A Busy Season For Pauch Racing Drivers Concludes With 15 Wins In 2018
Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / PAUCH RACING – FRENCHTOWN, NJ – The Pauch Racing team showed plenty of speed this season collecting 15 wins, 40 top-fives, and 64 top-tens this season.
“We were definitely better than last year,” said Billy Pauch Sr.
Pauch Sr. devoted his Saturday nights at Bridgeport Speedway with his K&A Excavating No.1 Big Block Modified.
“We were in the hunt for the win every night,” he said. “It felt good for a change. I was hoping to do better with the points, but we had a couple misfortunes that drew us back to second, but that’s racing.”
After a season long battle for the points chase, Pauch Sr. ended the season with three victories and a second-place in the point standings at Bridgeport.
For a driver who has accomplished many things in his career, it’s very rare to be able to say ‘The Kid’ won something for the very first time.
It wasn’t until the end of August where Pauch Sr. raced at Grandview Speedway and picked up his first ever Thunder on The Hill modified victory.
“I don’t think I ever ran many TOTH modified shows,” he added. “I have the most TOTH sprint car wins there, but never had a modified one. It was nice to get the first one and say we got one.”
Pauch Sr. was able to produce four victories this season in two different states.
“The biggest thing that helped pick me up this year was Phil Cox coming in,” noted Pauch Sr. “He was a big uplift in the team. He can pretty much handle anything I can do as far as setups and making decisions. I think that was a big plus for us this year. I’m looking forward to working with him and the rest of the crew next year. There’s no “I” in team. There’s a bunch of us that make it happen, it’s not just me.”
Billy Pauch Jr.’s season kicked off on quite the high note out in Tulsa, OK. in January.
“We started the year off great,” added Pauch Jr. “We made the a-main at the Chili Bowl. That was a huge accomplishment with 300+ cars there competing.”
The Kid’s Kid went on to have a stout season, clinching 11 victories and two track championships.
“We started out the year really good,” he said. “We won the opener at Big Diamond and New Egypt and in the 600-micro sprint at Kutztown. Then we fizzled a little mid-summer. We ran into a couple issues then had a strong finish at the end of the year.”
Pauch Jr. ran weekly at Action Track USA in the Heffner Racing Enterprises No.27 SpeedSTR and the Lamar Shaffer No.91 Micro Sprint as well as Saturday nights at New Egypt Speedway in the Holsten Motorsports No.96 Modified.
“We won both championships at Action Track USA which was a feat we set out to do this year, so that was an awesome goal to accomplish.”
Pauch Jr. picked up four wins at his Saturday night home track and finished in a close second-place in the point standings in the No.96 machine.
“We had a good year at New Egypt,” added Pauch Jr. “Unfortunately, we fell short of the championship, but it was a very solid year for the team. We were able to win the Legends of the Fall race there and end on a good note.”
Pauch Jr. and his teams mixed it up a little bit this year and did some traveling during the season. They may not have set the world on fire, but after taking extensive notes, they are feeling optimistic going into 2019.
“We had some bright spots and good finishes but unfortunately we weren’t able to get a win outside of our home tracks with the modified,” he said. “We’re going to be putting our focus on bettering our program outside of our home track for next year.”
Pauch Jr.’s biggest victory of 2019 came late in the season after dominating the field to win the $10,000 World 100 SpeedSTR race at Selinsgrove Speedway.
“After winning the Legends of the Fall race at New Egypt and the SpeedSTR race at Selinsgrove it helped us go out with a bang,” he said. “We have two more indoor races left in the season so hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling.”
After a strong 2018 season, Pauch Sr. is already looking forward to 2019.
“We got a brand-new Bicknell for Florida for when we go down there in February,” he said. “Both of our motors are out getting redone as we speak. Hopefully everyone will be coming back onboard for next year so we can start figuring out where we’re going to run and what we’re going to do. One thing is for certain, we will be starting out in Florida.”
Both Pauch Sr. and Jr. would like to give a special thanks to everyone who supported them in 2018; sponsors, crew, and fans.