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Schneider Dominates 36th Annual Jook George Memorial

Imperial PA | 7-26-25

Lightning lit up the backstretch. Storms shut down every track around. But PPMS never flinched.
Dirt’s Monster Half Mile dug in, and what followed was a night fans will talk about for years.

The 36th Annual Jook George Memorial Steel City Classic for the Rohrich Automotive/Chevrolet Performance RUSH Late Models and the Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Model Flynn's Tire/Gunter's Honey Touring Series didn’t just beat the weather. It became one of the most unforgettable shows in event history.

Mother Nature gave just enough grace for the track to almost pack in a full night of action: drivers from five states, qualifying, five heat races, a six-lap dash, two B-Mains, and four features, one of which was postponed for another day. Every lap mattered. Every move carried weight.

Christian Schneider (56), from Pittsburgh, picked the perfect time to strike. When the field bunched up early in the main, Schneider pounced. He took the lead and never looked back, holding off every challenge for 32 straight green-flag laps.

When the checkers waved, Schneider had claimed the biggest win of his career, and he did it in front of a hometown crowd on one of the biggest nights of the season.

Before the skies closed in, Logan Zarin (33X), from Hookstown, was awarded the RUSH Late Model DV Jewelers Non-Qualifier feature, which was canceled just before the green. According to RUSH Touring Series rules, the lineup determines the finishing order. Zarin took the win, followed by Cale Schwartzmiller (28S) in second, Ryan Hare (29) in third, Bill Holmes (8) in fourth, Michael Stephans (38) in fifth, and Chuck Medved (2M) in sixth.

In the Pittsburgh Truck Center Penn Ohio Pro Stock feature, AJ Poljak (36), from Baldwin, continued his hot streak. He started outside row one, jumped to the lead at the drop of the green, and never gave anyone a chance.

A lap five caution bunched up the field, but Poljak chose the inside lane and shut the door on any challenge. He led all 15 laps to grab his fifth win of the season. Logan Koteles (64K) finished second, Nick Kocuba (10) took third, Emmerson Laboon (114) was fourth, Ricky Stigerwald (00) came home fifth, and Bill Slade (A22) rounded out the top six.

The story behind the night’s biggest win started long before the green.

Thirty-nine Late Models entered the pits, all with eyes on the $6,010 payday and a spot in Steel City history. Brandon Burgoon (5X), from McDonald, set the tone early with a 19.594 in qualifying to earn the FK Rod Ends "Shock the Clock" Fast Time.

The field was split into four FK Rod Ends Beat the Heat heats, each sending five to the A-Main and two to the redraw for the “John Beatty Memorial” GoSunoco Dash. Burgoon, Schneider, Michael Duritsky Jr. (90J), and Michael Norris (N1) each won their respective heats.

Norris pulled P1 in the redraw and dominated the Dash, earning the pole for the 40-lap main. Martin would start second, followed by Wonderling, Hardy, Burgoon, Schneider, Angelicchio, and Duritsky Jr.

Two B-Mains locked in the final starters: Tom Klein (77) and Broadie Oravetz (91) advanced from the first, while Jake Gunn (14G) and Logen Lockhart (58) took the final spots from the second.

After the Dave Poske's Performance Parts four-wide salute, it was time.

The green flew. Joe Martin (31), from Punxsutawney, jumped to the lead. Norris dropped to third. A caution flew on lap one, followed by a five-car pileup in turn two on the next restart. When things finally settled, Martin chose the outside with Wonderling to his inside. They battled side-by-side. Wonderling briefly got out front, but Martin snatched the lead back the next lap.

Another caution slowed the field on lap six, and Norris headed to the pits with a flat, restarting from the back. When the green returned, Schneider launched from P4, traded shots with Martin, and finally took command on lap eight.

Martin slipped to third, then clawed his way back to second by lap ten. From there, it was all traffic. Schneider weaved through the back of the field with Martin shadowing him nearly the entire way. For more than 20 laps, the two leaders threaded the needle, lap after lap, with nothing but clean racing and raw pressure.

Schneider never cracked. Martin never backed off. The race never slowed again.

Schneider led from lap eight to the finish. Martin (31) crossed second. Wonderling (3J) came home third. Zach Gunn (17G) was fourth. Kyle Hardy (99) rounded out the top five.

Racing returns to Dirt’s Monster Half Mile on Saturday, August 2nd for an Action Event.

