Ben Tunny Racing

Shoutout to Earnest Performance and Brannon Earnest for getting me this coil over care pack to me quickly and painlessly. One of the best to work with here. If you haven’t reached out about shocks yet, you’re missing out!

Looking to build up a more bigger and hyped event than just the same ole shows on repeat for everyone. Obviously, this takes help and contribution from friends, fans and businesses near and far. Below, is a goals we’re aiming high for, for next weekends race.

If anyone wants to help contribute, please contact the Speedrome and tell Scott Or Jonathan that you’re donating to the Phyllis Tunny Memorial race and they can keep a tally of where we are at with sponsors and donations. I’ll help as well. If you would rather 💰Zelle or 🟢 Cash App or pay by Credit Card 💳 , get with me and I will connect with the Speedrome to make sure this all goes to the race itself. Thank you all in advance if you choose to participate and help! 🏁🏆🙏🏼

May 11th, 2024
Phyliss Tunny Memorial Format/Payout Ideas
Current:
1. $1450 ——> $5000
2. $750 ——-> $1500
3. $650 ——-> $1000
4. $500 ——-> $750
5. $475 ——-> $650
6. $425
7. $400
8. $375
9. $350
10. $325 ——-> on down until $200 to start

Looking for sponsors to grow the purse like such. Hopefully we can get announcer to give each person or business a shout-out next weekend if you contribute!

But, I’d like to see these be goals for more bigger races other than just 3 hour or 90 min spring shootout. Someone else should take the lead for those and other upcoming races.

So far we have $100 from Kylie Anne Photography added to winners purse

Indy Screen Print adding $300 for a Hard Charger award for most improved position

FIVE1 Designs boosting 4th and 5th place money up to $550 and $525 now.

Mortgages by Debbie Tunny adding $100 to most laps led

Wood Enterprises adding a $100 but I’m not sure where they want it yet.

Kurt Gearlds Jr. Adding a $100 to winners purse on behalf of Speedrome TV

If you can contribute, please help us grow and support this raise to be bigger and better if we can. My grandma started a petition in the early 80’s to save the speedrome when people wanted it shut down due to the noise. Without that it’s hard to say what could’ve happened, so now I’m petitioning for more bigger races and we just need everyone to chip in for it to happen.

Let’s do it! 🇺🇸🏆🏁🏎️ It’s May in Indiana! Race Season in full effect!

Blessed to be able to pull off a win 🏆 last night

I always feel like every win could be my last one any more. I know how hard it is to win in these cars and it’s very hard to get on a hot 🥵 streak and very easy to get on a cold 🥶 streak. Just have to keep paying attention to all the little things and make the best of every you can and stay ready.

Shoutout to my gang for all their help week to week, day to day, year to year: Josh Ridener, Jerica Smith, Medessa Ann, Val Thurston, and Jeff Thinnes when he can. Couldn’t hardly make a show without you guys helping behind the scenes. (Ty Romeo, Lindsey N Matt Johnson, Porter and Raymond for coming up too)

Thanks to everybody who chips in on this operation and I hope everyone supports these fellow small businesses out as much as they can:

🟡 VK Smoke Shop
⚫️ Shuffitt's NAPA AutoCare
🟡 ICA Dumpsters
⚫️ Brown’s Oil Service
🟡 Earnest Performance
⚫️ Pro Touch Lawn Mowing
🟡 Hadleys Towing
⚫️ T8 Racecars
🟡 Bob’s Tu Your Door 🍕
⚫️ Joe Williamson Racing Engines
🟡 Polk Bros Racing/Tunny Motorsports
⚫️ Breedlove Automotive
🟡 Mortgages by Deb Tunny
⚫️ Maid to Clean 🧼
🟡 Millennium Trailers
⚫️ Kylie Anne Photography
🟡 Tunny’s Auto Service

One more 50 lap race and we look forward to the 75 lap Phyliss Tunny Memorial race. See my next post for help to boost this event to get a good hyped race for fans and drivers to look forward to.

Thank you everybody!

