(Pulaski, PA) -While the COVID-19 pandemic certainly did its best to disrupt the Pace Performance RUSH Racing Series together with Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC 2020 season and forced the cancellation of the awards banquet that was scheduled for January 16, Series Directors Vicki Emig and Mike Leone were still able to crown champions for all of the RUSH divisions. Despite the pandemic, 2020 featured strong car counts in all of the RUSH Series divisions and also saw debut of the new RUSH Karting Series. In fact, the Late Model Tour averaged more than 38 cars per event for the second straight year!
For the third consecutive year, Jeremy Wonderling earned the RUSH Late Model Touring Series thanks to top six finishes in all six races; meanwhile on the Weekly side, Wonderling captured nine feature wins propelling him to his first National Weekly Series Championship, worth $5,000. Wonderling beat out Max Blair, who had won the crown five of the last seven years, by just one-point! Wonderling also won the Bradford Speedway track championship.
Wonderling, 40 of Wellsville, NY, has had a very successful racing career starting in an IMCA Modified in 1998 before moving on to "360" Late Models and winning four BRP Series championships. From there, Wonderling started his RUSH Late Model career in 2014. Wonderling has won better than 100 feature events.
It certainly wasn’t an easy year for race tracks to deal with the pandemic, but in the case of RUSH, Wonderling felt they did about as good as anyone. “They tried to keep everything as safe as possible and tried to get as much racing in as possible.”
“Financially, RUSH is the smartest thing to do and the most economical," stated Wonderling, who also ran a limited schedule of Super Late Models in 2020. “It’s hard not to run the RUSH Series for what they pay and what Vicki and Mike do for the series. I have to give a shout out to Joel Smith of Close Racing Supply, Jim Stephens from Penske Shocks, and Jason Ore from 955, who all keep my racing program going."
