Pauch Jr Collects 5th Consecutive Win at Georgetown; Mahaney & Watt Capture STSS & Georgetown Championships & Pit Notes

The Short Track Super Series headed back to Georgetown Speedway for their annual Mid-Atlantic Championships to conclude the 10 race South Region points chase and crown the STSS champion and the Georgetown Speedway Points champion in a race that offered the winner a $7,000 gambler’s purse.

Billy Pauch Jr continued his Georgetown dominance by taking the lead back on lap 26 and holding off the likes of Anthony Perrego and Ryan Watt in the 40 lap feature to take his 5^th consecutive Georgetown win in a row.

In victory lane Billy Pauch Jr commented “This one was a hard one here, I got on Anthony coming out of two and knew if I forced him into the hole there we would be able to clear him.  He had a good car and the kid is one of the best out there and it was an awesome night.  I’ve been polite about everything; but you know in September for a lack of a better term they lit a fire under my ass and we have been on a role since then so I got to appreciate those guys really pushing me and making me prove that everything was BS and we can win races.”  

Pauch Jr continued “Five wins in a row here has been amazing and this place has always been really good to me and it fits my style.  My dad may have won ten in a row at a racetrack but five in a row is pretty impressive.  We have a lot of heart, soul and grit that makes it go around.  It’s really unbelieve to win 5 in a row and I’m kind of upset I skipped two races earlier to go to Diamond but we won on those nights too.”

Mike Mahaney battled from his 24^th starting position to a 12^th place finish which held off Matt Sheppard and Anthony Perrego in the point standings and secured his first STSS South Region championship and the $10,000 South Region champion check. Mike has finished his season strong with his first STSS championship; his first STSS win at Port Royal and his first SDS win at Albany Saratoga.

In victory lane Mike noted “This is unbelievable and a cool title to have. This is the first time we ever have been able to run the South Series.  I don’t think it set in until I saw the check and I think they were still tallying up the points when we finished the race. I didn’t have a good night tonight; but we did what we had to do to stay on top of the points tonight and all season long.  I didn’t have a good heat race; it was really ugly tonight and I wasn’t comfortable and couldn’t get a good feel in the car.  I’m just thankful for my whole team all season long.  This points title is something we really wanted and feels great.  I was counting positions under yellow and I was really concerned early as we were making up any ground toward the front.  I was probably being too carful but we were able to stay out of trouble and get to the position we needed to get this championship.”

Ryan Watt charged from his 11^th place starting position to the front of the field and a 3^rd place finish while holding off Matt Stangle and H J Bunting to lock up the Georgetown 2021 Modified Points Championship.

Ryan Watt stated “Going into it I knew the two cars I had to beat tonight and I would have no issues if I kept them behind us.  We had a good car and we were going for the win and figured everything would fall into place.  We are coming out of here tonight with a 3^rd place to add to a lot of other good runs down here at Georgetown this year and just  glad to pick up the track points championship.”

The modified 40 lap feature was led for the first 4 laps by pole setter Mark Pettyjohn until Billy Pauch Jr. took the lead on a lap 5 restart.  On lap 8; Pauch hit the infamous bump in turn 2 which destabilized his car enough that Perrego got underneath him and made a pass for the lead.  After a no start on a lap 22 restart; Pauch was able to pass Perrego and retake the lead which he would take into victory lane for his 5^th consecutive win at Georgetown over a 4 month period.

The top ten was rounded out by Anthony Perrego in 2^nd followed by Ryan Watt, Jordan Watson, Mike Gular, Matt Sheppard, Matt Stangle, Brandon Grosso, Dominick Buffalino and Wade Hendrickson in 10^th place.

The heat races were won by JoJo Watson, Mark Pettyjohn and Ryan Watt.

Mid-Atlantic Championship Modified Feature Finish (40 laps):

Winner – BILLY PAUCH JR., 2. Anthony Perrego, 3. Ryan Watt, 4. Jordan Watson, 5. Mike Gular, 6. Matt Sheppard, 7. Matt Stangle, 8. Brandon Grosso, 9. Dominick Buffalino, 10. Wade Hendrickson, 11. Joseph Watson, 12. Mike Mahaney, 13. Mike Maresca, 14. Ryan Godown, 15. Richie Pratt, Jr., 16. Jim Britt, 17. H.J. Bunting, 18. Ryan Riddle, 19. Kevin Sockriter, 20. Frank Cozze, 21. Jared Umbenhauer, 22. Mark Pettyjohn, 23. Roger Manning, 24. Robert Dutton, 25. John Willman, 26. Mark Van Vorst, 27. Ray Swinehart.

