Lernerville's Autism Awareness 50 with pumped-up purse to raise funds for charity

Autism awareness is a cause that’s close to Jeff Stull’s heart.

His youngest son, Cody, was diagnosed with autism as a baby and worked with early intervention specialists, who made a positive impact.

He also has a passion for racing, and with the help of some friends from local businesses and Lernerville Speedway, he has forged an event that will benefit both the Autism Society and super late model racers.

Lernerville will host the Autism Awareness 50, paying $10,000 to win for the super late model feature July 28.

Lernerville has hosted an autism awareness night for the last five years, but the major increase in the late model payout is a new feature for the event. It’s a cause that’s close to the Tomson family, which owns Lernerville, because a family member, Dougie Tomson, is autistic.

“When I found out that Lernerville had an autism night, I knew this was something that I wanted to kick in and help out with,” Stull said. “I love racers, and I love race fans. They just have the right attitude.”

It’ll be a 50-lap feature race for late models. Not only will the race pay 10 grand to the winner, but there’s also an increase to the weekly purse throughout the field for the late models.

The race will be part of Lernerville’s weekly Fab 4 program with sprints, modifieds and pro stocks.

There will be a silent auction featuring memorabilia from racers and baskets from local businesses with all proceeds going towards autism awareness.

Stull owns and operates Thrower Concrete in Saxonburg. He and a friend who owns Rath Farms in Evans City donated some money to the winner’s purse for last year’s autism awareness night, but he wanted to do more this year.

He saw firsthand what the specialists did with his son. Cody, who is 16 now, is a pitcher for the Knoch baseball team and plays for the Pittsburgh Spikes travel team.

“Going through it, I know how hard it is, and we went through it mildly compared to a lot of people,” Stull said. “The early intervention people that help with autism are amazing. I don’t know how they do it, but they really helped, and I just want to help give back. It’s a cause that’s personal to me.”

Stull made some calls to friends who own local businesses to see if they could help with donations and got a warm reception.

A long list of companies made contributions, including Brayman Construction, Myer’s Well Service, Armstrong Cement, Contemporary Foundations, Fox Trucking, PRS Transit, Bachman Trucking, Sprankle’s Neighborhood Markets, CRS Contracting, Rath Farms, Millerstown Pic-A-Part, Jack’s Napa Auto Parts and others who donated anonymously.

Some companies made contributions to both the purse increase for the race and a donation to the Autism Society.

To get items for the auction, Stull went to racers during Firecracker 100 weekend at Lernerville in late June to see if they would donate items and got a receptive response from the Lucas Oil Series national touring drivers.

He received an autographed side panel from both Brandon Overton and Hudson O’Neal. He also got a signed diecast car from Gregg Satterlee as well as items from local drivers Michael Norris, Levi Yetter and Alex Ferree. All of the items will be part of the auction as well as baskets from local businesses.

“I thought it was pretty cool that these racers were willing to give something that costs them money to donate for the cause,” Stull said. “Every person that I talked to was super gracious.”

The racers are equally appreciative of the increased payout, especially for a nonsanctioned race.

“It’s nice for the local drivers who really don’t get to race for that kind of money often,” Yetter said. “There will be some guys coming in, but probably not all the national guys like at the Firecracker. It gives the local drivers more of a chance.”

There most likely will be some regional invaders looking to cash in on the big check like Satterlee, Max Blair and others, but local drivers like Logan Zarin of Moon Township are hoping they can earn a big payday.

“It’s cool that they are putting up that big of money for us, and the race is for a good cause,” Zarin said. “I think you’ll see some of the top regional guys coming in and maybe some guys from down south. I’m expecting a good field of cars.”

Stull said he’s still learning as he’s never really put an event like this together before, but his goal is to make the race a yearly event.

“I’ve been getting advice from the people at Lernerville and some of the drivers,” Stull said. “I just hope that everything goes well, and we have a good turnout. I hope it can get even bigger in the future.”