SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Selinsgrove Speedway and the family of the late racer Ron Keister will honor his memory with the second running of the Big Wrangler Ranch Motorsports Ron Keister Memorial for super late models paying $5,200 to win on Saturday, May 14.
Keister was a 28-year-old late model competitor in 1976 when he lost his life in a racing accident at the Snyder County oval.
In addition to the hefty winner’s share, the 52-lap main event will offer more than $34,000 in prize money and contingencies for a non-sanctioned late model race. The runner-up will earn $4,000, with $3,000, $2,500, and $2,000 posted for drivers finishing in the top five positions.
The race will pay a minimum of $1,000 back to the 12th-finishing driver and $400 to start.
The fast qualifier, heat and B-main winners, hard charger and leader of lap 11 in the A-main will earn $110 bonuses.
Keister was a crew member on former champion Paul Long’s late model team before his father Eugene Keister fielded the No. 11 for Ron. A standout kart and snowmobile racer, Keister showed early promise as a dirt track racer until tragedy struck on April 10, 1976.
Keister was a 1966 graduate of Mifflinburg Area High School where he was a star football player who campaigned the No. 52 on his jersey. He later enrolled and graduated from Penn State University in 1974 with a degree in architectural engineering. At the time of his accident he was married and the father of two children.
Keister’s former numbers 11 and 52 will serve as tributes—$5,200 to win and $110 qualifying bonuses—on May 14 at Selinsgrove Speedway. The limited late models will also compete in a 20-lap main event.
Keister’s brother Randy along with Randy’s wife Jody and son Michael continue the family’s racing tradition as the owners of the super late model No. 22 driven by Herndon’s Brett Schadel, who already picked up an early season win at Selinsgrove on April 24.