Doug's Dirt Diary

Billy Pauch Jr. had a very busy schedule planned for this past weekend. Here is a quick recap on how he did. Friday started out with practice and qualifying for the ARCA 200 at Pocono. Billy qualified 30th for Saturday's race. He then traveled to Big Diamond to do double duty. He started 18th in the Two Dogs #49 in the ARDC Midget event. He came up through the field for an impressive 4th place finish. He then jumped into the PPB #8 for the 358 modified event. He started 18th. The car was not very good. Crew chief Dave Hoffman said it was "a 15th place car at best." Billy managed to finith 7th with his desire and determination. Craig Von Dohren won the feature.Billy had a very good finish for a pretty much dimal night for the team.

The PPB team was up early Saturday morning busy preparing the car for the Forest Rogers Memorial saturday night at Grandview. This preparation included a switch of power plants. While the team was busy, Billy was also busy in the Greenfield Dodge #49 at Pocono. He managed a 15th place finish. That came after finishing 13th in June. Not bad at all. He then traveled to Grandview for Saturday night's race. It wasn't the night the team was looking for. He was able to pass (2)cars to finish 5th in his heat and qualify for the feature. that was a huge plus. He was scheduled to start 20th in the feature but was relegated to 30th starting spot after getting out late. He was involved in a few incidents during the event. He did moved up to 14th at one point. He dropped out on lap 32 of the 50 lap event. He ended up 26th. Craig von Dohren won for the 2nd night in a row and pocketed $10,000. Congratulations to CVD on a great weekend of racing.

The PPB team will be back in action this friday at Big Diamond with Billy Pauch Sr. behind the wheel. Billy Jr. will be away racing in Connecticut. We wish him luck. We look forward to Friday and hope to see you there!

Billy Pauch Jr. and the PPB team had high expectations for Friday nights action at Big Diamond. Those expectations did not materialize. After starting 8th in his heat, Billy captured his first heat win of the season. He had a 13th place starting position for the feature. He had moved up to 7th place and was looking for more. He then ran into a problem. As he ran high down the backstretch, he tried to get back into the racing groove entering turn 3. Unfortunately that real estate was occupied by another car and Billy ended up getting bumped and fell back to 16th. He tried hard to move up but could only muster a 10th place finish. It was a pretty dismal race for the team, but 10th is not bad for a less than stellar night. Another plus was that the car came home once again in one piece. The team looks forward to rebounding next weekend.

Jeff Strunk won the feature event. It was his 3rd win of the year and 2nd win in a row. Sean Merkel, Meme DeSantis, Ryan Godown and Duane Howard rounded out the top-five.

Billy Pauch Jr. has a very busy race weekend scheduled for the upcoming weekend. He will practice and qualify Friday for the ARCA Race at Pocono Raceway. He will then be racing in (2) divisions at Diamond. He will be in the #8 PPB Modified and also the #49 Two-Dogs Racing ARDC midget. Saturday he races the #49 Greenfield Dodge in the ARCA event at 1:00. He will then hustle to Grandview Speedway to race #8 PPB modified in the $10,000 to win Forrest Rogers Memorial. It will be the 2nd appearance of the season at Grandview for the PPB team. We hope to get a chance to meet Doug Elkins, the real Doug's Dirt Diary.He will be making his first visit to Grandview. Looking ahead, Billy Pauch Sr. will fill in for Junior August 8th at Big Diamond in the Chad Miller Memorial. Billy Jr will be racing at Stafford,Conn. that day.

It will be a busy weekend for Billy Pauch Jr., crew chief Dave Hoffman and the rest of the crew. We look forward to the challenge and hope to see everyone at the races.

The consistency continued for Billy Pauch Jr. in the PPB #8 Friday night at Big Diamond Raceway. It was pretty much another routine night for Billy from start to finish. The 2008 season has been all about consistency for the team. After starting in 13th, Billy was able to dodge a few incidents and bag a 5th place finish in the 25 lap feature. It was familiar territory for the Dave Hoffman led PPB Team. They usually start in the 13th-18th range and have come home in the top-6 in all but (2) races. The team is working hard to improve and has its sites set on another victory.
Jeff Strunk landed his #126 car in Victory Lane for the 2nd time this season at Big Diamond. Jeff seems to have found his groove the past (4) weeks at Big Diamond and Grandview. Mike Nicholas had a great run in his #3 car to finish in the runner-up position. Craig Von Dohren finished 3rd followed by Duane Howard and Pauch Jr.
The team will again be in action this Friday with Billy Jr again at the controls. We hope everyone has a great week and we will see you again this Friday at the Diamond!

