Action Track USA Honors Its Champions At Bear Creek Banquet Pauch Jr. is SpeedSTR Champ; Buckwalter, Bieber, & Silfee Also Win Point Titles
by BARRY ANGSTADT
Kutztown, PA – The Bear Creek Ski Resort and Conference Center once again provided the backdrop as the 2015 Champions of the JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA were honored at the annual Awards Banquet on Saturday night.
A crowd of more than 220 people recognized the top ten in points for each of the speedway’s weekly divisions, and the champions of each class were feted with a very special video presentation, highlighting some of the action that propelled them to a track title on the progressively banked oval located on the Kutztown Fairgrounds.
Headlining the list of point champions was a driver who authored quite a spectacular year for himself. Billy Pauch Jr., from Frenchtown, NJ, captured his second straight point crown in the USAC All Pro SpeedSTR division. “The Kid’s Kid” won two of the first five main events, then utilized consistency to take and maintain the top spot in the championship standings. Pauch Jr. clinched the title on the final night of competition by winning the Dick Tobias Classic.
Add in a 358 Modified point title at Big Diamond (the first of his career) and the birth of his first child, a son named William Arthur, and one can see why Billy Pauch Jr. will always look back fondly on the year 2015.
“This one is for my guys,” said the new father at Saturday’s awards gala. “They work so hard and have been with me for a few years now, so I’m really glad I could win some races and the championship for them and everything they do for me.”
Bob Lesko of Wayne Subaru, as he was in 2014, is the SpeedSTR division’s Champion Car Owner.
“We’ve never really been point racers; we go where the money is and we go to win races,” explained Douglassville, Pa.’s Tim Buckwalter as he stood at the podium as the point champion of Action Track USA’s Pioneer Pole Building Wingless 600cc Sprints powered by Engler Injection.
“With about five races to go, though, we realized that we had a pretty good shot at the points,” continued Buckwalter. “We figured we better get serious about the championship and luckily it worked out.”
Buckwalter served notice early on that he would be a contender for the Wingless 600cc title, as he earned his first triumph in the year’s second event, the King of No Wing 40-lapper. He scored twice more before the season’s halfway mark, and held a slim lead in the standings heading into the finale in mid-August.
Buckwalter notched his fourth victory of the year in that final race, beating runner-up Brandon Azzalina by just 20 points to claim the crown.
Barry and Cheryl Greth own the No. 71 that carried Buckwalter to the championship.
Oley’s Brett Bieber drove to another outstanding season in the NAPA Auto Parts All Star Slingshots, and he can add Action Track USA point champion to his already stellar resume`.
On Saturday night, Bieber was honored for his first point title at the speedway in its current configuration; he also captured a point title when the facility was known as Kutztown Fair Speedway.
“The Oley Jet” won two races – the season opening Goldie & Elton Meitzler Memorial and the Kutztown Komet 100 – and held off four-time winner Chris Kurtz to win the championship.
“With the caliber of drivers that compete at Action Track USA on a weekly basis, and I think the car count averaged around 30 each week, too…it just makes winning the championship that much sweeter,” said Bieber. “I owe a lot to my dad, because my work schedule is pretty heavy and that means he’s doing a lot of the work on our cars.”
Young Jared Silfee, from Saylorsburg, Pa., book-ended the campaign by winning the first race of the year for the Junior Slingshots on May 27, then triumphed in their finale, a Junior National Tour event, on August 11. Silfee bested Cole Stangle in the battle for the Junior Slingshot point crown to finish off a very impressive first season in the Junior Slingshot class.
Jay Hartman was named the Rookie of the Year in the SpeedSTR class, while Heath Hehnly earned the same honor in the Wingless 600cc division. Shillington’s Seth Spayd received Rookie of the Year recognition in the All Star Slingshots and Jared Silfee picked up the award in the Junior Slingshot class.
As Rich Tobias and Doug Rose prepare for their fourth season at the helm of the wildly popular JeffreyHogueRealtor.com Action Track USA, they are not resting on their laurels or content with previous success. They continue to look for new and innovative ideas to make the events even more entertaining for the fans and additional ways to reward the racers who put on a tremendous show week after week.
Tobias announced one new incentive for spectators to attend the incredibly competitive race meets on Wednesday nights in 2016; the track will give away one flat screen television to a lucky fan each week when the new season begins in May.
Additional news items regarding the 2016 season will be announced in the coming weeks and the speedway will once again be prominently featured as part of the Speedway Entertainment booth at Motorsports 2016 presented by Pioneer Pole Buildings at the Expo Center in Oaks, Pa. on January 22, 23, and 24.
The complete 2016 racing schedule is posted on the track’s website, www.actiontrackusa.com.
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