SELINSGROVE — On Sunday, June 18, Twila Long plans to stand in Selinsgrove Speedway’s victory lane, holding a checkered flag that’s only been signed by three race car drivers.
She plans to add another signature to the flag, that of the winner of the evening’s Paul Long Memorial. The race will be the finale for the Super Late Model Appalachian Mountain Speed Week.
The other individuals to have signed the flag are the previous winners of the Long Memorial, held in memory of Twila’s husband, noted dirt late model driver Paul Long.
Jeff Rine won the race in 2004, 2005 and 2008, with Gary Stuhler claiming the victory in 2006 and Nick Dickson in 2007.
A race in memory of Long has not been contested since 2008.
Twila and her daughter, Paula Schick, recently met to discuss Paul’s history in racing and the upcoming return of the memorial event.
Paul passed away in 2003. He raced late models between 1955 and 1979, winning track championships in 1966 and 1973 at Selinsgrove Speedway. He has 32 wins at the track.
At Williams Grove Speedway, Long recorded 11 wins and the 1969 track championship.
Twila said her late husband “100% loved racing.”
“Even after he couldn’t race anymore, he worked for me in the (Selinsgrove Speedway) concession stand,” Twila said. “He was my cashier.”
Paul worked as a mechanic at Selinsgrove Ford for 36 years. His wife describes him as a “Ford man.”
“When people would come in (to the concession stand) and start ribbing him about Fords, he said ‘If I ever win the lottery, I’ll have a Ford (racing at) the speedway that you’ll never touch,'” Twila fondly recalled.
Paul’s first race car was a Ford, built with the help of fellow classmates in the ag shop at the Middleburg High School. He was a 1955 graduate of the school.
Twila said her husband and his friends built the car by modifying a Ford coup to become a race car.
“It was choral and green, it was number 5,” she recalled. “He had dice on his doors… I think that was a project that they did, that the ag teacher let them do when they got through with their regular ag stuff.”
Twila said her brothers, Glen and Bruce Walter, got Paul interested in racing.
Glen’s sons, Michael and Phil Walter, also raced. Michael’s son, also named Michael, now races 410 sprint cars. Paula Schick’s husband, Donnie Schick, is a two-time Selinsgrove Speedway track champion.
The Schick’s daughter, Jenna, is a track champion at the Selinsgrove Raceway Park, for go-karts. Her husband, Tyson Mowery, is also a multi-time champion at that track, and now races in the limited late model division.
“(Paul) raced a car with my older brother, and after that, he wanted his own,” Twila recounted. “His parents were against it, but it didn’t matter.”
She said her husband was in “seventh heaven” when the car he and his friends built hit the track.
“He just built it to have fun,” Twila said.
That fun soon turned into success. Paul won dirt late model races, and championships, primarily while driving cars owned by Ray Benner, of Selinsgrove Ford.
“He was number 5 until Ray Benner decided to go to Cincinnati and they bought a race car, and it was 63,” Twila said. “They left that number on there.
“His most success in winning was when he raced the 63 for Selinsgrove Ford,” she added. “He won championships with that.”
After her father passed away in 2003, Paula Schick said the family wanted to sponsor a race at Selinsgrove in his memory.
“For the first one, we sent out letters to businesses… (individuals) I had connections to, asking for donations to the (race) purse.” Schick said.
In honor of her father’s car numbers, the race paid $500 to start and $6,300 to win.
With her mother operating the track concession stand for 36 years, and the family’s deep ties to racing at the Selinsgrove Speedway, Schick said the timing was right for the memorial race to make a comeback this year.
The race is being sponsored by her husband’s business, Donnie’s Automotive of Middleburg. The business regularly sponsors the Paul Long Memorial Hard Charger Award, given at each late model or super late model race held at Selinsgrove.
“Last year, in September (Selinsgrove Speedway) had a big Selinsgrove Ford (event), on Labor Day weekend,” Schick recounted. “(Selinsgrove Ford owner) Todd Benner had bought a Torino in New York and got it redone… It loos just like dad’s (Ray’s) ’72 Torino.”
The car, resembling the race car driven by Paul Long, was given to Ray Benner, who was the owner of that car.
“That (car) reminded us of the good old days,” Schick said.
When Stephanie Baker took over as Selinsgrove Speedway promoter this year, Schick said she was impressed by the Torino. Baker approached the family and asked if they’d like to bring back the Paul Long Memorial.
Subsequently, Super Late Model Appalachian Mountain Speed Week organizers Todd Benner and Jim Bernheisel approached Donnie’s Automotive about sponsoring one of the races in the series.
“Selinsgrove is the finale, it’s the last race of speedweeks,” Schick said. “Steph agreed to take on a race there. When it became it was a race at Selinsgrove, and one that Donnie’s Automotive is sponsoring, (Baker) suggested making it the Paul Long Memorial.”
The race will pay $5,000 to win, with Paul Long’s family adding a $1,300 bonus, to give the winner a total of $6,300. That pays homage to Long’s car number 63.
The Super Late Model Appalachian Mountain Speedweek kicked off Friday night, June 9, with a race at the Clinton County Speedway.
In addition to the June 18 finale at Selinsgrove, the schedule includes the following: Tonight, Port Royal Speedway; Sunday, June 11, Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland; Tuesday, June 13, Path Valley Speedway; Thursday June 15 and Friday, June 16, Bedford Fairgrounds Speedway; and Saturday, June 17, Lincoln Speedway.