MILFORD, N.J. – Billy Pauch Jr. had no need for intellectual analysis of 2020 season that resulted in four wins, a low total for the modified specialist.
His cheerful outlook provided all the clarity.
“Last year was kind of funny,” Pauch said. “We only had four modified wins, but we turned [around] the program and really hit strong on the road and became a really good team.”
By last fall, Pauch synced with his race teams despite the problematic conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pauch’s optimism and consistency paved the way for his winningest modified season to date: 15 wins, good enough for fourth in the nation, right behind the discipline’s big three in Stewart Friesen (34 wins), Matt Sheppard (28 wins) and Mat Williamson (23 wins).
Pauch and his teams — the Kid Racing No. 15 and the Rick Holsten Racing No. 96 — didn’t win much last year, but by the end of a disjointed season they finished on the podium 15 times in 50 races.
This year they upped the ante to 22 podium runs in 57 events.
“That was the biggest thing,” Pauch said of bottling 2020 momentum into this year.
“I was very happy with it,” he added. “We were able to take [2020] and roll with it into this year. We always had a great group of guys, a great group of people, we were able to build on that and make ourselves even stronger.”
At 34 years old, Pauch is confident and as developed as ever. He’s found a good balance with all his teams, particularly with Holsten, compiling 11 wins with the team this year.
“Confidence is key,” Pauch said. “I’m a firm believer in racing that you can have $1 million behind you or you can have $50 behind you. Sometimes that $50 team will win better than a $1 million team because of the confidence and the people that make it work.
“When you roll on the track, when you know you’re going to win, when you have it in your mind you’re going to win, it’s huge,” Pauch added.
Pauch’s highlights this year are five straight victories at Delaware’s Georgetown Speedway and a pair of wins with the Short Track Super Series, both also at Georgetown.
Pauch also won his fourth Dick Tobias Classic at Pennsylvania’s Action Track USA this summer driving a SpeedSTR for respected open-wheel car owner Mike Heffner.
He even ran two sprint car races as well, one with the wing and another wingless.
In his first winged appearance since April 2014, Pauch started second and finished 17th in Heffner’s No. 27 entry at Action Track USA’s first sprint car event. The wingless event occurred Oct. 1 at Georgetown and Pauch went eighth to fourth in a 16-car feature.
Pauch’s five wins in 10 weekly events would have added a New Egypt (N.J.) Speedway championship to his already strong body of work, but an unfortunate disqualification denied him of those honors.
The engine in Holsten’s No. 96 was protested after Pauch’s title-clinching win Sept. 4 at New Egypt.
After the engine’s heads were sent to Brodix headquarters in Arkansas and examined, New Egypt deemed Pauch had altered heads.
Pauch had previously sealed his engines through Pennsylvania’s Big Diamond Speedway but before the year was referred to New Egypt for the same procedure.
The fallout was abhorrent and unjust to Pauch, especially once Brodix emailed Pauch specifying no mechanical advantage with the heads.
“In other words, I paid a track official $500 to seal a motor,” Pauch started. “Seals are still intact, but they’re going to tell me that guy didn’t do a good enough job sealing the engine.
“You won’t see me there for a while,” Pauch added.
Modifieds will once again be Pauch’s focus next year. The schedule remains fluid, centering around high-level events.
Pauch prides himself in versatility and anticipates dabbling in winged and wingless sprint cars 10-12 occasions next year primarily with Tim Hogue in and around “anywhere that kind of makes sense.”
It fits his motive of criss-crossing disciplines and giving his fans, a good amount of them whose passion extends back to Pauch’s great father, Billy, something more to invest in.
“We try to have fun,” Pauch said.