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By Buffy Swanson
A Pennsylvania power player and 34-time champion, driver Duane Howard will join the elite ranks in the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame this summer. The 33rd annual induction ceremonies—free and open to the public—will take place on Thursday, July 24 at the Hall of Fame Museum on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York.
“My parents and grandparents were always race enthusiasts,” said Howard, who watched the action with his family at the old Reading Fairgrounds in the ’60s and ’70s. At 18 he started racing Go-Karts, with help from Alan Finch who worked alongside Duane at the Howard family farm in Oley. In 1983, the pair procured a Late Model—and promptly won at Grandview, then Silver Spring.
They made the move to the headlining small-block Modifieds in 1985 and found out fast just how big a jump that was. Putting finances together, learning the ropes, the team went winless for almost three seasons. But once Howard scored that first one, at Big Diamond in ’87, there was no stopping him.
“We made a whole-hearted effort and I got a lot of help from my grandfather,” who added on to an existing garage at the farm to build a dedicated race shop, Howard related. “That really set the stage for us to go at it on a serious basis.”
Local car owners took notice: by 1989, first Bart Biever then his son Buddy hired both Howard and Finch, handing off their equipment. “We would do our chores on the farm and then work at night on the race cars,” Howard remembered.
The No. 114 team jelled instantly. Through 1993, Howard won 25 races and five championships for Buddy, including a Penn National 100 and his first Freedom 76 at Grandview—the paramount Pennsy prize.
Then he went MIA.
“I took a year or so off,” Howard shrugged. “At that time, the farm was getting hectic and things were just not going right. And we were so into the racing it became like a job, overwhelming everyone. So I decided to just take a step backwards and regroup.” Craig Von Dohren replaced him in the Biever car—and Duane was back to square one.
He returned in mid ’95 driving for Craig Hirthler, then Cary Duncan—winning a second ’6er with Duncan right before landing a pro-level ride with Hall of Fame car owner Glenn Hyneman in late 1997.
“That was a big deal for me. I remember going to meet with Glenn and signing an agreement. You knew you’d gotten somewhere when you had to sign a contract to race for someone!” said Howard, who followed Von Dohren, Billy Pauch and Jeff Strunk in the iconic Hyneman No. 126.
However, there was a stipulation: Hyneman wanted to do more big-block racing, outside of Pennsylvania. So Howard would have to leave Grandview.
“That was hard because we were so close to Grandview and close to the Rogers family. That was our home track!” Duane agonized. “So I needed to make a decision: Do I race more for Glenn? Or do I just stick around here? I decided I wanted to branch out and do more outside the PA local circuit.”
It was a lot to give up. Howard was one of the “Big Three” Keystone State Modified drivers—the reigning triumvirate of Von Dohren, Howard and Strunk who won everything there was to win. He would be a relative newcomer to the big-block stage in an alien land.
But Howard didn’t miss a step when he crossed the river to New Jersey, racing Hyneman’s car to three Modified titles at Bridgeport. He was the best in both worlds: a multi-time champion on the parochial PA small-block circuit and also Bridgeport’s expansive big-block beat.
“That’s what was kinda nice about those years we went to Bridgeport and ran big-blocks. It was refreshing to get away from the crowd we’d been with my entire career; to go down the road and break up all that bouncing around at Grandview amongst the three or four of us,” Howard reflected.
When Hyneman stepped back after the 2005 season, Howard was out of a ride.
“I had lost touch with Alan Finch but I gave him a call the day after I found out Glenn was shutting down the 126 team,” Duane recapped. Finch was working for Chad Sinon, a successful businessman who’d owned “half the field” at Penn Can before hiring Jeff Strunk and shifting to the Grandview/Big Diamond scene.
“He was parting ways with Jeff when I became available. He was already into racing, already with Alan Finch at that time. Finch knew what I could bring to the table as a driver, and also with help and personnel to add to the team. We met Chad and I was hired that night.”
They won their first time out.
“Even when we had our own cars with Finch—we’d always come out of the box strong. I can’t tell you how many openers I won at Grandview!” Duane noted.
They kept on winning through 2013—both at home and in limited appearances on the road. Disappointed after racing to a runner-up finish to Matt Sheppard in a Super DIRTcar Series event at Virgina Motor Speedway in 2008, Howard rebounded in ’09 to claim the W in the SDS Northeast opener at Big Diamond.
For a guy who grew up beating and banging on the Pennsy bullrings, who never followed the SDS circuit, Howard showed incredibly well when he went up against the big boys—especially during Super DIRT Week at Syracuse. In 10 total starts on the mile, he posted three top five finishes in the October classic and timed in the top six in 2014 in the Petruska No. 66 car with Chad Sinon’s help.
The Petruska team… Norm Hansell… now Butch Getz… Howard got the job done for all his car owners. Christened “The Diamond Cutter” for his particular prowess at Big Diamond, Howard pulled seven Coalcracker victories and nine championships out of that track. He’s won the Freedom 76 five times, as well as six titles at Grandview, one at Penn National and four at Bridgeport. He is a four-time champion in both the PA Tri-Track/Dual-Track Series and American Racer Cup Modified Series. He was named NASCAR PA State Champion five times and was third in the country in 2010. His career win list stands at 277 at 14 tracks in PA, NJ, DE and NY.
Many professionals can’t boast those stats. Yet, Howard was never a career race car driver—a fact that he’s proud of.
“I always held a full-time job—from the time I was a kid, working on the farm, I was always working. Sometimes I do look back and think—what if I had taken that step? Went out on my own and tried to be a professional race car driver? But I never took that chance. I am not a chance-taker,” Duane acknowledged.
“Logistically, it wouldn’t have made any sense for us to follow the DIRT Series because we were outside the area. We knew we couldn’t go traveling to New York, couldn’t travel on a series on any regular basis. For one thing, at that time with the farm, my old man wouldn’t let me!” he ruefully admitted.
“You had to focus on what you knew you could do best. For us, it was racing locally, around here on the PA series. We had three tracks back in the day—that paid well! It was really good—for the family, for all the owners and teams involved. It just made sense for us to stay local. No regrets,” Howard unequivocally asserted, before citing a single possible exception.
“The only regret I might have is—man, I really wanted to win a race on the Syracuse mile.”
