Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
For the fifth straight year, Mark Dilley is set to split the NASCAR Pinty’s Series schedule with fellow series veteran Kerry Micks behind the wheel of the No. 02 Micks Motorsports Ford.
Dilley will once again be running the ovals, while Micks runs the road courses. The format works for Dilley due to spending a bunch of time at Sunset Speedway with being the track’s general manager. He did note, though, that he’d like to do one more full year himself, perhaps that being next season.
The Barrie, Ontario native is hoping for a stronger campaign this season after only posting three top-10s in seven races last season. A combination of some new people, as well as a new car, has Dilley hopeful that he will reach victory lane this year. While it’d mark his first trip to victory lane since winning at Barrie Speedway in 2011.
“We’ve been close, second I don’t know how many times – I think we were second twice last year,” he said on Race Time Radio. “We’ve been close, but just haven’t got it done. So hopefully we can get all the pieces. There’s so many pieces that have to fall together to win one of those races.”
As far as where the win will come, Dilley says outside of his own track Sunset Speedway, his favourite is Riverside International Speedway, where he has only two finishes outside of the top-10 in nine starts.
“It was Calgary for a long, long time, but I like Antogonish,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever finished outside of the top-five. We’ve always had good luck there, ran well there, led laps there, won there, and been second a couple times. I just like that style of race track, high-banked similar to Sunset and that’s kind of how we built that.”
While he had success last year at Riverside with a fourth place finish, Sunset did not go as he hoped as he fought issues throughout the entire race, summarizing it as “going home and forgetting the keys to the front door”.
While it certainly hasn’t gone as he wanted the past couple of seasons, and there’s been some frustration, he also says that it comes with the territory.
“It’s a tough gig and you learn over the years,” he said at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show last month. “If it was easy, there’d be a thousand of us up here. It’s not an easy game at any level, and it’s very tough, and you have to take the good with the bad. If you can’t make it through the bad, you ain’t going to make it.”
Once again, the organization will see sponsorship from Leland Industries and Johnsonville Sausages, as well as a new sponsorship in the form of a partnership with Advance Auto Parts.
Outside of his own program, the series also has a new sponsor this year, with Pinty’s taking over the reigns from Canadian Tire. It’s a change that’s welcome by Dilley as he feels their family-oriented approach will work out better for the series.
“I think going into 2016, very exciting year with Pinty’s on board,” he said. “There’s a good company here. The past company didn’t do as much promoting as there needed to be for the series to take the next level. We were not aligned with a company that will do that, and understands what we’re doing. Not so much for really this end of the table as we’re a little bit up the scale in the age, but the guys at that end of the table. I really believe the series has a huge young crop going for them, and really proud to be a part of it.
“I look forward to the series. I look forward to everyone coming to my race track at Sunset.”
