Dirt trackin - yeah man!!!!!!

I would have thought that with the availability of this blog, I would have by now done a post concerning one of the biggest loves of my life. It should come as no surprise to anyone that remotely knows me that that love is the local dirt track racing scene!

Sometime in the future, I may sit down and do a lengthy post on my history in the sport. I have done lots of things and had quite a blast doing all of them. Television and radio work, public relations work, some minor publishing as well as announcing and of course, the writing for the newspapers and magazines and other things have been my experiences in the sport that I have loved since the age of five way back in the early sixties.

I've been wanting to at least post something about the sport for a while now and just have not had the time to get around to it. I guess this is as good a time as any.

Since the closing of the Flemington Speedway ( a place that has always and will always be near and dear to my heart) I have made the New Egypt Speedway my "home" track. New Egypt was a true Phoenix in the local racing scene in a sense since it was purchased as a rundown ramshackle track and rose from the ashes into what is one of the damned nicest facilities that I have ever been to.

The crowds that make the weekly trek to watch the races at New Egypt is a testimony to the racing that is presented there. The picture below is a typical Saturday night at the central New Jersey racing arena.

I have been a Billy Pauch fan since his earliest rookie days back in the mid seventies. There is a story behind my being his fan and when I ever get around to posting my history in the sport, I"ll include that. After two seasons (2003 - 2004) of crappy luck with what turned out to be subpar equipment, Billy has teamed up with a new car owner for the 2005 season and has come out of the gate in style this season. He did hit a rough patch a month or so ago when the team experienced some trouble in the motor department, but that seems all behind them now and the wins are coming back strong.

The biggest win thus far this season was the night of the Garden State Gunfight in which the touring DIRT Tour stars came into town looking for a fight. They surely got one as Billy led the New Egypt brigade to a convincing thrashing of the tour regulars, placing one-two-three at the checkered with Ryan Godown and Frank Cozze securing the top three spots. Billy is seen below exiting the car in victory lane and also posing with the black and white silks with the Kevin Bifulco owned K&A Excavating backed Bicknell chassied machine.

Last night's (7/9/05) win came after a hard fought battle with Jimmy Horton and Bucky Kell to get to the front. The track had received some heavy rain the day before and it showed with the track coming up a bit rough for the feature events. A number of times, I saw cars being thrown off of their intended grooves and needing to recover before moving on in their quest for the front. Kudos to young division rookie Brian Godown on his great performance up at the head of the pack and his calm under pressure while battling the big dogs.

Once Billy was in front though, it was all over but the celebration. Win number seven on the season and career feature event win #617!!!

If you are interested in seeing some video clips of the racing action at New Egypt, and you have high speed internet connections, you can see them at the address which follows. Just click on the address and it will take you to a page that has numerous clips from this season.

http://www.jerseyracing.com/bigjim/nes.html