Team PR Report

Winston-Salem, NC(March 21, 2012) — When the 2011 season ended, Dillon “SparkPlug” Bassett was one of the hottest properties in Limited Late Model racing, but turn the page to 2012 and he’s got his work cut out for him competing in one of the toughest series in the country.

After scoring 12 wins and winning 10 of them in a row during the 2011 season at Ace Speedway in the Limited Late Model division, the younger of the Bassett brothers is tackling the competition of the UARA-STARS Series. On Saturday night, he proved to be one of the best young shoes in the field as he qualified 12th of 28 cars and drove a clean race to a respectable sixth place finish. It was just the way, the team wanted him to start the season and gives him confidence heading to some tracks that he’s never competed on.

Coming into the season opening race for the UARA-STARS Series, the young Winston-Salem, NC native was simply looking to get his season started off with a solid effort and keep his nose clean. Bassett was able to do that a week earlier as he raced in the season opening event for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, Late Model Stock Car division at Hickory Motor Speedway. He qualified last of 18 cars, but once the green flag dropped he was on his way to the front and brought his car home with a third place finish.

It was that confidence that helped carry him into the weekends activities on the UARA-STARS Series schedule, where he found himself with a strong car and even more of a desire to prove last week wasn’t just a fluke. The young driver was solid in practice on Friday during UARA-STARS Series testing and was looking to keep this momentum into Saturday’s practice, qualifying and then the race. However, he struggled slightly in the final round of practice after bolting on new tires and had to be a little worried about heading into qualifying as the team made adjustments to compensate for the feel of the new tires.

Like a pro, Bassett hit the track for qualifying and never missed a beat as he posted the 12th fastest time of the evening qualifying session out of a strong full field of 28-cars. When the green flag dropped, the rookie driver was headed to the front in a hurry as he made his way up inside the top ten and eventually as high as sixth. Once the young wheel man found his way to the front of the field, he wasn’t about to fall back and ended the race finishing sixth in his second career UARA-STARS Series start.

“We had a good car all weekend,” said Bassett following the race on Saturday night. “My team did a great job getting this car to turn this good and I thought for a while we might get a top five out of it. We ended up finishing sixth and we’ll take that, but I think this team is better than that. My crew chief, Kenyon[Davidson] and the guys deserve to be running up front and I’ve got to do my job.”

While Bassett got a great finish for himself, he was able to make a trip to victory lane as his brother, Ronnie, Jr. was able to take his car from a second place start to win the race. While he was happy with his top ten finish, he was excited about his brother getting the win.

“Our goal is to go out here and win the Rookie of the Year and his [Ronnie, Jr.] goal is to win the championship and I think we both got off to a great start,” commented Bassett. “It’s cool to go over there and take victory lane photos with him, but I think it won’t be too long before he has to come over and take them with my team.”

With his sixth place finish, the younger of the Bassett brothers is now ready to move on to the next race at Dillon Motor Speedway in Dillon, SC on April 7th. That will be another track that the youngster hasn’t competed in a Late Model Stock Car on before, so he’ll be hoping to carry some of his Hickory momentum to the next race.

For more information on Dillon Bassett and his Bassett Racing team, be sure to check out his website at http://www.dillonbassett.com, which is being revamped for the 2012 season or you can follow him on his official Facebook Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/DillonBassett44 or keep updated on twitter @Dillon_Bassett or http://www.twitter.com/Dillon_Bassett.