After FL, we’ve come back home and had a good start to the season with 2 feature- 75 lap wins at 2 different tracks. The first one we earned rightfully, and this one we kind of fell into. My little brother Austin I think had everyone covered last night and led every lap and unfortunately broke something in the back end. Fortunately for us being in 2nd we were able to hang on.

First want to thank all the sponsors. Never did make a post from Sportsdrome’s outcome. We’d like to thank everyone who’s helped out and plan to help out this season for 2024:
❇️ Polk Bros Racing
❇️ VK Smoke Shop
❇️ Hadley Towing
❇️ Shuffitt’s NAPA Autocare
❇️ Browns Oil Service
❇️ Earnest Performance Shocks
❇️ Tunny Motorsports
❇️ Joe Williamson Racing Engines
❇️ Pro Touch Lawn Mowing
❇️ T8 Racecars
❇️ ICA Dumpsters
❇️ Mortgages by Deb Tunny
❇️ Breedlove Automotive

Thanks again to m crew for doing a great job week in and week out: Jerica, Josh, Val and Jeff, you guys rock. Thank you for the commitment!

Thanks to every driver who has given so many kind breaks in traffic and in the intersection. Owe you all one in return one day.

Thanks to my lovely gf Medessa for putting up with me, and all my family for their support.

Big extra shoutout to Bob Polk for not just being a sponsor and a friend but believing in me and my passion for the sport off the track. I can’t thank you enough!

See everyone next week!

Trying to get car count up for the Sportsdrome Speedway outlaw figure 8 race. It’s the Midwestern, so it’s a 75 lap historical event. The more cars we get, the better the purse gets. Pays quite a bit more than our 75 lap races at Speedrome. It’s on Speedrome tires, and is a 4 tire event. Speedrome rules also. 2450, 10” wheels, big roofs can stay on. Who’s coming?

Me
Mark Tunny?
Jesse Tunny
Austin Tunny I believe is
Mason Hadley is in

Haven’t heard really about anyone else up here. We need to get some guys going

I know it’s late back home, but we’ve been steadily doing activities and driving nonstop so not a lot of down time to post much. Sorry for the long post warning ⛔️

You got people that love FL and hate CA. And then you got people who love CA and FL and that’s me. Ever since I was fortunate enough to make it out west in 2014, with much help from EDCO Welding and the Van Meter family, I’ve been basically in love with the west coast area. Then, again got to go northwest in 2019 to Seattle and the west got me again. It’s just something about the skyline, hills, trees, mountains and ocean/beaches and all that combined in one. You got no humidity and the best sunsets in SoCal. Almost every day is sunny and 70-80. Florida is just like a hotter version of Indiana with a beach to walk on and get burnt at basically lol. Anyways, I basically just appreciate the world and it’s power and size and all that mushy stuff a lot more when I come back from here every year. Meeting all these new people has grown our sport and helped it reach farther and farther than just the 3 hour alone can do. The FL races have been a big part in that also along with the gang fighting and holding strong on the Washington front at Evergreen. Bring us all together, and we make quite a race and show with lots of talent and nice racecars.

I’m lucky to be able to make it out here and do this. Without the help of a few great sponsors this year I really couldn’t of made it. Just haven’t been in good spot financially this year. Following a poor points finish and a DNF in the 3 hour we didn’t have much to use to get to California as we had in some previous years. With the help of: Bob Polk, his family and Polk Brothers Racing, Pete Shuffitt with Shuffitt's Autocare Shuffitt, David Snead& Lisa Snead with Vaper Kings Indy, Pro Touch Lawn Mowing with Ryan Tunny and his partner Matt, and Brown’s Oil Service we were able to get out west and give a shot at racing again.

Fast forward through Friday and Saturday, we race and it’s one heck of a hard and fast race. Between the top 5-6, anyone had a good shot at winning. With the bad luck the 28, and 20 had, it was myself and my little brothers to race out the finish. With what would of been hard in itself as a race alone turned into a mess of guys running out of gas and pitting with 5 to go. Austin lost ground under green unfortunately and Jesse caught a yellow in time to pit and get back to 2nd and I was lucky to not run out until we drove the car off the track after the race. But it was sure a wild and competitive one with lots of action and battling for position.

