100’ weekend.”
Steve Hendren, who will be making the trip up to Pittsburgh, was inducted into the Antioch (CA) Speedway Hall of Fame shortly after the 2021 event. Hendren raced at the track weekly in the Late Model division from 1990-1993 winning 40 races and was the 1992 and 1993 champion. In 1992, Hendren won 25 features in 44 starts with 15 of them coming at Antioch, which propelled him to the NASCAR Pacific Coast Regional Championship.
FK Rod Ends “Shock the Clock” Qualifying will be held each night with the fastest qualifier earning $100 followed up the $25 to-win FK Rod Ends heat races. The driver that turns that fastest lap during warm-ups each night will receive a $100 gift certificate from SRI Performance. The “Fill’er up with Sunoco Bucks” program will include an additional $400 of Sunoco fuel card giveaways; two $100 random draws for drivers in the top 15 of Tour points and another four $50 random draws for all other competitors each night.
The podium finishers will each receive a three-pack of Heritage Wine Cellars premier products each night. 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 12th place finisher on night one and 13th place finisher on night two. The first feature non-qualifier will receive a $50 certificate from Holley Performance brands each night. There will also be five BOGO Landrum Performance Springs certificates given away through drawings each night. Forty lucky fans each night will receive a bottle of Dusted Steak Seasoning each night.
“Bill Hendren Memorial” Night 1 Feature Payoff (30 laps): 1. $4,000 2. $1,600 3. $900 4. $750 5. $700 6. $600 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 (25-26. $250).
Pittsburgh “Bill Hendren Memorial” Night 2 Feature Payoff (40 laps): 1. $10,000 2. $5,000 3. $2,500 4. $2,000 5. $1,500 6. $1,200 7. $1,000 8. $900 9. $800 10. $700 11. $650 12. $625 13. $600 14. $550 15. $525 16. $500 17. $490 18. $480 19. $470 20. $460 21-24. $450 (25-26. $450).
D&V Jewelers 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