Paulus Home for Some Local Racing.

Harrisburg Patriot News
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Jerry Reigle

Brian Paulus doesn't know where he is staying, but he is coming home this weekend.
Paulus might surprise his parents, who reside in Hampden Twp., when he pulls a sprint-car hauler on Charles Road.

Or he could make it easy on everyone and stay in his motor coach over the next few days.
Either way, Paulus, a 1991 Cumberland Valley graduate, is coming home.

Paulus makes his living these days racing on the National Sprint Tour, a new sprint-car series that includes 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser, Cumberland Valley teenager Lucas Wolfe, former International Race of Champions winner Danny Lasoski, Tony Stewart Motorsports driver Paul McMahan and about seven other top-name drivers.

But with a weekend off, Paulus decided Monday afternoon that he's heading east from the team base in Dayton, Ohio, where he maintains the Dawne and Gary Pender-owned No. 28.

Paulus will enter tonight's race at Susquehanna Speedway Park, tomorrow at Williams Grove Speedway and Saturday night is still up in the air.

"The only thing that will stop me is if the area gets hit by a hurricane," Paulus said Tuesday night.  Good thing there's no chance of rain.

"We put a new car together, and we want to test it," Paulus said. "We want to try it out against some of the best in sprint-car racing. You can't beat guys like Lance Dewease, Fred Rahmer and Greg Hodnett."

And there is one other thing.

Paulus wants to support Susquehanna Speedway Park, which was one of the first speedways to book the new NST. SSP booked the NST on June 8-9 and Aug. 3. Selinsgrove Speedway inked two shows on June 11 and Aug. 5. Hagerstown Speedway has shows on June 10 and Aug. 5.

The $6,000-to-win Spring Classic feature tomorrow at Williams Grove Speedway is also appealing.

Paulus is ninth in NST points, 149 behind leader Tim Kaeding. He has three top-10 finishes in six series races.

Paulus is one of a several drivers who defected from the World of Outlaws.

He's not a card-carrying WoO member, but Paulus along with several other NST drivers entered WoO-sanctioned shows. Paulus also finished a season-best second in an unsanctioned race at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park.

"Fred Brownfield [NST founder] brought a lot of the fun back into sprint-car racing," he said. "We would like to get some more tracks, but this is only our first year, and it was put together pretty fast.

"We'll make it through this year. This deal will be here in the future. I am very excited about the NST. We have a few weekends off where we can do what we want."

In Paulus' case, that would be coming home.