I want to thank the crew for working hard all weekend and preparing for the race. It’s been a nightmare getting the car ready following the dirt race, and then getting it out there and changing stuff constantly chasing hundreds of a second it seems. Jerica Smith, Val Thurston, Chris Johnson and Josh Ridener thanks a bunch for all the time, commitment and dedication to help me do something I love to do. Hope you all continue to want to because I ain’t getting tired of doing it yet. Just getting fatter and some gray sprinkles of hair lol. Thanks to Medessa Ann for supporting me and my “hobby” and traveling to support me and helping out with everything around the house because I’m not hardly home. Thanks to my mom, and Aunt Debbie for coming to most all of our races and supporting me and my brothers.

Thanks to all our sponsors in 2023 for another fairly successful season with 5-6 Speedrome feature wins and this West Coast Outlaw Figure 8 win:

Polk Bros Racing
Vaper Kings Indy
Browns Oil Service powered by Sunoco
Earnest Performance Shocks
Spivey Detailing
ICA Dumpsters
Shuffitt’s NAPA Autocare
Pro Touch Lawn Mowing
Bobs Tu Your Door 🍕
Breedlove Automotive
Joe Williamson Racing Engines
Mortgages by Deb Tunny
T8 Racecars
KY Clutch
Tunny Motorsports

Special Shout out to Mark Murello for getting some deliveries for us while we were gone and hassling him with those. Thank you!

Thanks Chad Sizemore for letting us take your spare rear and diff with us, and Matt Smith for letting us take his scales.

I’m happy we were able to get my dad’s car scheme back to victory lane for some pics.

Time to regroup and refresh for the Winter Storm Series in FL in February! Looking forward to that and not forward to the break of not racing lol.

Thank you to Rod Proctor and everyone from Orange Show Speedway’s staff who made this possible. I appreciate everyone’s hospitality and effort to make it happen. Everyone have a nice Thanksgiving!

Racing season’s winding down to an end. We got one more this weekend at the Speedrome for the new annual Halloween 🎃 race. Last weekend sure was wild. Fun, mixed in with lots of extra work with it being a dirt race. I don’t know how them guys stick with that on a regular basis but the driving side of things on dirt was fun. It was a great idea to put on the show and do it on old throw away tires from modified race teams. Made for a cheap way for cars to come run and for a good purse with lots of bonuses. Thanks to everyone who pitched in on that and thanks to Kimmie Greig for organizing all of it. We’re supposed to have more dirt figure 8’s next year and for more money. Should be interesting to see what’s go come.

Looking ahead, after this weekend we look to prepare to try and get to California for the West Coast Outlaw Figure 8 championship. It’s November 18th. Then, the following day we hop over to Willow Springs to race a 100 lap figure 8 on a track I’ve never ran on or been to.

Should be a good time as usual, but obviously it’s a long long haul and very expensive. Fuel is about $1750 for the truck. About $300 in racing fuel. Around $600-$800 on hotel rooms, $1000 in race tires. With that, if anyone would be interested in chipping in towards helping us get out there that would be awesome. I think I’ll designate a whole place on the car for every individual to pick a name or nickname they want to have on the car and I’ll bring home a souvenir from CA and give you that piece of another piece of the race car as a thank you to give to a person off the car from a drawing like we did last year. If any of our current sponsors can chip in anything extra for this trip, it would be much appreciated.

$bentunny
Zelle: Benjamin Tunny

Ever hear people say they need to “get back on top”? Well, that phrase couldn’t be any more suitable for us right now. Basically 3 rotten races in a row for us. First, in Painesville, OH a broken watts link bolt and driveshaft, then last week was up to about 6th working slowly forward and had a flat tire fade us to finishing 8th. Now, last night we were marching forward a bit and got spun out. In turn we fell a lap down. That basically ruined our night.

Looking at the bright side, our “team” won the team figure 8 last night, and our cars still top tier on speed and potential for winning. Hopefully things turn around for the Sonny Thompson Memorial 100 lap figure 8 this Saturday night. Time for a good run!

Thanks to all the fans for sticking through the terrible last few weeks! Sponsors and fans, we look to redeem ourselves soon.

