Mason Diaz has spent the past few seasons racing predominantly in Legends cars. Now, he’s making the leap to Super Late Model racing.

Diaz, 15, will make his Super Late Model debut in Saturday night’s Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model Tour finale at Hickory Motor Speedway. His Super Late Model debut comes one week after scoring a hard fought top-10 finish in a Limited Late Model race at Southern National Motorsports Park.

“I’m very excited, this week’s gone by very slow,” Diaz said. “I just want to go out and have fun. It’s nerve-racking going from 23 cars to a field with possibly a last chance race and going around at rack I’ve never been to before. It’s always nerve-racking but you have to go out there and have fun.”

Along with a start in a Limited Late Model race this season, Diaz has competed regularly in Legends, finishing second in the division standings at Southern National Motorsports Park. He also has five career starts in the PASS Pro Late Model Series, though doesn’t feel he’s learned a lot in that tour due to the short distance of the races as well as the small fields.

“This year’s been good but we had a lot of problems,” Diaz commented. “Had good races and had problems. The race last weekend, the car was fine. I thought I did fine in my first big car race with that many cars. It wasn’t a Super Late Model but it’s a bigger car. It was my first race. 70 lap race with 20+ cars rather than eight cars in the Pro Late Model race.”

Diaz’s main agenda at Hickory is getting seat-time in preparation for the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) season finale at Hickory and getting a feel for the handling of the bigger cars in long distance races. Last weekend’s 70 lap Limited Late Model race taught him a lot, he expects to learn a lot more in the CARS Tour race on Saturday night.

“I learned a lot,” Diaz explained. “I learned how big cars effect how they change during the race. I learned now tires don’t stay under you. Pro races you race most of the race. Every 10 laps you get off the throttle. The CARS race is 150 laps and you have to save tires and I learned last week how to save tires, take care of the car, keep the nose clean and be there at the end. If it wasn’t for last weekend going into this weekend, I really wouldn’t know anything.”

Diaz is one of 30 cars who have entered Saturday night’s Liberty University 300 at Hickory Motor Speedway. RACE22.com will have live, up to the minute coverage of the race on Twitter and RACEFEEDX.com will have live, streaming, pay-per-view coverage.