BILLY PAUCH BECOMES 1ST '03 MODIFIED REPEAT WINNER AT BIG DIAMOND;

NATE HAMMAKER TAKES 1ST KARS SPRINT WIN, WHITMOYER AGAIN IN SPORTSMAN

Forestville, PA - July 25 - Billy Pauch of Frenchtown, NJ took his second straight NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modified win at Big Diamond Raceway on Friday to become the division's first repeat winner of the season. The evening of speed celebrated 32 years of auto racing at Big Diamond Raceway.

Seventeen year-old, rookie Nate Hammaker of Grantville, PA took his first career win in the KARS 358 Sprint feature Craig Whitmoyer of Hamburg, PA continued his dominance in the NASCAR ShorTrack Sportsman Modifieds while Rodney Ulsh of Summit Station, PA took his third roadrunner feature win.

Billy Pauch came from 18th starting spot in the BRB Racing/Pioneer Pole Buildings/Ark Rentals 114 Troyer to take the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modified win. In fact, Pauch has won both races he has run at Big Diamond since the team switched from the Teo Pro car to the Troyer. Pauch looked strong in the win over defending track champion Keith Hoffman (Whitehall), Craig Von Dohren (Barto), current point leader Doug Hoffman (Allentown), Kyle Weiss (Hamburg), Keith Brightbill (Mohnton), Kevin Hartnett (Perkasie), Meme DeSantis (Temple), Ray Swinehart (Bechtelsville) and Doug Manmiller (Wyomissing).

A unique starting format which put the nine 2003 feature winners to date at Big Diamond into the field without competing in heats in order by usual handicapping procedures but behind the top three finishers from each of the three heats. Winners in the non-feature-winner heats were Dale Hartz (Hamburg), Bruce Williams (Mahanoy Plane) and Jeff Ebersole (Palmyra) while Rick Schaffer (Woxall) topped Doug Manmiller and Jimmy Horton (Somerville, NJ) in the consolation.

Rookie Shawn Fitzpatrick (Pottsville) started outside of another rookie, Dale Hartz, on the front row and jumped into the lead on the opening lap. Bruce Williams moved his 901 Pub-sponsored 901 from fourth starting spot to the lead on lap two. He stayed on top of the leader board until lap 5 when the first of the past feature winners, Kyle Weiss moved the Schaeffer's Harley Davidson XB9 into the lead after starting tenth. Weiss was closely followed by thirteenth starting Keith Hoffman in Johnny Rae's Cocino Food Service Systems #1 into second and on lap seven, Pauch found his way by Williams and into third.

Weiss held off Hoffman until a restart with thirteen laps complete, when Weiss, who selected the outside of the double-file restart and Hoffman overpowered him as they entered turn one. Pauch was also able to overtake Weiss and on the next lap Pauch took to the outside in turn two to take command from Hoffman going down the backstretch. Craig Von Dohren, in the Devine Tranport 70d,, and Doug Hoffman, in the Kerry Hertzog Auto Sales 77, came from sixteenth and seventeenth starting spots to take third and fourth from Weiss on lap 15 but they progressed no further. Keith Brightbill, in his first ride in the Eastern Rigging 11, was up to fifth by lap five and faded as far back as nine before charging back to the top five at the finish.

When asked about his sudden success with the switch to the Troyer car, Pauch kidded, "You need to turn left real well and this one definitely turns left!"

He continued, "This car works pretty down good. Doesn't it? When the track is good and the car's good, it all works out real well. You really need to be able to adjust here (at Big Diamond) whether you run the cushion or down low and with this car, I can really adjust. Buddy Biever and the team are doing a great job in giving me what I need and it is paying off."

Nate Hammaker blew by Nyle Berkes (Berwick) in an early race pass with his Hammaker's Machine Shop 66N to take the 25-lap KARS Doorways Unlimited 358 Sprint feature win with in only his "eighth or ninth race" ever in any type of race car. Kevin Nagy (East Brunswick, NJ) was second followed by Nate Snyder (Halifax), Nate's father Dale Hammaker (Grantville), Keith Prutzman (Hamburg), Kenny Foor (Everett), Rusty Pressley (Lewisberry), Larry Kelleher (Scranton), Berkes and Dan Richcreek (Enola).

Berkes started on the pole in hs rapid, orange 99 and paced the field until the event's second yellow with three laps in the books. The started single file but the young Hammaker got a great run through turn one and blew by the leader on the outside of turn two. Nate began lapping the rear of the field on lap 12 while Berkes remained second while the yellow flag remained in the rack for the remainder of the event. The leaders reached a block of lapped cars again in the last four laps and on the final lap Berkes got tangled up with them in turn four as Nate Hammaker took the checkered flag with five lapped cars between he and second place finisher, Kevin Nagy.