We’re currently seeking new marketing partnerships. This opportunity is something that could be fun and beneficial for both of us!

Comment or message if you’d like a sponsor packet sent your way and if you have any questions on pricing or availability of spots on the car, please PM. Thank you! Racing into 2023 quickly!

Thanks to Michael Stout for letting me run his Legend last night. I wish I wasn’t so fat and out of shape, and maybe I’d of hung on to a better finish but also wish I was able to find more speed out of the car. Maybe next time… just glad I was able to load it up without damage for him.

Next weekend, hopefully the weather cooperates and if so we head to the Sportsdrome Speedway for the final night of the World Figure 8 Tour. Hoping for a win! Then, after that we prep for the big one. 3 hour Enduro season is here!

2022 has blessed our team with a good beginning to the season. After a rough week one opening day at the Speedrome, took a week off, came back and have been lucky enough to win the next two races.

The first one 2 weeks ago, we started up front with a low car count field so we needed to capitalize on that opportunity. Last night, we were most likely a 2nd/3rd place car fighting a tight car with the 2 tire limit. Ronnie Basham had bad luck with part failure of some sort, and was running very well. Mark Tunny had an awesome car and most likely had us beat and hit a batch of leaked fluid on the track unexpectedly. So, we will definitely admit falling into this one.

Now, we just need to regroup and free it up on the short run for 2 new rear tires only and get to diggin from the back of the back and see how things go.

We’ve been blessed with some great marketing partners for 2022 and haven’t been up to par with giving them the praise they truly deserve.

Thanks to making all this possible for us:

🏁 Polk Bros Racing
🏁 Vaper Kings Indy
🏁 🧼 Soapy Joes
🏁 The Thompson House 🍻
🏁 Shuffitt’s NAPA Autocare
🏁 Pro Touch Lawn Mowing
🏁 Brown’s Oil Service
🏁 Bob’s Tu Your Door Pizza 🍕
🏁 Mt. Lawn Speedway
🏁 Breedlove Automotive
🏁 Kinney Mowing
🏁 S*M Painting and Drywall
🏁 KY Clutch
🏁 Joe Williamson Racing Engines
🏁 ThunderStruck⚡️ Performance
🏁 T8 Racecars

Couldn’t do it without all of you!

Also, the much appreciated help from the crew: Val, Josh, Chris and Jerica

Went to church for the 1st time in years today and had breakfast with mom, and hanging out the rest of the day. Everyone enjoy your Sunday and support your race track!

Nice to see all you fans fill the stands last night, and all the visitors coming up from Louisville to watch and race.

Where’s all the 2022 racing hype at? I remember you used to be able to feel the energy building at the start of the season. Now it’s just, “eh”. We’re ready for warm weather and racing!

What would you like to see done differently about the Late Model division at the Speedrome weekly program? What would make it better as a fan or as a driver? How do we get the s***k back and get guys participating more regularly? (Besides lower costs, obviously we know that)

Click the comments fans! Then, find the picture posted of our car or your favorite driver and “like” the comment. The car with the most likes on March 26 wins $1000 sponsorship. Share and spread and thank you for the support!

Opening night coming in hot! Be about 50 cars and then the next week everyone will be back to the “eh” feeling again. Lol.

Shoowee! What a week! Been a long and eventful one. I typically leave FL depressed about my racing performance, but finally had a race I can leave happy about! I have so many people I owe thanks to. From other drivers, family, crew, sponsors, fans and the race track I have so many people I’m grateful for that made this weekend happen.

First, I want to thank the fans. If you guys don’t come out to the track and attend these races, we wouldn’t have big races like this to run. Thanks for coming and/or watching it on Low Budget TV.