The Action Event lineup features the Rohrich Automotive/Chevy Performance RUSH Late Models, Pittsburgh Truck Center Penn Ohio Pro Stocks, Auto House Hobby Stocks, Crawford Auto Repair Open Four Cylinders, and the Kehm Oil Young Guns.

Grandstand gates open at 5 PM. Hot laps at 6. Racing at 7.

The clay’s not cooling off anytime soon.

Get your tickets now on the schedule section at ppms.com/schedule

RESULTS

39 entries
RUSH Late Models

Flynns Tire/Gunters Honey Jook George Memorial (40 Laps): 1. 56-Christian Schneider[6]; 2. 31-Joe Martin[2]; 3. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[3]; 4. 17G-Zach Gunn[14]; 5. 99-Kyle Hardy[4]; 6. 14A-Dan Angelicchio[7]; 7. 42-Daryl Charlier[16]; 8. 184-Kyle Lukon[17]; 9. 111D-Demetrios Drellos[13]; 10. 5X-Brandon Burgoon[5]; 11. N1-Michael Norris[1]; 12. 14G-Jake Gunn[22]; 13. 77-Tom Klein[21]; 14. 32A-Austin Allen[19]; 15. 02-Ben Easler[11]; 16. 8S-Tommy Schirnhofer Jr[12]; 17. 90J-Michael Duritsky Jr[8]; 18. 21J-Jamie Wrightsman[26]; 19. 58-Logen Lockhart[24]; 20. 16-Clinton Hersh[10]; 21. 18-Mike Wonderling[18]; 22. 2C-Zack Carley[25]; 23. 4-Jason Knowles[20]; 24. 72B-Kassidy Kamicker[15]; 25. 9R-Mike Reft[9]; 26. 91B-Brodie Oravetz[23]

B Main 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Tom Klein[4]; 2. 91B-Brodie Oravetz[2]; 3. 21J-Jamie Wrightsman[7]; 4. 75-Jon Lee[1]; 5. 28S-Cale Schwartzmiller[6]; 6. 29-Ryan Hare[8]; 7. 8-Bill Holmes[3]; 8. (DNS) 15B-Matthew Benard; 9. (DNS) 6R-Chuck Recker

B Main 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14G-Jake Gunn[1]; 2. 58-Logen Lockhart[2]; 3. 33X-Logan Zarin[3]; 4. 2C-Zack Carley[6]; 5. 51-Austin Hauser[10]; 6. 225-Bud Watson[5]; 7. 38-Michael Stephans[8]; 8. 2M-Chuck Medved[7]; 9. 94-Bryce Davis[4]; 10. (DNS) 25Z-Mason Zeigler

Sunoco Dash (6 Laps): 1. N1-Michael Norris[1]; 2. 31-Joe Martin[2]; 3. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[5]; 4. 99-Kyle Hardy[7]; 5. 5X-Brandon Burgoon[4]; 6. 56-Christian Schneider[8]; 7. 14A-Dan Angelicchio[6]; 8. 90J-Michael Duritsky Jr[3]

FK Rod Ends Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5X-Brandon Burgoon[1]; 2. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[3]; 3. 9R-Mike Reft[2]; 4. 111D-Demetrios Drellos[4]; 5. 184-Kyle Lukon[5]; 6. 75-Jon Lee[8]; 7. 8-Bill Holmes[9]; 8. 6R-Chuck Recker[10]; 9. 21J-Jamie Wrightsman[6]; 10. 15B-Matthew Benard[7]

FK Rod Ends Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 56-Christian Schneider[2]; 2. 31-Joe Martin[1]; 3. 02-Ben Easler[6]; 4. 72B-Kassidy Kamicker[3]; 5. 32A-Austin Allen[8]; 6. 91B-Brodie Oravetz[4]; 7. 77-Tom Klein[5]; 8. 28S-Cale Schwartzmiller[9]; 9. 29-Ryan Hare[7]

FK Rod Ends Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 90J-Michael Duritsky Jr[5]; 2. 99-Kyle Hardy[6]; 3. 16-Clinton Hersh[2]; 4. 17G-Zach Gunn[3]; 5. 18-Mike Wonderling[8]; 6. 14G-Jake Gunn[1]; 7. 33X-Logan Zarin[7]; 8. 225-Bud Watson[10]; 9. 2M-Chuck Medved[9]; 10. (DNS) 25Z-Mason Zeigler

