Dion Bros. Team still competitive in "the family car"
05/06/07: There was a strange unfamiliar feeling surrounding the Dion Bros. racing team as the massive Berlin City Ford bright orange transporter rolled north up the Maine turnpike Friday morning. Most of the team members had not even seen each other since the final race of 2006 at the Seekonk Speedway where they brought home a fine second place finish. No plans were made during the winter months other than the PASS car being prepped for possibly a few races but no work on the Busch cars at all.
The NASCAR situation looked more and more hopeless for a small team like ours but we weren't sure we could hang onto our Berlin City sponsorship without competing in it. With everyone a year older and our lives changing more because of it, the thought of racing once again didn't bring the normal passion or anticipation needed to justify the the commitment to another race season. A meeting (great dinner also,of course) with Dave and Danny Dagesse of Berlin City Ford a month ago might be the only reason that the team cametogether one more time for the Beech ridge race on Sat. night. The Berlin City commitment for 2007 reached at that meeting put the team at ease and rekindled the desire to face the challenges of 2007. The agreement reached was quite simple in Danny's words "enjoy your time with family,friends and fans,stay true to your beliefs and do your best where ever you choose to race" period!
With the burden of not having to race at any particular track or with any sanctioning body eliminated, clearer thinking could be used to map out a course for this year. The NASCAR Busch East series has been eliminated from our future plans, for reasons obvious to just about everyone. The ACT tour has some possibilities but doesn't seem to work for us at this time. And of course there is the PASS series which we ran this past weekend.
Well the race is over and it's Sunday morning so how much has changed since heading north up the pike Friday? Fortunately for the team, things went very well both on and off the track throughout the weekend. It was a struggle to get the car up to speed and competitive but that's typical for the Dion team as they tend to use a strategy designed to fit Dave's driving style and Paul's chassis set-ups. Once the team hit their stride and set the fastest time of the day they could fine tune for the 150 lap distance.
Team spotter and transport driver "Willis", as Dave likes to call him "what you talking about Willis", had a good draw and the team started 5th in the first heat. The heat didn't go real well but they managed to grab the last qualifying spot which earned them a 19st place starting spot in the feature. Anytime you can make it to the feature through the heats with no damage to the car is a good day in the super competitive PASS series.
The feature went well for the team with many side by side battles with various cars and really clean competitive racing all over the track. For the first time since the 2006 Oxford 250 the Dion Bros. had a race car that literally gained speed, or more accurately didn't lose as much speed as the competition, as the race went on. This is very encouraging to know that with the new rules package for 2007 that there is hope that the team can at least stay with the lighter "crate" motor cars. The restart with 6 laps to go looked good on paper for a chance to move up but the double file line-up with lap cars included is always a "crap shoot" and just surviving it sometimes becomes a priority over an opportunity to better your finish. The final finish for the team was 5th place but more important was the performance of the team and the feeling of being competitive once again.
A special thanks to all the girls for the great food and Craig's girl for the Dunking Donuts goodies, like the driver needs any more of that stuff. Ha!
Our driver will be going home to Florida to play with his boats and be back with the team for the PASS race at White Mountain speedway on May 26th. With our sponsor Berlin City close by we hope to get a good turn out of employees and customers to check out their race team up close.
Thank you to everyone for checking out the web site and for showing up at Beechridge, supporting short track racing and keeping it healthy in N.E.