Next, all of my sponsors. Without you guys, in a sport that’s increasingly expensive, a broke ole Indiana dumdum wouldn’t be able to do it! Thank you:

✅ Polk Bro’s Racing
✅ Vaper Kings Indy
✅ Soapy Joes
✅The Thompson House
✅ Mt Lawn Speedway 2022!
✅ Kinney Mowing
✅ Shuffitt’s NAPA Shuffitt's Autocare Shuffitt
✅ Brown’s Oil Service
✅ ThunderStruck Performance
✅ Pro Touch Lawn Mowing
✅ S*M Painting and Drywall
✅ Breedlove Automotive
✅ Bob’s Tu Your Door 🍕
✅ T8 Racecars
✅ Joe Williamson Racing Engines
✅ KY Clutch
✅ Tunny’s Auto Service




Thank you to Medessa Ann for supporting me day in and day out with everything I do in life. Sorry you couldn’t come to this trip but hopefully we have plenty more good trips to come. 😘

I want to thank my Mom, Jay, Aunt Debbie, John Cento, Tate, Sara Sue Strong, Mark Murello and everyone supporting me in any way for all your support or work towards this team.

At last but not least, my Crew. The bubby clan!

- Val Thurston 👨‍🔧
- Josh Ridener 👨‍🔧
- Chris Johnson 👨‍🔧🤷🏻‍♂️
You guys rocked all weekend swapping engines and everything.

And all of you guys for helping out at the track with miscellaneous things: Scotty Earl, Jerica, Lisa, Michael, Pops, Painter Jeff, Keith Thorbin. Sorry for anyone I’m forgetting. This stuff is harder than you might think lol.

Thanks to Kelli-Artie Ware for not hating me too bad for having to repo my engine. Sorry for having to do that.

All in all, it was a good time. And hopefully next year the whole FL racecation can be planned out and run smoothly for everyone coming down. Looking forward to the next race! See you all there!

There‘s still time to get your tickets to the West Coast Outlaw Figure 8 Championship! To buy now, visit: https://tickets.thefoat.com/westcoastchampionship/event-38875/clear_cart-1

Still hard to believe

2021 World 🌎 Champs

Thank you sponsors, fans, Speedrome staff and crew!

It may have taken half the field retiring or running part time, but we’re finally starting look good on paper lol. Just not in real life.

Seriously, thank you to all our fans, sponsors and support group from near and far who make this able to happen. It’s been an awesome privilege. Thank you!

Congratulations to the 2021 Brown’s Oil Service Late Model Figure 8 Champion Ben Tunny!

Ben is now a 4-time division champion (2017, 2019, 2020, 2021). His 2021 feature wins were the series two oldest events, the Sonny Thompson Memorial and 1-Hour Figure 8 Endurance Race.

Photo courtesy of Image 13

Breakfast in the 8 with Ben Tunny Well the 3x Champ is back with us again! This time to talk all about the Jakes 150 and to answer some fun questions along the way. We dive into the tire rule...

Home from a long weekend up north in Painesville, OH. As most already know, we’ve finally managed to get back in victory lane. We wish we could of done it with the full field of competitors, but just because it was only an 11 car field, don’t think it was easy because it definitely wasn’t. That racetrack threw more challenges towards us all as drivers than any one would want. What a fun, finesse place to race though!

I want to personally thank The Painesville Speedway, Randy Maggio, and their entire staff for such hospitality and a great event! I hope we can build on it and come back as soon as this fall or next year with even more cars. The fans there were incredible! I hope you all enjoyed the race.

Looking forward, we hope we can continue to learn and grow stronger and improve as a team and driver and gain some confidence so we can hopefully find victory lane a little more often. Credit for all of this goes many directions, but it first goes to Bruce Tunny, my uncle. His T8 Racecars are not just of the finest quality and integrity towards safety, but also built with such wisdom thus leading to great success on the race track. Thanks to him and Mark Tunny for gathering the knowledge they’ve worked so hard to achieve and learn, and passing what they can on to us, even as tough competitors. Beyond the race track and being a “customer”, it’s a reminder that family is family! Thank you!

Then, you got all the support and people behind this team. We’re a small team and a small group but the passion behind us isn’t small. I can’t thank the crew enough for the long, hard hours the last couple years through the ups and downs, and the process of trying to build this car and constantly trying to get better. Thank you all very much: Josh Ridener, Val Thurston, Jerica Smith, and Chris Johnson. You guys have been there week in and week out for years. We’ve got some good guys to step in and throw a hand here and there, and that help is much appreciated as well. Thank you guys all very much. Thanks Medessa Ann for sticking behind me through the long and constant hours of me being away from home neglecting her and our time to be doing other things.

