By Steve Inch
SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Selinsgrove Speedway will present the 36th running of the Jack Gunn Memorial for sprint cars at 7 p.m. this Saturday, April 30, sanctioned by the United Racing Club.
Joining the 358-360 sprint cars on the racing card will be the super late models, pro stocks, and roadrunners for the first four division racing card of the season. Track gates will open at 5 p.m.
For the 11th consecutive year, the Gunn Memorial will feature a 30-lap race between the traveling URC 360 sprint cars and the track’s weekly Newville Family of Companies 358-360 sprint cars. The race will pay $2,200 to win, $500 for fifth, and $300 to start out of a $13,425 total purse. Time trials, heats, and a B-Main will be the format for setting the 24-car starting field for the Gunn Memorial.
The tribute race is run each year to honor the memory of the late race track promoter Jack Gunn, who operated Selinsgrove, Williams Grove, Penn National, and Hagerstown Speedways during his career and brought mid-state dirt track racing to national prominence in the 1970’s. Gunn was inducted posthumously into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (Knoxville, Iowa) in 1990.
Some of the biggest names in sprint car racing have won the prestigious Jack Gunn Memorial at Selinsgrove Speedway. Lynn Paxton of Dillsburg; Steve Kinser of Bloomington, Ind.; Doug Wolfgang of Sioux Falls, S.D., are a few of the drivers who have won the race as a 410 sprint car event. In the track’s modern era, TJ Stutts of Liverpool, Chad Layton of Harrisburg, Blane Heimbach of Selinsgrove, and Dave Calaman of Carlisle took wins as a 358 sprint car race.
The Gunn Memorial became a URC-sanctioned challenge race between 358 and 360 sprint car drivers in 2006, when Heimbach took the victory as well as in the 2008 and 2012 editions of the race. Calaman (2007); Trevor Lewis of Upper Black Eddy (2009, 2010); Shane Stewart of Indianapolis, Ind. (2011); JJ Grasso of Pedricktown, N.J. (2013); Aaron Ott of East Berlin (2014); and defending winner Mark Smith of Sunbury have also won the Gunn Memorial as a URC-sanctioned event.
The super late models will compete in a 25-lap feature paying $1,500 to win, while the pro stocks will race in a 15-lap main event paying $400 to win. The roadrunners will round out the show with a 12-lap race.
Selinsgrove Raceway Park, the one-fifth mile track located inside of Selinsgrove Speedway’s half-mile oval, will present a complete program of go kart and 125 micro sprint car racing at 7 p.m. Friday, April 29. Track gates will open at 5:30 p.m. 
For a complete schedule, the latest news, results, and race status, visit selinsgrovespeedway.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. The track office can be reached at 570.374.2266.
2016 Jack Gunn Memorial 360 Sprint Car Purse: 1) $2,200 2) $1,400 3) $1,000 4) $700 5) $650 6) $600 7) $575 8) $550 9) $525 10) $500 11) $450 12) $425 13) $400 14) $375 15) $350 16) $325 17-24) $300
Sprint Car Tow: $50
Admission for April 30, 2016: Adult General Admission: $15; Students (12-17 with ID) $7; Kids 11 & Under FREE; Pit Passes $30