“Boy Wonder” Paulie Hartwig III scores Evergreen Raceway Opening Day Tour Type Modified Laurels

 

(5-3-26) He’s best known as “Boy Wonder” and for good reason. Paulie Hartwig III of Galaway, NJ never ceases to amaze in what he continues to do with a Modified stock car and on Sunday afternoon he added another feather in his cap as the 15-year-old took top honors in the Tour Type Modified feature at Evergreen Raceway’s Opening Day.

Hartwig started the 35-lap main in fifth spot and wasted little time in slotting his way to third behind Austin Beers and leader Kyle Sisco. He then moved to second by virtue of a lap-1 restart and then stay glued to the tail of Sisco’s No. 31.

Keeping the pressure on he was able to work to the inside of Sisco as they ran side-by-side on lap seven. His race winning move would then take place by holding a solid line entering Turn 1 and from the outset of lap eight and through to the finish it would become a race for second as Hartwig was much too strong for the rest of the pack.

“Right after we built this car it was good out of the box when we took it to New Smyrna back in February and all the thanks goes out to Jerry Gradl who did so much for us. We love coming here for the fans and I always like running at this track and it’s always pretty cool to win here at Evergreen,” said Hartwig.

A redraw of the top six from the heats saw Sisco, who was driving for Steve Ferrara, and James Pritchard Jr., sharing the front row and once the action got underway Sisco took command over Austin Beers, Hartwig, Pritchard and Brian DeFebo.

At the completion of the first tour the caution waved when Evan Rygielski spun in Turn 3. With the race being a “choose” for the restart Beers opted to go low and gave up second spot to Hartwig.

Once the action resumed Sisco would have his hands full as Hartwig kept him in his clutches. The ongoing hounding would pay off for Hartwig when he was able to move to the bottom of the track in order to set-up his plan of attack.

“I saw (Austin) Beers choose the bottom, (for the restart) so I went right to the top and then we got down to the bottom and got a whole and a run on Kyle (Sisco) and that was that,” said Hartwig.

“The car was getting a little free towards the end and if we would have had a caution I think Austin and even Matt (Hirschman) may have had something for us.”

As Hartwig was cruising there was some very close racing taking place between Sisco and Beers as they ran continuously nose-to-tail. Then 10 laps to go Matt Hirschman joined the fight and the trio remained locked in that order to the checkers.

“He (Hartwig) had us all covered today and it was his day. It was a real treat here today and a lot of fun running for the first time with a Tour Type Modified. We built some gains although I feel we made a little mistake with the set-up before the race and thankfully it was only 35 laps,” said Sisco, who notched a career best Evergreen finish.

“We finished second and thanks to (Austin) Beers, he could have pushed the issue and could have got me a few times. Now we have something to build on and hopefully we’ll be a little bit better the next time we come back.”

Rounding out the top five with a steady run was Jayden Harman.

Reigning Harry’s U-Pull-It Street Stock champion Gordie Buchman from Drums came out in defense of his 2025 title leaving everyone know he will be a force to reckon with.

No sooner did the race begin and Buchman left little doubt that he was the car to beat on this day. He dashed to the lead on lap one and would never waver from there.

His only real challenge came during the few cautions that bunched the field but within a lap he was right back to showing his hand and took the first step to repeating as class champion.

Second place was a whole other story as Paul Frantz, Mike Pollack, Brian Wozniak, Geary Rinehimer Jr., and Cory Derr were combatting in a torrid battle amongst themselves.

Towards the waning laps it would be coming down to Frantz eventually edging out Pollack for second. Peyton Arthofer landed fourth while Wozniak settled for fifth.

In the Himmer Graphics Four Cylinders Jared Frye of Weatherly wrapped up a weekend of racing he won’t soon forget as the night prior he won at Mahoning Valley Speedway and then made a sweep of things by scoring the verdict at Evergreen.

Frye took the lead from one very strong running Gavin Higgins with 10 circuits to go and then firmly held on for his first career Evergreen victory and second within a 24-hour period and a rarity also as only two other drivers have ever pulled off the feat of winning at both tracks on the same weekend.

Frye’s victory celebration also earned him the “The Best Performing Feature Winner of the Day” and will receive free entry into the next event.

Kenzi Adams was coming on strong near the end, but time ran out before she could mount a challenge on Frye and settled for second with Robert McNulty taking third.

The Rookie 602 Crate Modified division debuted and taking the checkers was Don Bettly of Drums who led the entire day’s effort including his heat and feature. Second spot went to Caitlyn Makarewicz.

Berwick’s Jordon Young is relatively new to racing but you wouldn’t have known it after his winning performance with the Rotten-and-Forgotten.

The career first winner raced like a season veteran as he closed in and passed leader John Cool with five laps to go and then stood his ground en route to his memorable accomplishment.

The East Coast Legends filled out the race bill and picking up right where he left off at the end of last season was Riley O’Keefe of Manorville, NY.O’Keefe darted to the lead at the start and never looked back despite a good effort from runner-up Alex McCullum.

O’Keefe also garnered the “Make It A Double” award bonus of having the best average weekend finish among the Legends thanks to the night prior when he captured the season opener at Riverhead Raceway.

 

Modified finish (35 laps): 1. Paulie Hartwig III, 2. Kyle Sisco, 3. Austin Beers, 4. Matt Hirschman, 5. Jayden Harman, 6. Brian DeFebo, 7. Evan Rygielski, 8. Riger Coss, 9. Austin Kochenash, 10. James Pritchard Jr., 11. Steve Shultz, 12. Brian Romig Jr., 13. Steve Wojick

 

Street Stock finish (25 laps): 1. Gordie Buchman, 2. Paul Frantz, 3. Mike Pollack, 4. Peyton Arthofer, 5. Brian Wozniak, 6. Mallory Kutz, 7. Lyndsay Wambold, 8. Mike Odwazny, 9. Dennis Buss, 10. Scott Adams, 12. Geray Rinehimer Jr., 13. TJ Kemmerer

 

Rookie 602 Crate Modified finish (15 laps): 1. Don Bettly, 2. Caitlyn Makarewicz, 3. Sarabeth Mesko, 4. Joey Joe Torchia

 

Four Cylinder finish (25 laps): 1. Jared Frye, 2. Kenzie Adams, 3. Robert McMulty, 4. Caitlyn Makarewicz, 5. Maggie Wambold, 6. Gavin Higgins, 7. David Carney, 8. Jacob Knittle, 9. Lauren Skupski, 10. Brooke Peters, 11. Jeff Engler, 12. Michael Wambold, 13. Tyler Skordensky, 14. Sabrina Bogert

 

Rotten-and-Forgotten finish (25 laps): 1. Jordan Young, 2. John Cool, 3. Vince Corter, 4. Jake Jones, 5. Sam Jensen, 6. Dan Jensen

Legends finish (20 laps): 1. Riley O’Keefe, 2. Alex McCullum, 3. Brad Lowmaster, 4. Joel Hall, 5. Chris Sinatro, 6. Jeffery Farruggia, 7. Landen Herring, 8. Jayden Hall, 9. Patrick Moore, 10. Devin Thornton