7/24/2025
RUSH Late Model Series
"JOOK GEORGE STEEL CITY CLASSIC" SATURDAY AT PITTSBUGH FOR HOVIS RUSH LATE MODEL FLYNN'S TIRE/GUNTER'S HONEY TOUR PAYING A MINIMUM OF $6,010 TO-WIN
"JOOK GEORGE STEEL CITY CLASSIC" SATURDAY AT PITTSBUGH FOR HOVIS RUSH LATE MODEL FLYNN'S TIRE/GUNTER'S HONEY TOUR PAYING A MINIMUM OF $6,010 TO-WIN
By Mike Leone
July 24, 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Imperial, PA)...After a successful return to the Genesee County Fair after a seven-year absence on Tuesday night, the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Dirt Late Model Flynn's Tire/Gunter's Honey Touring Series will resume action this Saturday night (July 26) at Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway for the 36th annual "Jook George Steel City Classic". Race #9 of the 2025 season will pay a minimum of $6,010 to-win/$500 to-start. Warm-ups begin at 6 p.m. followed by qualifying and racing at 7 p.m. The event will be streamed live on TheCushion.com
After losing two shots at getting the "Herb Scott Memorial" completed back in April, Saturday will mark what is now the first of three remaining appearances by the Flynn's Tire/Gunter's Honey Tour at "Dirt's Monster Half-Mile". The Tour will return on October 3-4 for the "Bill Hendren Memorial" part of the annual "Pittsburgher" weekend with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
William Thomas "Jook" George had a brief driving career himself, but as he turned to car owner he chose and had for most of his racing career the #10 and that was in honor of his racing hero, Lou Blaney, who drove his car on a couple occasions. Other highlights of his career were being nominated as the Sportsman of the Year at PPMS, being nominated into the Pittsburgh Circle Track Hall of Fame, winning the track championship at PPMS in 1990 with John Beatty behind the wheel, and winning the Fall Classic in 1993 with Bill Yakin, also at PPMS. His most dominant stretch as a car owner came in the late ‘70s when Earl Teeters was his driver.
Starting in 2015, Branden Lockwich took up the effort to make the "Jook George Steel City Classic" into one the biggest races in the tri-state area for the RUSH Late Models. This year, Lockwich has raised more than $13,000, which has been added into the standard Touring Series purse!
In 2017, the event was a Tour race for the first time and drew 43 cars with Mike Pegher, Jr. capturing the $4,010 win. In 2018, a record 51 cars were on hand with Jacob Hawkins scoring the $5,010 win. The 2019 event was the richest as Kyle Lukon scored the $10,010 win and the extra $1,000 contributor bonus. While the COVID-19 pandemic left uncertainty for the 2020 event, Lockwich still worked wonders and brought over $17,000 to the event, which was won by Michael Norris in his first RUSH start for $6,010 and the $1,000 contributor bonus. Norris repeated his fortunes in 2021 collecting $7,010 once again. Logan Roberson won his first career Pittsburgh race worth $7,010 and went on to win the Tour title in 2022. In 2023, Norris topped a 42-car field for then won the event for the fourth time in five tries last year beating a 46-car field. Norris has won more than $28,040 with those victories!
For the fifth time in the event's history, the feature will pay a minimum of $500 to start! The D&V Jewelers Non-Qualifier will feature an increased purse throughout with $400 to-win. The fastest qualifier will receive $200; $100 from FK Rod Ends and $100 from Nick Sutton. The $25 to-win heat races will be presented by FK Rod Ends. The "John Beatty Memorial" Sunoco Dash will set the beginning rows of the feature lineup and will award the winner $204 cash from Nex-Gen Outdoor Services plus a $100 Sunoco fuel gift card. Other bonuses include $107 for seventh place from the Scott Gunn Family, $100 to ninth place on lap nine from Billy Kessler, and $100 to 17th place on lap 17 from Zach Gunn.
The "Fill'er up with Sunoco Bucks" program co-presented by Bazell Race Fuels will include an additional $400 of Sunoco fuel card giveaways; two $100 random draws for drivers in the top 15 in Tour points and another four $50 random draws for all other competitors.
The podium finishers 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 along with $250 from Jim Alvater’s Bridgeville Automotive and Jimmy Alvater. Ontime Body & Graphic's "Spoiler Alert" will award a spoiler kit to the ninth place finisher. 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. Forty lucky fans each night will receive a bottle of Dusted Steak Seasoning.
“Jook Jackpot” from Branden Lockwich and Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway: any driver who donates $100 towards the race will get entered into the “Jook Jackpot”. Three drivers will be selected after the RUSH drivers meeting. If one of the drivers selected wins the Jook, they will take home the whole $1,000 bonus. However, if not, the money will be split across the three drivers based on finishing position. If all three make the feature, it will be split $500-$300-$200. If one or more of the drivers do not make the feature, the distribution will get updated accordingly.