Billy Pauch Jr. finished in the top-5 yet again at Big Diamond Raceway this past Friday night.It was his 6th top-5 in 10 races at Big Diamond. He also has (2) 6th place finishes to his credit. He also earned car owner Bob Greene his first win in the 358 modified division as an owner. It has been a very successful season to date for the 21 yr old 3rd generation driver from Frenchtown,New Jersey. He entered Friday nights action 6th in driver points with 2 less races. His father Billy Sr. was able to finish 2nd and 5th in the 2 races Billy Jr.was unable to make.

After starting 13th, Billy was able to move up to 7th after numerous early cautions. Billy was a solid 3rd with 2 laps to go. He tried to wrestle 2nd away from Craig Whitmoyer. He was unsuccessful and slid up the track. Duane Howard was able to edge Billy at the line for 3rd. You can't fault Billy for losing a position by continuing to try to gain one more spot. thatis the only way he knows how to race. You gotta love that attitude! He just continues to improve. Meme DeSantis won his 2nd feature of the year at Big Diamond. Craig Whitmoyer, Howard, Pauch Jr and Jeff Strunk rounded out the top-five.

Billy Jr. will again be behind the wheel of the #8 this coming Friday night. We look forward to another night of racing and hope to see you there.

The PPB Team had high hopes for the Georgie Stevenson Memorial on Friday night. Their hopes did not materialize. After starting 14th in the feature, Billy got caught up in an early lap wreck. He came to the pits to repair a bent radius rod. He then restarted at the rear of the field. He steadily moved up and found himself in 7th place with 6 to go in the 35 lap event. His hopes of a top-five finish were dashed by a flat right rear. He was unable to get back out before the race restarted. He was relegated to an 18th place finish. It was only his 2nd finish outside the top-six all season. It was also his 2nd DNF of the year. Duane Howard claimed the $3000 first place check.

Tuesday Billy and the team finished 11th in the Thunder on the Hill Show at Grandview Speedway. The team used the race as a preparation for the Freedom 76 later this year.

Billy Pauch Jr. and the team look to rebound this Friday July 11th at Big Diamond. Hope to see everyone at the track.

Douglas R. Jansson

For Immediate Release: (June 29, 2008)
Written by: AJ Payne (The Dirtracer Insider)
Claremore, Oklahoma



I have to say, my first time ever around Kelly Shryock was one I will not soon forget, because it was around the time I had gotten out of high school and just getting really started at the next level of dirt track racing. Oh it was 1995 when all this began for me and I had been 19 for a few months, when I was getting my feet wet for the first time with what was call the usms at the time, when the series held one of their first races at Crawford County Speedway in Van Buren, AR. Furthermore, even though Kelly did not know me from Adam, it still did not stop me from spending a great deal of my free time there watching every move he and his team did throughout the two-night show. Oh and yes, I was in amazement of what I was seeing, and being able to be that close to someone, I had readied about in all the national racing magazine. Plus it didn’t hurt that I looked up to as a racing hero and it made it all the better that I was able to see my hero win that weekend was huge for me at the time. But I will not take anything away from the driver I was there helping that night as Greg Skaggs was fourth at the end of the A” main feature.

Although, the thing, which truly got me at the time, was that Kelly and crew spent the time to wash their cars before the main feature event. Yea I know this is not such a big thing to people now, but for me at the time, it was new to me. The site of seeing Kelly and his crew jump in to action just to wash the cars was just really odd to me at the time. Oh and yes, it is one of my favorite memories from those early days. Even though later I noticed Kelly pacing by the car thinking aloud and then for no reason he runs into the trailer to grab a spring and tools to make an adjustment to the car, oh yes you guessed it the crew was right there again to help with the changes. Yep I never saw anyone do something like until that night and yes, I was dumbfounded at the time.

