D&N Motorsports Announces US Touring Car Championship Entry

Dumfries, VA (March 10, 2004) – D&N Motorsports announced today their entry into the United States Touring Car Championship.  The team had been considering the idea since early in the 2003 season when they heard talk of the series heading east.  “We were happy when we heard that the series had plans for expanding out to the east,” said team owner and driver Dennis Short.  “This is a great opportunity for us to expand our team and get experience on a professional level.  The USTCC regulations only allow minor performance modifications, so this really gives small low budget teams like ours a chance to compete in a professional series.”

D&N Motorsports is currently planning on running a partial schedule in the USTCC for the 2004 season.  “This is going to be a very difficult process for us as we try and prepare our car for the series,” Dennis explains.  “Car preparation and development have been going slow for us, as we are struggling a little with minimum weights and horsepower.  Saturn cars do not produce a lot of horsepower, so this puts the minimum weight for our car at a very low unachievable number.  USTCC Officials have been very understanding and have given us approval to build an engine with more horsepower.”  With the purpose of the USTCC being to keep the cost of car preparations down, the team is working on several low cost ways to boost their power. 

The USTCC keeps racing competitive by assigning minimum weights to each individual model of car based on its horsepower.  Cars with more horsepower will be assigned a higher minimum weight than cars with less horsepower.  “It’s hard to say weather or not we will be competitive,” says Dennis.  “It will all depend on how much horsepower we can get out of the engine we are building and then how close we can get to the minimum weight that will be set for us.  Horsepower equals money, so with the limited budget we have our main focus is going to be on making the car as light as possible.”

“It is going to be a challenging year for us, but we are looking forward to it,” Short says.  “We have a lot of knowledgeable and talented people on our team and I think that is going to make a big difference on how successful we are.”  Being behind schedule hasn’t dimmed the team’s hopes for a successful season, if anything it has motivated them even more.