D&N Motorsports Announces New Plans for 2005 and 2006

Dumfries, VA (May 1, 2005) – After a successful start in 2004, the D&N Motorsports team was looking forward to the 2005 USTCC season. New rule changes have created new challenges for the team, and new plans as well.

The USTCC made several rule changes for the 2005 season that were focused mainly on engine and suspension modifications. The new changes have provided teams more freedom in preparing their race engines, as well as their suspension set-ups. “The changes made for this season have given us an opportunity to fix some of the problems we were having with the car last year,” commented team owner and driver Dennis Short. “In order to fix those problems, we had to evaluate our current situation and alter our plans for this season. We were planning on running a full season with the USTCC this year, but instead have decided to put the time and money into preparing a more competitive car for the 2006 season.”

The team was struggling last year with horsepower and minimum weight issues. Because of the low horsepower output of a Saturn engine, the car was assigned a minimum weight that was not possible to achieve. “We were not able to get the car down to the assigned minimum weight, so we were not getting the full advantage of the horsepower to weight ratio that the series uses,” explained Dennis. “The new rule changes will give teams with low horsepower cars, like ours, an opportunity to build engines with more power. More power will affect other components on the car, so that’s why we’ve decided to use this season to prepare, test and develop the car for the 2006 season.”

“Changing our plans for 2005 wasn’t an easy decision, but the team and I feel that it was the right decision,” said Dennis. “It will make for a more successful season in 2006 if we take the time now to improve the car instead of trying to play catch up next year.” The team has several test days scheduled throughout the remainder of the year to test and tune the car with the new engine.