However, this was the first of many races in which I was able to see Kelly race, and of course Kelly was still doing the same stuff, which I first saw him doing that first time I was introduced to the Skyrocket. And of course he was either winning or running closes to the lead the other times I got to see him race, and yes I do believe it had to do with something call the cream always rises to the top. Although my main thing is I just enjoyed watching him race and even though I have seen many great racecar drivers in my lifetime around racing, I still believe he is the best I have ever seen drive a racecar.

For me it is the way he makes his decisions on the racetrack, on where and how to pass other cars. However, I cannot forget the level of car control he has shown, which is simply amazing to me every time I watch him race. However, it was not until 2002, before I got my biggest surprise out of Kelly, which came at my first race working with the Skyrocket. The Usmts raced at Thunder Valley Speedway in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the spring of that year, and I was again on the road going to another big racing event. I was walking around the pits talking to the people I knew and just happen to come across Kelly changing an engine. However, I had no clue at the time why he was changing the engine, I did noticed that the crew which I normally seen with him was nowhere in sight. Well after the normal hello and what not, and I believe I remember asking about why the crew was not there, I recall I just began to help him change the engine. Of course, it was after the famous look I normally got then of I ask an unneeded question. (LoL) Nevertheless, anyways I was there getting to help one of my racing hero’s. Oh and well you would be correct if you said he won that night, although the thing, which got me at the time, is he came up to me as I went to look over the car like I would normally do any other time and shook my hand and told me thanks for helping me out. Oh yes this was where the WOW factor came to me.

Well anyways we get past the pictures and what not, then as I was just standing around the pit area talking to people I knew here comes Kelly making a B-line right at me once again, and well the next thing is I was giving him my contact information. What I was thinking, so he could call me when he was back down around this part of the country again, and even though he has never called me after that, I finally was able to give the Skyrocket a big surprise. I think I surprised a lot of people as I drove all the way to the Usmts race event at Slayton, MN in 2002, boy that was a long drive, but it was fun for me nonetheless. However, the first night with Kelly Skyrocket at the Murray County Speedway in Slayton, MN did not go, as any of us would have liked. The next night we made a stop at Deer Creek Speedway, in Spring Valley, MN where things went much better for the Skyrocket where he was able to pick up the win in the main feature race; and the best thing for me was the whole crew was there. The final night of my first trip up to MN found us at the Kasson Speedway on the Dodge County Fairgrounds in Kasson, MN and things started off well, and continued to go very well all the way through to the main event time and as he came out of turn four he got drove up into the wall. Oh and most of the time this would spell the end of the night and pretty much look that way to me. But with that amazing crew he was able to get back onto the track, and come away with a top ten finish, which again showed how amazing Skyrocket and his crew is to me, because at one point in the race he was going for the lead, and ended up with mud in the inside of the wheel, which made him think he had a flat tire. Gotta love dirt track racing!

Concistency. That is the one word that best describes the 2008 season at Big Diamond Raceway for the PPB race team and driver Billy Pauch Jr. That theme continued again this past Friday night. After starting the feature 14th, Junior was again able to work his way up into contention by the midway point of the feature. As the final caution waved with 4 laps to go, Billy had the #8 in 5th place. He then set his sites on improving his finishing position without giving up his 5th place spot. He was able to get 4th away from Troy Wink. He then was able to pass the 88D of Meme Desantis to move to the 3rd position. That is where he finished. Jeff Strunk won the feature followed by the #4 of Duane Howard, Pauch Jr, 00 Doug Manmiller and the 88D of Meme DeSantis. Troy Wink finished 6th for his best finish of the season.

The Pioneer team entered the race in 3rd position in the Driver Points. They are still leading the owner points. The owner points include 125 points that Billy Sr. earned with a 2nd place finish on May 30th.Duane Howard was leading Jeff Strunk by 40 points enetering Fridays action.

The PPB team would like to wish Billy Pauch Jr.good luck as he travels to New Hampshire Motor Speedway to compete in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Race next weekend in the Greenfield Dodge #06. In his absence, his father Billy Pauch Sr. will again be behind the wheel of the Dave Hoffman led #8. Crew Chief Dave"The Legend" Hoffman and his crew have been consistent in giving Billy Jr. and his dad good handling cars each and every week. That along with the talent of both drivers has led to the successful start that the team has enjoyed to the 2008 season.The team looks to continue that success this Friday June 27th with Billy Sr. as the driver. We look forward to seeing everyone at the Diamond again this week.

