Dillon Spreen takes overall honors at TWS

[ChuckLicata]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 11, 2006

Contact: K-MAC Sports, 512.417.9414

 

Dillon Spreen grabs overall points

 

Twelve-year-old race car driver Dillon Spreen wasn’t even born when the likes of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Tom Sneva and Benny Parsons ran on the two-mile monster track that is Texas World Speedway back in the 1970s and 80s.

 

Yet, there was the Boerne resident last weekend (Aug. 4-6), running with a mix of Allison Legacys and Lonestar Legacys and breaking the series’ track record for qualifying on the track’s 2.9-mile road course. Spreen did that on Saturday on his way; he would work his way to a fourth-place finish in the Legacys feature race later that night and then an exciting second-place finish on Sunday.

 

Not bad for a 12-year-old running his first-ever road course race. And oh, did we mention – he broke his own track record again on Sunday?

 

Spreen was also awarded the “two-day points championship” for his performance at TWS.

 

Even more – Spreen, because of his age, almost wasn’t able to run on the historic Texas track. That would have been a horrible circumstance for the points leader in the Lonestar Legacys series. However, the Spreens – along with series director Bob Riley – worked out a plan with TWS officials where the Legacys cars would run separate from the Mazda RX7 cars. That allowed Spreen to run with the Legacys.

 

“I enjoyed the weekend,” the younger Spreen stated. “I was nervous being out on a road course for the first time ever but I felt better after getting some seat time out there. Our entire team worked very hard; our success is due to their hard work.”

 

Spreen broke Mel Krauss’ track record on Saturday when he registered a lap time two minutes, 7.78 seconds. The Boerne youngster then broke his own record with a time of 2:07.10.

 

“We were amazed Dillon beat out road course racer Paul Costas on Sunday,” said Spreen Race Team owner Greg Spreen. “We had the pole again, but Dillon seemed to have a little less horsepower on the straightaway than some of the other drivers.”

 

In that race on Sunday, Spreen fell back to third place after starting on the pole but by the backstretch he made his way back to second at the completion of Lap 1. By Lap 2 Dillon took the lead away from one of his Lone Star Legacys competitors, Jeff Weir and led the field of 16 cars. He held the lead until the last lap of the race. Coming off the road course and onto the straightaway, Costas and Spreen ran side-by-side, with Costas nosing Spreen out across the line by a mere .112 of a second.

 

“That was a great finish!” exclaimed Cheri Spreen, Dillon’s mom. “He should be very proud of himself; he’s only 12 years old and I’ll a 12-year-old hasn’t raced at TWS before. And he only lost (on Sunday) to a seasoned road course racer (Costas). Dillon has something to brag about; Costas has to say he barely beat a 12 year old.”

 

On Saturday, Spreen started on the pole but got a bad start and fell back to sixth place on Lap 1. However, he quickly started picking off cars and made his way back up the field. He suffered another setback when John Riley spun in Turn 2, causing Spreen to spin to avoid hitting Riley; the spin sent Spreen into the grass.

 

Once again, the youngster gathered himself and rocketed through the field on the last few laps, grabbing a fourth-place finish in a race won by SCCA road racer William Brunner. During his run to the front, Spreen registered a lap time that was two seconds faster than Brunner.

 

The Spreen Racing Team wanted to point out some help and great sportsmanship shown to their team the entire weekend by several people.

 

“During practice on Saturday,” Greg Spreen began, “Dillon's header completely fell apart. No one in the series had a spare set and we thought our weekend was over. Greg quickly took the headers out of the car and the The Hickhams (SCCA road racers) tried their best to piece them back together to get Dillon out for qualifying. Meantime, one of our competitors - The Kruger family - drove Cherie back to their house in Bastrop to pick up their spare set. Dillon qualified with broken headers and got the pole.”

 

Cherie Spreen stated, “We would like to thank Dillon's Quarter Midget car owner Charlie Wolff,” team owner Greg Spreen said. “Dillon drove one of Charlie's Quarter Midgets for 4 years. He helped Greg remove the broken headers twice and put in the new ones. Charlie is soon to be 71 and thank God he was there. It was a tough job. Charlie and Craig Spaulding really helped with that. You have to practically remove the engine to replace the headers.”

 

Cherie Spreen added, “Dillon got a lot of pointers from his sponsor - Craig Spaulding of South Bay Partnerst. Craig races a SCCA Formula Mazda. Dillon also got a few pointers from 16-year-old Steven Hickham, who set the fastest time there this weekend in his Formula Mazda car. We really appreciate NASA for letting him race there this past weekend. Dillon has been wanting to race there since he was two years old, when he watched his dad race his TIDA late model at the track.”

 

Dillon Spreen is sponsored by South Bay Development (a real estate development company) and Spreen Racing Engines. Information about Dillon Spreen is available at his web site, www.dillonspreen.com.

 

- 30 -