Lockwich will have two decks of cards, if we end up with 16 drivers for example, I will pull all the face cards out of both decks and someone who is not associated with myself or the race will pull three cards from the second deck and stick them in an envelope and whichever drivers pull those cards will then be in the “Jook Jackpot”. The order to draw your card will be the reverse of the pill draw so if someone draws #100 they will pull their card first and then we will go through everyone. Once all the drivers draw, Lockwich will open the envelope and match the three cards to the drivers. You must have your $100 paid before the drivers meeting, if you do no then you will not pull a card.
Also, thanks to an anonymous donor, one of the Jackpot drivers will get their $100 entry fee back. This will be drawn at the drivers meeting.
Four-time Series Champion, Jeremy Wonderling leads the Flynn’s Tire/Gunter’s Honey Tour to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Wonderling has been hot this month with a runner-up at Tyler County Speedway followed by victories at Ohio Valley Speedway and The Dirt Track at Genesee to increase his points lead to 37 over 2021 champion Kyle Hardy. Hardy is coming off his season’s best effort on Tuesday night when he raced from 13th to 3rd and was battling for the win in the closing laps.
Second year Tour racer, Austin Allen, is third just two points ahead of Demetrios Drellos, who leads the 3C Graphix Rookie-of-the-Year standings. Another second year Tour racer, Ben Easler, is fifth. Veteran Jason Knowles is sixth just seven points out of third. Zack Carley, who is battling Drellos for the RoY title, is seventh. Daryl Charlier, who won last year’s RoY championship, has one win this season (Tri-City) and is eighth. Bryce Davis and Bud Watson complete the top 10. Mike Wonderling, Austin Hauser, Bill Holmes III, Ryan Hare, and Brad Mesler are 11-15 in points paying positions.
Brandon Burgoon, who won last year’s $10,000 “Bill Hendren Memorial” at Pittsburgh for his first career Tour victory, leads the local contingent. Burgoon has won the last two City Chevrolet Weekly Series events at PPMS and has three wins on the season to lead the City Chevrolet “Track Pack” points at PPMS. Burgoon is the only multi-time winner as there’s been six different winners in eight races! Other winners this year at PPMS include Zach Kane, Jake Gunn, Christian Schneider, Tom Klein, and Tommy Schirnhofer, Jr.
Feature Payoff (Minimum as of 7/24): 1. $6,010 2. $3,000 3. $2,000 4. $1,500 5. $1,250 6. $1,000 7. $900 8. $850 9. $800 10. $775 11. $750 12. $725 13. $700 14. $675 15. $650 16. $625 17. $600 18. $575 19. $560 20. $550 21. $535 22. $520 23. $510 24-26. $500
D&V Jewelers Non-Qualifier Payoff: 1. $400 2. $250 3. $225 4. $200 5. $195 6. $190 7. $185 8. $180 9. $175 10. $170 11. $165 12-24. $160. Tow $125.
You do not have to be a member of RUSH to compete only to receive Weekly and/or Tour points. The entry fee is $100. AMB/MyLaps transponders will be used. Units are available to rent for $25. Driver radio channel will be 453.800 for Pittsburgh.
RUSH registration will open by 3 p.m. with the drivers meeting at 5:25. Warm-ups are slated for 6 followed by qualifying. Racing is at 7 p.m. Click the following link for the pit notes/agenda: https://www.rushlatemodels.com/PPMSAgenda072625.pdf
Saturday's event will also count towards the RUSH City Chevrolet National Weekly Series Championships and Russ King Racing "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.
Pittsburgh’s PA Motor Speedway is a ½-mile dirt track with a GPS address of 170 Kelso Rd, Imperial PA 15126, which is located just off the Noblestown exit on Routes 22/30. For more information, check out their website at www.ppms.com or call 412-279-7223. The track number on race day is 724-695-3363 or 724-695-0393. As for their social media outlets, you can like their page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PittsburghsPennsylvaniaMotorSpeedway or follow them on Twitter @PAMotorSpeedway.
The RUSH Racing Series is brought to you by Hovis Auto & Truck Supply together with Born2Run Lubricants along with the support of Hoosier Tire, Rick Hendrick City Chevrolet, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, Flynn's Tire, Gunter's Honey, MSD Performance, Holley Performance Products, FK Rod Ends, Billy's Garage, Joseph J. Oliva Attorney at Law, Schoenfeld Headers, Jones Racing Products, Landrum Performance Springs, Russ King Racing, 3C Graphix, Dave Poske's Performance Parts, Velocita-USA, Wieland Metal Services, Frankland Racing Supply, Seal-Tite Paving & Excavating, Dusted Steak Seasoning, Ontime Body & Graphic, D&V Jewelers, AERO Race Wheels, Heritage Wine Cellars, Precise Racing Products, Racing Electronics, Design Creations, and Competition Crate Parts.
E-mail can be sent to the RUSH Racing Series at info@rushracingseries.com 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 X (formerly known as Twitter) @RUSHLM.
Article Credit: Mike Leone