Thank you for all my generous, and kind hearted sponsors for hanging tough with us. Sponsors new and old, near and far! Thank you very very much! This win is for all the people supporting me and not losing hope in me as a driver.
- Vaper Kings Indy
- Fortville Auto Salvage and Truck
- Shuffitts NAPA Autocare
- The Thompson House
- Baker Boyz Appliance
- Pro Touch Lawn Mowing
- Assurance Maintenance
- Breedlove Automotive
- Bobs Tu Your Door Pizza
- Dobbs Metal Works
- KY Clutch
- Joe Williamson Racing Engines
- Thunderstruck Performance
- S*M Painting & Drywall
- T8 Racecars

And thank you to all of you fans! Without you, racing doesn’t exist! Keep coming out and keep supporting your local race track!

Sorry we don’t have any pictures, as our new car isn’t quite complete. Even when it is complete, don’t judge. I have a few mistakes here and there I made that I’m not proud of but no time or material to correct and just not worth it for what the mistakes are.

But we have Sterling, the new silver T8 machine drive-able and I got to make about 10-15 laps in it today to shake it down for the first time. Old tires, no side wings and not 100% setup but still drove pretty good! Obviously a ways to go with it and lots to learn but excited for a fresh start. I’m not sure what kind of racecar we will have come race day but I know I’ve given it my 100% best effort and all the money I can afford to make it the best car I’ve ever had.

I can’t thank my Uncle Bruce Tunny enough for building the car and he and Mark Tunny’s constant input and help along the way. They’ve put a lot of time into this and just let us buy their valued work. I appreciate it very much.

Also can’t thank our sponsors and crew enough for all they’ve sacrificed. Val has been there with me every step of the build and Josh, Jerica and Chris have all pitched in too. I appreciate you all very much and I can’t wait to see it completed and when we get used to it.

Thank you!

(Picture shown was early this past week. We’ve done almost a complete body in Like 4 days. For anyone that knows me, knows that’s a miracle.) Thanks to Medessa for being understanding of this. I’ve been more driven to succeed the last few weeks than I’ve been in a long time! I hope it pays off.

Got a heck of a mess going on all over. Trying to get this nice new T8 done for two Saturdays from now. Feel horrible and tore the heck out of Breedlove and Jesse’s fast #7 last weekend. Such a fast racecar just beat to death. Bent the axle tube, shock and body all over. I can’t thank them enough for being kind enough to allow me to do that and then not kill me after. Now, it’s just mayhem trying to get this new car done, and done right. Gonna be a rough 10 days.

Well our old car took a bit more damage than what makes sense to repair at the time. It was going to take a lot of hours and $$ to repair when our long term (90 min shootout goal) was to get the new car ready for the next race after this one. So we decided to pull the engine and swap it over to the new car and was just going to sit out this week but, Sam Breedlove offered to let us take the white #7 out since they’re going dirt racing this week. Very nice of him to let us use the car for a week. We still have a lot to do on the new car, so hopefully we will get the rear end together and body done on it in less than 2 weeks.

“Ole Yeller” has been on the back burner a bit recently. Really beginning to push hard to get “Sterling” done for the 90 min shootout. We have a ways to go. Lots of work, time, and money left to be spent on it, but it’s coming slowly but surely. In the coming days we should be ready for some sheet metal. And at that point we move at a turtle’s pace because our driver and fabricator is slow and tedious and enjoys snacks and breaks too much.

Pics to come in the near future! And again, sponsors welcomed!

We have had a wing slot on our car open up! Message for pricing to get your name on the passenger side wing for the rest of the year!

“Sterling” teaser

Years been ok starting off for us at the Speedrome. 2 - close 2nd place finishes, and 1 race up to 3rd and got spun out in a racing deal.

Focusing on getting this new T8 done for the 90 minute Spring Shoot Out. Lots and lots left to do and buy but if we can get enough help I think it’s doable. We need all the help we can get. And we appreciate any and everyone whose helped out thus far.