"I never expected this to happen so soon," commented Nate in the winner's circle when asked if this was truly only his eighth race. "It's my eighth or ninth. I never ran anything else either but this is one of dad's (KARS point leader Dale Hammaker) other cars so it's pretty good stuff."

In the Sportsman Modifieds Craig Whitmoyer continued his apparent title run with his fifth feature win in the Team Turf 99. Fred Fisher (Womelsdorf) had a fine run to take second in the JHoover Chevrolet 95 over Billy Moyer (Pine Grove), Larry Lippencott (Upper Black Eddy), Tom Brennan (Pottsville), Jesse Sterling (Lehighton), Greg Weiland (Pottsville), Ryan Moyer (Port Clinton), Carl Lieber (West Lawn) and Andy Miller (Schuylkill Haven).

Fred Fisher started on the pole in the scheduled 20-lap main which was shortened to 15 due to the event time limit. Fisher led lap one but Gary Wagner, Jr. (Womelsdorf) moved from third to first on lap two. Whitmoyer moved to second on lap three but Wagner held him off until lap seven when he spun while leading and collected fourth place Luke Wagner (Grantville), sixth place Tom Brennan (Pottsville) and seventh place Darren Dreher (Schuylkill Haven). That gave Whitmoyer the lead and he would never look back.

The first winner of the season in the sportsman modifieds, Ryan Moyer (Schuylkill Haven) had just lost third on lap 11 when he got tangled up trying to regain the spot one lap later and collected sixth place runner, Brent Boyer (Bloomsburg) and nine other cars in turn three causing a red. This occurred just after the scheduled 20-lapper had exceeded the 25 minute time limit and officials had informed the field the race would be checkered a lap 15. The restart was uneventful and Whitmoyer won to move to a tie on top of the all-time Big Diamond Sportsman win list with his good friend, Dave Dissinger.

Rodney Ulsh grabbed the roadrunner 15-lapper for his third win in a wild one. Kevin Holland (Pine Grove) ran second over Elvin Brennan (Forestville), Kevin Beach (Llewellyn) and Kirby Schlappich (Temple).

Marty Shappell (Pottville)started second to Rob Kistler (Lehighton) on the initial start after scheduled pole sitter, Jason Purcell (Tremont) elected to start at the rear. Shappell took the early lead over Jason Neidlinger (Schuylkill Haven) but it was like the sea parted for Rodney Ulsh as the field bottled up and he blew from fourteenth to fourth on lap one. Ulsh took charge on lap two and took the win with ease.

The division dominator, Doug Hendricks (Auburn) was not at the right bspot when things opened up and he spun on lap one, tangled with Phil Levering (Parkersburg) and Jason Smulley (Foestville) on lap two and spun again on lap seven and retired with a separated rear axle.

Shappell and Neidlinger held second and third until Elvin Brennan and Kevin Holland entered the picture. Brennan moved to second on lap ten but Holland ended his close pursuit of Brennan's 555 to take second with his 66 on lap eleven. But there was no catching Ulsh, the new division point leader.

The next event on the Big Diamond schedule is an open practice night on Tuesday, July 29, at 7PM. This practice night required no membership and is open to any racing division. Pit fee is $20 with free admission to the spectator areas.

The NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modifieds, Sportsman and Roadrunners return for competition next Friday, August 1, on Kreiser's Tremont Qwik Stop Night at 8 PM.

Regretfully, the speedway management has decided it must eliminate the KARS 358 Sprints from the remainder of the Big Diamond Raceway schedule due to insufficient support by the 358 Sprint teams. A full 24-car feature field has not been provided for any event except the KARS/AOAS Challenge which also permitted URC cars to compete. A major rules meeting, with some concessions to permit more cars to compete in KARS events had no (and possibly the opposite) impact on car count. Big Diamond thanks the teams and cars that did support Big Diamond under the KARS banner and congratulates Dale Hammaker, Chad Layton, Keith Prutzman and Nate Hammaker on their feature wins this year. The speedway will look to see how things shape up with KARS between now and next season in hopes of scheduling some events again in 2004.

For more information on Big Diamond Raceway call (570) 544-6434 or see our speedway website at www.bigdiamondraceway.com.

Website visitors should be aware that if a web visitor simply clicks on an address on their recently visited sites list they will likely be opening the site as it was last viewed by the visitor without current updates. In this case they either need to click "Refresh" if the site is accessed in this manner or they need to type in www.bigdiamondraceway.com and the most recent updates will be viewed. The site is updated very regularly.

