Client PR Report

Winston-Salem, NC(April 16, 2012) — Not many 14 year-old drivers could roll into Rockingham Speedway, a one-mile legendary NASCAR track with no experience and put themselves in the top ten in both practice sessions, qualify fifth and finish eight …. Dillon Bassett is no ordinary 14 year-old.

Throughout Dillon’s short racing career, which began in Bandolero’s at the age of eight, he’s done things that drivers twice his age and with twice his experience only dream of doing. Now, at the ripe old age of 14, he’s still doing things that make older, more experienced drivers scratch their heads. On Friday, April 13th, he rolled into Rockingham Speedway and immediately took to the track in rookie practice.

Faster than anyone else in the session, right from the start, the youngster proved in the two UARA-STARS Series practice sessions that he wasn’t there just to log laps. He posted a top ten speed in both sessions and on Saturday, backed that up with an equally impressive fifth place qualifying effort. He had already made his mark on Rockingham Speedway and the race hadn’t even started yet.

When the green flag flew for the North Carolina Education Lottery 75, the young driver once again proved that practice and qualifying wasn’t a fluke. He maintained a position among the top five cars for most of the race and proved he could run with the top drivers, on a track that intimidating even to the crew members and fans. After a long day of problems restarting, the young driver made a costly mistake on the next to last restart and fell from his position among the top five in fourth to the tail of the field.

Dillon had missed a shift, it was a mistake that seemed to cost him a chance to get the finish that he deserved, but with a handful of laps left in the race, he still had a chance to recover. He was able to make it back to an eighth place finish on the final lap of the race, but it wasn’t enough for the youngster not to be frustrated with the outcome. He will officially be scored as the 10th place finisher following a post-race review of scoting by the UARA.

“I’m at a loss for words,” said Dillon following the race. “Eighth, ninth, tenth, whatever we finished just doesn’t do this teams hard work justice. Kenyon(Davidson, crew chief) and my guys busted their butts this weekend and gave me a car good enough to win. I let them down and I know it, I just messed up on the next to last restart, I couldn’t get the car in the right gear.”

Though the youngster was disappointed with his eighth place finish, he knew how great the weekend was up until the missed shift on the late restart.

“This weekend was incredible,” Dillon stated. “From the first lap on the track, I felt at home. This is the biggest track I’ve ever been on and the fastest track for sure, but I felt like I’d been doing this all my life. My guys gave me a car that was nearly flawless and I just hate that I couldn’t be up there battling for the win there at the end.”

Though the young driver is hard on himself for the way the race played out at the end, there’s no denying that he was among the best cars all day and just didn’t get the finish that he and the Bassett Racing team deserved. Now Bassett will have a few weeks away from the race track as the next two weekends are off-weekends for the young driver and the rest of the UARA-STARS Series drivers, before heading to Kingsport Speedway in Kingsport, TN for a Friday night show.

Dillon has never been to Kingsport Speedway, but during the off-time over the next three weeks, he’ll head there to test and get ready for his debut on the 3/8 mile concrete speedplant.

“I’ve got to put Rockingham in the rearview mirror,” continued Dillon. “We’re going to be getting ready for Kingsport Speedway the next few weeks and though I’ve never raced there, I know Ronnie(Bassett, Jr., brother and teammate) has raced there a couple of times, so we’ll have some notes to go off of. We’ll go test in the next couple of weeks and we’ll be ready to contend for another win hopefully.”

Dillon Bassett and Bassett Racing are supported by Bassett Gutters & More, Roof Shampoo, Rex Younger Galleries, G-Force South, WP Racing Shocks, Performancenter Racing Warehouse, Ford Racing, Kerry Lawrence Exhaust, Bulldog Rearends, Hank Thomas Performance and RACE22.com.

Want to keep up with Bassett Racing? Check out these links …
Website: http://www.BassettRacers.com/
FaceBook: “Bassett Racing”
Twitter: @BassettRacers
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/BassettRacers

Want more information on Dillon Bassett? Check out these links …
Website: http://www.dillonbassett.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DillonBassett44
Twitter: @Dillon_Bassett
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/DillonBassett44