Did Not Start: Max McLaughlin, Norman Short

2021 STSS South Region Champion ($10,000): Mike Mahaney

Georgetown Speedway Modified Champion ($2,500): Ryan Watt

Modified Pit Notes

Billy Pauch Jr. took the early lead only to be passed on lap 10 by Anthony Perrego but Pauch managed a rare pass back by Perrego on lap 23 to regain the lead and drive into victory lane for the $7,000 gambler’s race win and his 5 consecutive win over the last 4 months at Georgetown.

Anthony Perrego came to Georgetown looking for a modified feature win as well as a shot at winning a STSS South Region Points championship. Unfortunately he came up a bit short finishing 2^nd in both the feature race and the 2021 STSS South Region points and only 18 points behind the 2021 points champion Mike Mahaney.  Anthony reflected “Our car was really good early but after that one restart got called back we just got wicked tight.  Once it blacken up my right front sealed over.  Ryan showed me the outside and I was feeling a lot more comfortable up there.  Before the last yellow we were reeling both of those guys in.  All in all we had a chance to win 5 point titles this year which is pretty good.  If it wasn’t for some gremlins in the Deyo stuff we would have collected all 5 points titles.  We will work hard this winter and get our stuff in top notch shape and make another run at it next year.”  

Ryan Watt had a strong 3^rd place finish from his 11^th starting position.  Ryan was also able to hold off Matt Stangle and HJ Bunting to win the 2021 Georgetown Speedway modified championship.  Ryan commented “We were way to too tight to run the bottom and there was so much bite down there that as soon as I hit throttle it wanted to drive toward the wall. So had to find something to free the car up.  I shut the right front brake off it helped me come into the corner better but that wasn’t going to help me come out of the corner.  So I decided to figure out how to make the top work and had to run turn one way out there to miss that hole.  I thought we might have something for Billy on the top but the harder I ran on top the more we hung up coming off.  Congrads to Billy; it was fun racing with him and Perrego.  This was a good deal and the track had a lot of character to it.”

After a modified win at the Delaware Championships last week Jordan Watson posted another strong outing again this week with a 4^th place finish at Georgetown.  Jordan stayed in the top 5 for the entire feature and continues to have consistent top 5 finishes no matter where he races or who he races.

Mike Gular posted a 5^th place finish from a 12^th starting position.  Postrace Mike reflected “We had a solid night on the track.  We started today with more truck troubles on the way down here and my buddy Jeff Strunk came to the rescue to get us here.  We made the redraw and drew 12 out of 12 again like we usual do.  Pretty happy to get a top 5 tonight.  We couldn’t stay around for the rescheduled Sunday small block race because we need to get home to get ready for our Charlotte trip.”

Matt Stangle finished 7^th and continues to have a strong month of October with solid top ten finishes throughout the month at various tracks in addition to his crown jewel finish of 3^rd in the Speed Showcase 200 lap race at Port Royal Speedway.

Brandon Grosso posted an 8^th place finish to also add to a very strong October.  Brandon had a 10^th at the Speed Showcase 200 and a 5^th last week at New Egypt’s legends of the fall.  Brandon noted “We been getting better every race and figuring out the new coils race by race and we hope to be building for next year so we can come out stronger in 2022 and have a much better year than we did this year.”

Dominick Buffalino had a good car and got as high as 3^rd place early in the race but faded back to a 9^th place finish.  Dominick reflected “Our big block motor ran great but we completely lost power steering halfway through the feature.”

Wade Hendrickson made an appearance with his big block entry and finished 10^th from a 20^th starting position.  Wade noted “We were fighting a throttle push all night with the big block but still managed a top 10 finish.”

Mike Maresca had a strong run going and was in 5^th place when a flat tire sent him to the pits and back to 21^st position.  Maresca worked his way back to a 13^th place finish despite the flat tire.

Roger Manning made his way back to Georgetown for the first time in a few years and qualified for the field with his spec 358 entry.  Roger had a good run going but overheating and water pump problems ended his night early but he still managed to grab the $250 bonus for highest finishing spec 358.  Postrace Roger noted “We had a good car but a hole in the water pump caused the car to overheat and ended our night a bit early.  We planned on running the spec race on Friday and now Sunday but after our water pump problems that’s not happening.”