The World of Outlaw Late Models invade Big Diamond Raceway this Wednesday June 25th @ 7:30. Should be a great show!

For Immediate Release: (June 16, 2008)
Written by: The Dirtracer Insider; AJ Payne
Claremore, Oklahoma


Today as I was talking to my new friend from of all places MySpace, I begin to think about when I started out as a young man working on race cars and the challenges that I faced as a young man in this field. Then I got thinking about why we as a people in this country still seem to have issues with race and what I see as the last great strong hold for people which are of a different race. Let’s get to the bottom line; this is a racing thing not a race thing. Oh, one more thing as I was talking to my new friend Matthew Miller I noticed a racer, someone that truly loves the sport of auto racing and wants to be a part of the sport. Furthermore, this young man that is referred to as (youngblood) at the Johnny Davis Motorsports shop has taken the first steps needed to see his dream of becoming a racecar driver to come to pass.


In addition, as this young man and myself talked I found out the he begun at 13 in the Davis shop taking out the trash and started to work into doing other odds and ends around the shop as well as getting to the point he was doing maintenance on the car. Plus as we talked he told me of learning how to change gears, prepare the exhaust system for the pavement car he works on each day after school, and now to the point in which he has been taught how to correctly prepare the car by scaling it each week to get it ready for the next weekend’s race.

Oh, and while we on this subject Mathew is very grateful to Kertus Davis, Danny Efland, and Al Varner for giving him a start at 13 years of age. Mathew pointed and made it clear that without the support and willingness of these people he would not be where he is at today.


Listen, this young man has the drive down within to make a great race car driver, so therefore; should get the breaks he needs to show what he is able to do. Furthermore, it makes me sick to think that we as a racing family as a whole still are having this issue with giving someone that does not have the same skin color, or even the money to get started in any form of racing. Because I have been in auto racing even before I was born, and been through many things, and seen almost everything one could or would want to see in the world of dirt track racing.

Therefore, let’s do away with the old way of thinking and look at this young man or any other young person in a different light, and start helping those of the future out, before dirt track racing is a thing of the past. Therefore, from my experience Mathew has all of what it takes become a great race car driver, and just needs to the support with the backing he needs to take his dreams, and all that he has learned to the next level.

What a day for a race!
The forecast for Saturday on this Father’s Day weekend called for thunderstorms and that made me happy. Why would thunderstorms on race day make me happy you’re wondering to yourself? The answer is pure and simple. The race surface at Fonda Speedway gets real fast when it takes on a shower or two on race day. I think more so than other tracks. So around mid-afternoon on this overcast day, my wife Nancy stayed clear of me as my daughter Leanne and my son Charles helped me gather all of my racing supplies. We jumped in the car and away we went.
No matter how many times I’ve been to Fonda Speedway I still get excited as I cruise down Riverside Drive and look across the Mohawk River. Ahhhh, there it is; The Track of Champions! I’ll get right to the point of what Id like to write about here.

*** Where was everybody? Was it the threat of rain
that kept people away? The crowd was sparse.

*** Dave Lape won the second heat race and he
turned a fast lap of 19.10 seconds. That’s an
average speed of over 94 mph.

*** The track surface was excellent. No dust and
a lot of bite.

*** Ronnie Johnson coming from his 12th starting
position to take the lead on lap 11 and never
looking back.

There was excellent racing in all divisions. It was probably the best racing I’ve seen so far this year in my opinion. The modified feature was an exciting race. There was competitive racing happening all over the track. Ronnie Johnson was handling lapped traffic with ease as Bobby Varin did all he could to chase him down lap after lap. If you weren’t there you missed one great night of racing. I’ve been to Utica-Rome, Fonda and Malta this year and I would have to say the best racing so far was on this night at Fonda. Do yourself a favor and take a trip to Fonda Speedway some Saturday night. My kids cant wait to go back.
Double Checkers Are in The Air!
I’m Andrew Douglas.