SELINSGROVE -- The fifth annual Paul Long Memorial, honoring the memory of the former Selinsgrove Speedway late model champion, is set for Sunday with $10,000 on the line in the 50-lap late model feature.

The race has been shortened from its original length of 63 laps, which was Long's race car number. Long died at aage 66 shortly after the 2003 season.

Time trials, heat races, and a B-main will be the format for qualifying. The $34,000-plus purse pays $5,000 to finish second, $1,000 to finish 10th, and $500 to start the main event.

The Paul Long Memorial is a full points race for the late model division with 2008 Selinsgrove Speedway late model rules in effect for the race. There is no pre-registration for this year's race.

"Paul Long was one of the serious contenders and I always liked racing against him and back then. We were both running Fords so we were enemies on the track. But off the track we were the best of friends," Roy Check' Adams said. "Paul was tough because he ran a Ford," Adams said with a laugh, on what made Paul a great late model driver.

"I think the fact that he was driving for Selinsgrove Motors and I was driving for Sunbury Motors, there was a little duel between the dealerships. But again, off the track we were friends. He was a strong competitor and if he was out front, he knew how to save the spot. Some people might call it blocking. But I don't call it blocking. If you're in the lead, you have the choice of where you are going to run."

There is one time when mother nature decided a battle between Adams and Long.

"I remember I was running second to him and it started drizzling and I was set up to come off the fourth turn low, and just like that, they threw out the red as it was too slick to go on," he said. "But I like to beat him and I'm sure he'd like to beat me. We could always talk to each other at the track and we never shared any engine combinations as I was building my own engines back then."

In the 2004, the inaugural race, three-time late mode champion Jeff Rine, of Danville, won the first of two straight events. He is the only regular competitor at the track to win this event.

Rine has seven wins on the season with three coming at Selinsgrove Speedway and four at Bedford Speedway including a Mid-Atlantic Championship Series event.

"It means a lot to win this event," Rine said. "I never got to watch him race, but hearing all of the stories about him and that he was a good guy to race with and winning the events twice, that was great."

Rine was on pace for his third straight win in the event when his engine blew while leading the 2006 Memorial and he had more mechanical problems last year.

"This place, Selinsgrove, is a big, fast half-mile and it's hard on stuff and by the end of the year people's stuff is getting tired, but we've got some stuff we've been saving for this year, so hopefully we don't have anything break," he said. "Plus, they shortened the race by 13 laps so that should help as well."

In the 2006 race, which drew 49 entries, Ricky Elliott led after Rine's motor expired until Elliott's engine let go on lap 50. Gary Stuhler, of Greencastle, went on to win the $10,000 event.

Last year, the race drew 37 entries and Nick Dickson of Lewistown won the biggest race of his career by a mere .86 of second over Alan Sagi, of Hagerstown, Md. Steve Campbell, of Danville, was third.