Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – GAFFNEY, SC – Earlier this month, Billy Pauch Jr. competed in the ‘Sunshine Swing’ for the Short Track Super Series, and did so quite successfully.
Pauch was in the hunt for victories on all three nights of the swing at All-Tech Raceway (night four was rained out).
With a second, a third and a fourth place finish now in the record books, did the “Kid’s Kid” feel it was a successful trip to the Lake City, FL track?
“Yes, it was a very good trip down there for our team,” Pauch Jr. said. “I’d say we just gave a couple of victories away, though.”
The first night of racing at All-Tech saw Pauch very nearly grab the checkered flag from eventual winner Matt Sheppard. That was, however, until the most untimely of cautions negated a pass for the lead and relegated the Frenchtown, NJ driver back to second.
Pauch’s car seemed to be very good on longer green flag runs through the entire series of races. Was that type of set-up his plan all along or was it did it present itself more once he saw how the track conditions were?
“The speedway down there was so slick all week,” he said. “It took forever for my right front American Racer tire to really start working. Once it did, my car was amazing.”
Did Pauch and his team learn anything they can use in upcoming races?
“We will see if we can transfer what we learned in Florida to this weekend at Cherokee Speedway,” he said. “I was happy with our speed down there. Hopefully we have it again for the first ‘Elite’ Series race.”
Most teams use a trip to the Sunshine State as a way to test new ideas or set-ups they normally wouldn’t at their regular tracks. With no points on the line, it’s a great way to get real in-race experience on how things that may work throughout the season.
Pauch and his team are no different.
“We tried a few things in an attempt to make our car better,” he said. “We haven’t run a lot of events with the coil rear suspension geometry. It was good to spend a week on it and learn as much as we could.”
Now, Pauch’s eyes are focused squarely on Gaffney, SC and a big $25,000 payday that comes with winning the inaugural Short Track Super Series Rebel 50 ‘Elite’ Series race at Cherokee Speedway.
Practice is scheduled for Thursday evening with Qualifying night set to roll on Friday. The main event will take place on Saturday.