When Schultz and his John Reiser Motorsports team arrived at Jennerstown, it appeared Joe Liguori would secure the championship with a decent night. However, Liguori had mechanical problems in his heat race and would start the feature near the rear of the field.
As a result, Schultz only had to finish ahead of Ligouri to claim the title. Still, in a display of sportsmanship, Schultz and his team helped get Liguori‘s rear end changed in time for the feature.
“Honestly, before the feature, between John Reiser, Bobby Santos, and myself, we pitched in to help Joe get his stuff fixed,” Schultz said. “We made sure my car was as good as it could be for the feature, fueled it up and made a couple changes. I didn‘t even want to know about points at that point in the night. I wanted to go out, race the race and finish the night.”
Schultz moved up to third in the feature and held the spot to the finish.
“The nice thing about Jennerstown, is they have a nice scoreboard and you can kinda see where everyone is at,” Schultz said. “The top two cars had gotten away from me. I was just riding trying to conserve tires. All these things were going through my mind. I was watching the scoreboard and looking at the laps. I had hoped for a late-race caution to take a shot at getting a win. When I was told to pull in front of the championship banner, I knew I had clinched the championship.”
After Schultz exited the car, he proposed to his longtime girlfriend Debbie Walker.
“We had our niece and nephew out to dinner with us earlier in the year,” explained Schultz. “I was joking around with them and asked them what they thought if I married their Aunt Debbie. Our niece suggested I do it the next time I win a race. The long-standing joke over the summer was that I‘d finish second or third. They would say I kept finishing second, so I wouldn‘t have to get married.
“I figured winning the championship is as good or better than winning a race. I think she kind of thought it was a joke. She probably thought if it happens, it happens. It ended up happening and we‘re both excited. We‘re looking forward to making that next chapter in life.”
Jimmy McCune and his nephew Anthony McCune dominated the MSR championship the past seven years. It had been since 2014 that someone other than a McCune has won the MSR championship.
“I think it‘s not just good for me, but it‘s good for the series,” Schultz said. “You get the same person winning all the time and some people may not tune into MAVTV or come to the races as much. The McCunes have been the ones to beat. They‘ve held the bar high for the past several years.”
Schultz is proud to have brought a sprint car title back to the heart of supermodified country.
“I think it‘s pretty cool,” he said. “Winning the MSA championship in 2010 was pretty neat, but it was more of a local touring series. It didn‘t carry the national recognition that this does. Being able to travel from Virginia to Alabama to Pennsylvania, then up to Michigan and all over with pavement sprint cars, and win a championship is a pretty neat deal.”
The 44-year-old driver hopes to keep racing well into the future.
“Five years from now I hope to be doing some of the same things I‘m doing now,” he said. “I look at guys like Jeff Bloom and Bentley Warren. I was at Oswego Speedway when Bentley won his last supermodified race and I think he was something like 65. To me that was pretty cool. As a racer you want to aspire to be able to still be competitive as you get older. When it‘s no longer fun I‘ll quit. Right now, it‘s still fun and I‘m having a blast doing it.”