FK Rod Ends Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. N1-Michael Norris[1]; 2. 14A-Dan Angelicchio[2]; 3. 8S-Tommy Schirnhofer Jr[3]; 4. 42-Daryl Charlier[10]; 5. 4-Jason Knowles[5]; 6. 58-Logen Lockhart[4]; 7. 94-Bryce Davis[6]; 8. 2C-Zack Carley[8]; 9. 38-Michael Stephans[9]; 10. 51-Austin Hauser[7]

FK Rod Ends Qualifying A: 1. 5X-Brandon Burgoon, 00:19.594[14]; 2. 31-Joe Martin, 00:19.601[3]; 3. 9R-Mike Reft, 00:19.713[19]; 4. 56-Christian Schneider, 00:19.857[16]; 5. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling, 00:19.941[11]; 6. 72B-Kassidy Kamicker, 00:19.951[1]; 7. 111D-Demetrios Drellos, 00:19.994[17]; 8. 91B-Brodie Oravetz, 00:20.026[12]; 9. 184-Kyle Lukon, 00:20.093[8]; 10. 77-Tom Klein, 00:20.094[5]; 11. 21J-Jamie Wrightsman, 00:20.114[4]; 12. 02-Ben Easler, 00:20.292[15]; 13. 15B-Matthew Benard, 00:20.478[2]; 14. 29-Ryan Hare, 00:20.558[13]; 15. 75-Jon Lee, 00:20.641[7]; 16. 32A-Austin Allen, 00:20.803[18]; 17. 8-Bill Holmes, 00:21.071[9]; 18. 28S-Cale Schwartzmiller, 00:21.268[6]; 19. 6R-Chuck Recker, 00:22.301[10]

FK Rod Ends Qualifying B: 1. 14G-Jake Gunn, 00:19.731[2]; 2. N1-Michael Norris, 00:19.761[17]; 3. 16-Clinton Hersh, 00:19.916[4]; 4. 14A-Dan Angelicchio, 00:20.054[13]; 5. 17G-Zach Gunn, 00:20.056[15]; 6. 8S-Tommy Schirnhofer Jr, 00:20.091[1]; 7. 25Z-Mason Zeigler, 00:20.185[16]; 8. 58-Logen Lockhart, 00:20.189[10]; 9. 90J-Michael Duritsky Jr, 00:20.198[18]; 10. 4-Jason Knowles, 00:20.275[5]; 11. 99-Kyle Hardy, 00:20.276[20]; 12. 94-Bryce Davis, 00:20.463[3]; 13. 33X-Logan Zarin, 00:20.503[12]; 14. 51-Austin Hauser, 00:20.600[8]; 15. 18-Mike Wonderling, 00:20.627[19]; 16. 2C-Zack Carley, 00:20.767[7]; 17. 2M-Chuck Medved, 00:21.067[9]; 18. 38-Michael Stephans, 00:21.186[11]; 19. 225-Bud Watson, 00:21.326[6]; 20. (DNS) 42-Daryl Charlier

DV Jewelers Non Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 33X-Logan Zarin[1]; 2. 28S-Cale Schwartzmiller[3]; 3. 29-Ryan Hare[5]; 4. 8-Bill Holmes[7]; 5. 38-Michael Stephans[8]; 6. 2M-Chuck Medved[10]; 7. (DNS) 75-Jon Lee; 8. (DNS) 51-Austin Hauser; 9. (DNS) 225-Bud Watson; 10. (DNS) 15B-Matthew Benard; 11. (DNS) 6R-Chuck Recker; 12. (DNS) 94-Bryce Davis; 13. (DNS) 25Z-Mason Zeigler

6 entries
Penn Ohio Pro Stocks

A Feature 1: 1. 36-AJ Poljak[2]; 2. 64-Logan Koteles[1]; 3. 10-Nick Kocuba[3]; 4. 114-Emmerson Laboon[4]; 5. 00-Ricky Steigerwald[5]; 6. A22-Bill Slade[6]
Heat 1: 1. 36-AJ Poljak[4]; 2. 64-Logan Koteles[1]; 3. 10-Nick Kocuba[2]; 4. 114-Emmerson Laboon[3]; 5. 00-Ricky Steigerwald[6]; 6. (DNS) A22-Bill Slade

9 entries
Hobby Stocks

Heat 1: 1. 64-Tom Anton[5]; 2. 40B-Leroy Brown[8]; 3. 14-Marc Corio[7]; 4. 88-Kyle Janas[4]; 5. 221K-Karlee Kovacs[1]; 6. 72-Cole Cochran[2]; 7. 22-Robert Betz[3]; 8. 56-SADIE SNATCHKO[6]; 9. 206-Daniel Horne[9]

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