By Steve Inch
SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Selinsgrove Speedway will present the 39th annual Insinger Performance/ Sunoco Race Fuels Jack Gunn Memorial for 360 sprint cars at 7 p.m. this Saturday, May 25, sanctioned by the United Racing Club.
The Gunn Memorial will feature a 30-lap race between the traveling URC 360 sprint cars and the track’s weekly 358-360 sprint cars. The race will pay $2,500 to win and $250 to start.
Joining the 360 sprint cars on the racing card will be the limited late models in a 30-lap championship paying $1,500 to win and $150 to start. The limited late model rules in effect for this race include 358 cubic inch maximum engines and Hoosier (1300 or harder) or American Racer (44 or harder) tires. The limited late model weight rule will be 2,350 pounds with driver.
Both the 360 sprint cars and limited late models will use group time trials and heat races as the qualifying format.
The pro stocks and roadrunners will compete in 15- and 12-lap features, respectively.
Co-hosts Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa of the popular MotorTrend Network show HOT ROD Garage have rescheduled the taping of a new episode featuring dirt track racing during this Saturday’s program. Angelo will compete in the speedway’s roadrunner division.
Grandstand and pit gates will open at 5 p.m.
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); Mark Smith of Sunbury (2015, 2016); and two-time defending winner Davie Franek of Wantage, N.J., have also won the Gunn Memorial as a URC-sanctioned event.
The Middleburg IGA is sponsoring the Gunn Memorial championship trophy.
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 racing at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 24. 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.
2019 Jack Gunn Memorial 360 Sprint Car Purse: 1) $2,500 2) $1,200 3) $1,000 4) $600 5) $575 6) $550 7) $525 8) $500 9) $475 10) $450 11) $425 12) $400 13) $350 14) $300 15) $275 16-24) $250
TOW: $75
Limited Late Model Championship: 1) $1,500 2) $700 3) $500 4) $400 5) $375 6) $350 7) $325 8) $300 9) $275 10) $250 11) $225 12) $215 13) $200 14) $185 15) $175 16-24) $150
TOW: $30
Admission for May 25, 2019: Adult General Admission: $15; Students (12-17 with ID) $8; Kids 11 & Under FREE; Pit Passes $30