McKean County Raceway

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at McKean County Raceway! We are thankful for all the support so far and look forward to seeing you all next year!!

RICHEST WEEKEND IN PACE RUSH SPRINT CAR HISTORY TO TAKE PLACE JUNE 19-20 AT MCKEAN & BRADFORD FOR A PAIR OF $1000 TO-WIN, $175 TO-START EVENTS By Mike Leone Nov...ember 25, 2020 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Pulaski, PA)...The Pace Performance RUSH Sprint Car Series together with Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC is thrilled to announce the richest weekend in Series history will take place on June 19-20, 2021. A pair of $1,000 to-win, $175 to-start Equipment Rental Options Weekly Series special events will be held on back-to-back nights just 15 miles apart in McKean County, Pennsylvania with Saturday night at McKean County Raceway and Sunday night at Bradford Speedway. After not operating each of the past two seasons, McKean will be under new management in 2021 led by Close Racing Supply owner Joel Smith and former promoter Ken Leet. MCR will be running a specials-only slate of events that includes the RUSH Late Models and RUSH Pro Mods. Bradford meanwhile had an excellent first season under Dennis Cummings despite the pandemic. Bradford features the RUSH Late Models and RUSH Pro Mods weekly. "This will be a tremendous addition to our schedule," stated RUSH Director Vicki Emig. "The northern racers have been hoping for some additional events up that way and it's been awhile since we've been to McKean or Bradford. To have two $1000 to-win races 15 miles apart on successive nights is awesome. McKean has already done some reconfiguration to their 1/3-mile track to make the racing better, while our past shows at Bradford on the 1/4-mile bullring were very exciting." Prior to the McKean-Bradford doubleheader, the week will start off early on Tuesday (June 15) at Sharon Speedway for a $600 to-win, $150 to-start race part of the All Star Circuit of Champions' Ohio Sprint Speedweek that will be broadcast live on FloRacing.com. This will create three Equipment Rental Options Weekly Series specials in six days! After a promising year one in 2018, rain wiped out 40% of the schedule in 2019, and the Series was hard hit by COVID-19 this past year, but still 27 different cars competed. However, all signs are pointing upward for 2021 as a bevy of new competitors will be making their debut, over 30 shows are expected with approximately 50% paying $600 or more to-win and several will be broadcast on FloRacing, DIRTVision and Lernerville TV. Drivers will be battling for the $20,000 Equipment Rental Options Weekly Series Championship with $5,000 going to the winner plus the "Futures Cup" Championship will return. Chad Ruhlman won the only RUSH Sprint Car event ever run at McKean back in 2018, while Ruhlman also swept both events at Bradford in 2018. In 2019 at Bradford, Bradley Blackshear won his first career Sprint race. Ruhlman went on to win the championship both of those years, while Jeremy Weaver was the 2020 Equipment Rental Options Weekly Series champion for Hull Racing. Sixteen-year-old Nolan Groves was the "Futures Cup" Champion with a trio of podium finishes. McKean & Bradford Payoff: 1. $1,000 2. $500 3. $350 4. $275 5. $250 6. $240 7. $230 8. $225 9. $220 10. $215 11. $210 12. $205 13. $200 14. $195 15. $190 16. $185 17. $180 18-24. $175. Tow/Non-Qualifier $75. McKean County Raceway is a 1/3-mile dirt track located at the McKean County Fairgrounds in East Smethport, Pa. at the intersections of Route 6 and 46. For more information on McKean County Family Raceway, check out their Facebook page at McKean County Raceway. Follow them on Twitter @McKeanCoRaceway. Bradford Speedway is a 1/4-mile dirt track located at 330 Summit Road, Bradford, PA 16701. For more information, check out their Facebook page at Bradford Speedway. RUSH Racing Series is brought to you by Pace Performance together with Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC along with the support of Hoosier Tire, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bazell Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, MSD Performance, Holley Performance Products, Hovis Auto & Truck Supply, FK Rod Ends, Wehrs Machine & Racing Products, Schoenfeld Headers, Jones Racing Products, TBM Brakes, Performance Bodies & Parts, Racing Electronics, Dirt Defender, Wrisco Industries, Frankland Racing Supply, Landrum Performance Spring, Ontime Body & Graphic, Zarin Truck & Automotive, Sherwood Wheels, Alternative Power Sources, Precise Racing Products, Lincoln Electric, Velocita-USA, CrateInsider.com, and Wedge Motorsports. E-mail can be sent to the RUSH Racing Series at [email protected] and snail mail to 4368 Route 422, Pulaski, PA 16143. Office phone is 724-964-9300 and fax is 724-964-0604. The RUSH Sprint Car Series website is www.rushsprintcars.com. Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rushprintcars and follow us on Twitter @RUSHSprints. ###

Let the work begin...

RACING RETURNS TO MCR IN 2021! During the monthly McKean County Fair Board meeting, a lease agreement for racing at the facility in 2021 was approved. Joel Smith and Ken Leet, doing business as J&K Motorsports, LLC, will operate the facility next summer with a tentative 8-10 race schedule being finalized.... Preliminary plans will include events for the Zimmer’s Service Center United Late Model Series, RUSH Racing Series Late Models & Pro Mods, Pure Stocks and Mini Stocks. J&K Motorsports is also in contact with other sanctioning bodies and will have a tentative schedule announced in the upcoming weeks. The track surface is being re-worked, with the corner banking being lowered, which should make the speedway more conducive to side by side racing that it once had years ago. Both Smith and Leet have extensive backgrounds in racing. Smith is the owner of Close Racing Supply, and Leet was previously involved promoting MCR with Rod Biehler, Rich Yeager, and Tom Gleason. The foursome was responsible for bringing crate late model racing to the area, as well as creating the Fall Classic events. Our goal is to not only provide quality entertainment for the fans with competitive racing, but also provide a good surface for the best local and regional drivers in our area, stated Smith. We are also race fans. We want to see good side by side racing and provide that entertainment in a timely fashion, Smith also added. Both Leet and Smith are Smethport natives, and realize the financial impact racing can bring to the local business establishments in the area. "We hope to bring many race fans, drivers, crews, and sponsors to the Smethport and McKean County area in hopes of local businesses benefitting" says Smith. We realize there is a lot of work ahead of us, but we are assembling a strong team with several key people that have years of experience to help make this successful, said Leet. It’s exciting to see how much enthusiasm is already out there, now that people know that racing will be back at MCR in 2021. The fair board has been great to work with and they are excited about bringing racing back to their facility. They want to see success just like all of us do." More information will be available on our Facebook page and a website should be up and running in the coming weeks!

Stay Tuned... #2021