Photo Credit: Andy Marquis/SNMP
LUCAMA, NC – Rookie driver Dylan Newsome burst on to the racing scene at Southern National Motorsports Park with a podium finish in the Mini Stock feature last Saturday night.
The 18-year-old from Goldsboro, North Carolina attempted to compete in the season opening race back in March but was involved in an accident with Ashlyn McCaskill in qualifying, sidelining him from the race. Two weeks later, he was back at the track with a new car.
Newsome qualified on the pole for the Mini Stock race last Saturday with a 17.917 second lap, outpacing veteran racer AJ Sanders. In the race, Newsome had a strong performance, keeping his nose clean and finishing the race in the third position – behind Sanders and former U-CAR track champion Ronnie “Buckshot” Jones.
“The car I climbed in, we finished building the car that morning,” Newsome said. “We spent 12 days building it. It had not been on the track until that day.”
Newsome purchased his first car, the one that was involved in an accident back in March, from John Ordiway. Ordiway, also from Goldsboro, is a United States Air Force servicemember stationed out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base who competed in the U-CAR class at Southern National for a handful of seasons.
“The first time we practiced, my brother put it in the wall,” Newsome explained. “Last race, didn’t qualify, got tangled up with Ashlyn, and that ended the cars life. Last year, we got into it, I drove one race before the Thanksgiving Classic. The car was misfiring really bad. I finished on the lead lap but finished last place.”
Newsome got his start in racing just last year as a result of a promise from his father, former racer Jack Newsome – a promise kept.
“My dad raced Late Model, he raced any class he could way back when and he got out of it when he had kids with my mom,” Newsome said. “He told me if I got straight-As all through high school, I could race. John said he was getting out of racing so we got the old car from him. We got two or three cars laying around. That’s how I got into it.”
For Newsome, Saturday’s performance boosted his morale after the incident two weeks prior with McCaskill. A pole run in qualifying and a third-place finish gave him the confidence that he can race competitively at Southern National.
“I felt like I made a fool of myself when I qualified and ended up getting messed up and didn’t have good laps at all,” Newsome commented. “Then, we came out and qualified pole. The guys we race with, they’re fast cars, I like all those guys, they’re nice guys.”
With a pole and a podium finish now on his resume, Newsome now has his sights set on winning races.
“I think I can step it up,” Newsome stated. “I’ve got a whole lot more to go. I just got in the car and we just put that car on the track. It felt right getting out there. I’m excited for the whole season I’m ready.”
Along with racing at Southern National, Dylan Newsome is also a freshman at Wayne County Community College where he is studying Business Administration. Newsome also works a day job at Pennington Automotive in Goldsboro, who is also the primary sponsor of his Mini Stock.
Newsome will be back at Southern National chasing his first career win on Saturday, April 22nd in the Springfest 300.
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