Genesee To Host “Empire State Classic” For Rush Sprint Cars
Story By: MIKE LEONE / RUSH RACING SERIES – PULASKI, PA – As the inaugural slate of events for the Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC RUSH Sprint Cars gets closer to being finalized, Series Directors Vicki Emig and Mike Leone are excited to announce the addition of Genesee Speedway to the 2018 schedule.
The Batavia, New York 1/3-mile oval at the Genesee County Fairgrounds has added the RUSH Sprint Cars to their “Topless Nationals” on September 15-16. The “Empire State Classic” will feature a Bonnell’s Rod Shop Weekly Series special event paying $800 to-win, $160 to-start on both Saturday and Sunday! In addition, RUSH will post a $300 bonus to the top point earner over the two days.
Genesee completed their second year under the promotion of local businessman and longtime racer, Jim Johnson. The RUSH Late Models have headlined the weekly program each season and have grown from an average car count of just over 12 in their inaugural season in 2016 to nearly 20 cars on average over their 16 completed events in 2017! Genesee has been in the process of putting a new clay surface down and changing the banking to provide more side-by-side racing.
The 2017 “Topless Nationals”, headlined by the RUSH Late Models along with Genesee’s Sportsman Modifieds, was considered to be one of the biggest events in the history of the speedway. The joining of the non-wing RUSH Sprint Cars will make this event even bigger event and bring an entirely new group of fans, as it’s been nine years since full-size Sprint Cars competed at Genesee! The second annual “Topless Nationals” will have a 3 p.m. start time each day.
“Since we announced the formation of the RUSH Sprint Car division back in February, we’ve continually received a lot of interest from New York,” explained Emig. “We’ve had several New York racers state their intention of participating in 2018, and we’ve talked to many that are hoping the division takes off in New York so they can compete in the future. We feel the Topless Nationals is a great event to showcase the non-wing Sprint Cars and perfect timing to introduce them to the New York region. Jimmy has expressed a lot of interest in this division, and we are hopeful that he will have them on his schedule at least a half-dozen times in 2019 to become our anchor track in New York. We can’t thank Jimmy Johnson enough for scheduling them both days with increased payoffs.”
The Genesee events now gives racers in the northern part of the region six special events to compete in with two shows also at both Bradford and Stateline Speedways along with a single event at Eriez Speedway. The complete 2018 schedule will be released soon. The Genesee events will be part of the $20,000+ Bonnell’s Rod Shop Weekly Series Championship that will see the inaugural champion win $5,000. Like all of RUSH’s other divisions, the Weekly Championship will be based off drivers’ best 12 finishes. The RUSH Sprint Car program also includes the $3,000 “Wednesday Night Lightning” program (counts towards Weekly points) at Lernerville Speedway and the “Futures Cup”.