SUMMARY - BIG DIAMOND RACEWAY - JULY 25, 2003

NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES MODIFIED 25-lap Main: 1. 114 Billy Pauch, 2. 1 Keith Hoffman, 3. 70d Craig Von Dohren, 4. 77 Doug Hoffman, 5. XB9 Kyle Weiss, 6. 11 Keith Brightbill, 7. 6 Kevin Hartnett, 8. 456 Meme DeSantis, 9. 33 Ray Swinehart, 10. 00 Doug Manmiller, 11. 27 Bob Ebersole, 12. 102X Shawn Fitzpatrick, 13. 19 Kenny Brightbill, 14. 81 Dennis Bailey, 15. 21T Jason Andrews, 16. 16 Rick Laubach, 17. 72 Jeff Ebersole, 18. 102 Tim Fitzpatrick, 19. Sq1 Bobby Gunther Walsh, 20. 5 Paul Kline, 21. 14 Terry Meitzler, 22. 73 Rick Schaffer, 23. 55 Shawn Reimert, 24. 901 Bruce Williams, 25. 002 Ed Scott, 26. 15 Dale Hartz, 27. 178 Jimmy Horton, 28. 30 Brian Johnson.

Heat 1: 15 Hartz, Sq1 Walsh, 55 Reimert, 002 Scott, 00 Manmiller, 178 Horton, 15X Billy Pauch, Jr., 16 Laubach, 6 Dale Roth.

Heat 2: 901 Williams, 14 Meitzler, 102X S. Fitzpatrick, 21T Andrews, 73 R. Schaffer, 5 Kline, 19U Tom Umbenhauer, 14S Todd Biever, 71s Sam Schaeffer, 3H Gene Hornberger.

Heat 3: 72 B. Ebersole, 30 B. Johnson, 11 Kei. Brightbill, 102 T. Fitzpatrick, 81 D. bailey, 27 B. Ebersole, KB1 John Willman, 1D Ryan Bauer, 53 Mike Gular, 42 Jeff Sechrist.

Guaranteed Starters - Feature Winners: XB9 Weiss, 33 Swinehart, 456 DeSantis, 1 K. Hoffman, 19 Ken Brightbill, 6jr K. Hartnett, 77 D. Hoffman, 70d Von Dohren, 114 Pauch, Sr.

Consolation: 73, 00, 178, 81, 5, 16, 27, 71s, 14s, KB1, 53, 15X, 19U, 1D, 6, 3H, 42.

KARS DOORWAYS UNLIMITED 358 SPRINTS 25-lap Main: 1. 66N Nate Hammaker, 2. 45 Kevin Nagy, 3. 56 Nate Snyder, 4. 66 Dale Hammaker, 5. 28 Keith Prutzman, 6. 10D Kenny Foor, 7. 5 Rusty Pressley, 8. 70 Larry Kelleher, 9. 99 Nyle Berkes, 10. 80R Dan Richcreek, 11. 8 Keith Wetzel, 12. 83 Mike Hamer, 13. 15 Adam Wilt, 14. 16 Cliff Brian, 15. 6 Tim Hershey, 16. 98 Jamie Schwartz, 17. 12 Tim Long, 18. 7 Mike Ressler, 19. 17 John Smith.

Heat 1: 66N, 28, 66, 5, 12, 70, 7, 98, 8, 17.

Heat 2: 45, 56, 99, 10D, 6, 83, 15, 80R, 16.

NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SHORTRACK SERIES SPORTSMAN MODIFIED - 15-lap Main: 1. 99 Craig Whitmoyer, 2. 95 Fred Fisher, 3. 17 Billy Moyer, 4. 515 Larry Lippencott, 5. 26 Tom Brennan, 6. 4 Jesse Sterling, 7. 5 Greg Weiland, 8. 93 Ryan Moyer, 9. 12 Carl Lieber, 10. 64 Andy Miller, 11. 23B Steve Zimmerman, 12. 19 Brent Boyer, 13. 157 Andy Fayash, 14. 101 Lewis Mitchalk, 15. 10 Lowell Snyder, 16. 11X Rick Hendricks, 17. 72 Ray Woodall, 18. 21 Chris Clemens, 19. 47 Gary Wagner, Jr., 20. 3 Luke Wagner, 21. 926 Darren Dreher, 22. 24 Randy Thomas, 23. 09 Jimmy Payne, 24. 12V John Deatrich, Jr., 25. 97 Dan Guinther.

Heat 1: 93, 3, 12v, 926, 26, 515, 64, 10, 21, 09, 24, 101, 23B.

Heat 2: 95, 47, 99, 4, 17, 11x, 157, 97, 19, 5, 72, 12.

NASCAR ROADRUNNER 15-lap Main: 1. 5 Rodney Ulsh, 2. 66 Kevin Holland, 3. 555 Elvin Brennan, 4. 17 Kevin Beach, 5. 77x Kirby Schlappich, 6. 22 Mike Allar, 7. 19W Derek Bender, 8. 117 Marty Shappell, 9. 39S Butch Solt, 10. 39 Phil Levering, 11. 31 Robby Laudeman, 12. Big1 Jason Neidlinger, 13. 8M Ken Eckert, Jr., 14. 8 Doug Hendricks, 15. 4 Jake Smulley, 16. 35 Jason Purcell, 17. 13 Rob Kistler.