FORESTVILLE — Hamburg’s Keith Prutzman has a ready answer when he’s asked about his age.
“Fifty-eight, but I’ll tell you, for 20 years I’ve been 38,” the United Racing Club 360 sprint driver said with a grin last Friday night at Big Diamond Speedway.
When he actually was 38, Prutzman had long before enjoyed his best season of racing. Friday marked a homecoming of that very season.
In 1982, Prutzman piloted his No. 28 late model to the Big Diamond track championship as he won 12-of-14 races that season.
Of last Friday’s URC participants, no one had more wins at Big Diamond than Prutzman’s 18, the majority of his 30 total.
That 1982 season is the highlight of a career that began in 1979 at the former Reading Fairgrounds Speedway, where he raced a car in the Olympic stocks class.
A lot has happened to Prutzman since then, both in racing and life.
As a Hamburg resident, Prutzman has had his choice of race cars. Head east and you’re in modified country. Head west and you’ll find sprint cars.
He has raced both types of cars.
“I got into the super sportsmen,” Prutzman said of the winged sprint class that competed earlier this season at Big Diamond.
“When Diamond dropped their late models in ’82, the year I won the championship, I bought a modified and made it a year and a half and went through three cars,’’ he said. “I didn’t think that was for me.”
Therefore, he went west to Silver Spring Speedway in Mechanicsburg, where he drove a super sportsman and had one feature win. But track owner Alan Kreitzer then sold the track.
“With Silver Spring closing and the different tracks that 358s (sprints) were running, I went to do that because of the different tracks. I don’t like running at the same track anymore.”
The result has been sprint car victories at six more central Pennsylvania speedways.
The gradual decline of the number of 358 sprint races convinced Prutzman to turn to 360 sprints and the URC.
“The competition with the 360s is a little tougher because there are so many guys of equal quality together,” Prutzman said. “In the 358s, half of the teams are really good and the other half are there as filler guys.”
In the meantime, Prutzman had quit racing between 1990-96.
“I had five different businesses and it just took too much time,” he said. “I had the Hamburg movie theater, I had a 5-and-10, I had a pet store, I had a tanning salon, and I had a video store.
“And I was on borough council at the time.”
Another reason Prutzman decided to scale back his workload was the decision of his son, Eric, to pursue his own racing career.
Eric eventually left home to join the pit crew of multi-time World of Outlaws sprint champion Donny Schatz.
Now working for Tony Stewart Racing, Eric, who also was a member of Levi Jones’ USAC sprint championship team in 2010, lives in Indiana.
Keith Prutzman also changed careers.
Ten years ago, he opened Buck Rubs, an adult entertainment club near Reading. The business has been successful enough that not only is the facility expanding this year, but it also has allowed Prutzman to travel in his racing career.
Next week, Prutzman will join the Empire Super Sprints in their Speedweek series from July 1-5.
“We’re going to run five tracks in a row, and we have two sponsors up in New York that are going to help us out there, too. One of them is giving us lodging. The other one bought the tires for us to race up there.”
Last Friday, though the URC visited Big Diamond for its only time this season, Prutzman’s car has Schuylkill County businesses mentioned on his car.
One of them, a tavern, shares space with two other pubs, including one from New York.
“I don’t know why we’ve got all of these bars, but we do,” he said.
Today’s races
Where: Big Diamond Speedway, Forestville
When: 8:15 p.m. Gates open at 5:45 p.m.
Program: Blyth’s Cleaning Services Night for 358 modifieds, sportsmen (2 features, including June 12 rainout) and roadrunners (four Crazy 8s features)