Dillon Moltz Renews Sponsorship with AAA Driver Training for 2011 Late Model Season at Stafford Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — For Stafford Late Model competitor Dillon Moltz, the dawn of a new racing season has brought he and his team some great news. Moltz’s #94 team has renewed their agreement with AAA Driver Training to return as their primary sponsor for the 2011 season and will once again challenge for the track championship. The news couldn’t have come at a better time for Moltz and his team, who weren’t sure if they would be racing at all this year.
“We’re happy to have AAA Driver Training back with us this, that made our season happen,” said Moltz. “Without them coming back with us, we wouldn’t have been racing this year. We had enough money to get the car ready to race and to do a couple of races, but with AAA we can now race the entire season. We have a new body and we’ve made some small changes, but we’re coming back with pretty much the same car we had last season. It was a bit of a late start for us because we didn’t want to do anything with the car until we were sure that we would be racing, but we’re excited about the new season.”
When the green flag drops on the 2011 season, Moltz will most likely be counted among the favorites to win the championship. In three and a half seasons of Late Model competition at Stafford, Moltz has accumulated 14 feature victories, a total that puts him in 8th place on the All-Time Late Model Winners List. Moltz had to sit out the first 7 races of his rookie season in 2007 because he hadn’t yet reached his 16th birthday. But once he got behind the wheel, he took 2 wins in his first 13 starts and finished the season 18th in points. The 2008 and 2009 seasons saw him win 5 races in each season and he finished second and third in the standings. His win total last year dropped down to 2, but he still finished third in the standings despite missing a race.
“I think we can be contenders again,” said Moltz. “Last year was a little disappointing for us that we didn’t win the championship, but we still finished third while missing a race, so we can’t complain about that. If you look at Woody [Pitkat], he won 8 races and he finished second behind Ryan [Posocco]. 8 wins is a lot of wins and that just shows you that you have to be on you’re A-game every Friday night to be a championship contender.”
Moltz began the 2010 season strong, winning two of the first three races of the season. Moltz never finished lower than 8th in the first 12 races of the year and he led the Late Model standings by 16 points. But an opportunity to race for Richard Petty in an ARCA race at Pocono forced Moltz to miss the 13th race of the season. The team was not able to recover those lost points and they finished the season in third place behind Ryan Posocco and Woody Pitkat.
“I was never really much of a points racer, but last year we took a little different approach than we had before in that we tried to get the best finish we could if we didn’t have a winning car,” said Moltz. “For the first 12 races we ran until the Pocono deal, I don’t think we finished outside the top-10, we won 2 of the first three races, and we were leading the points. Once we missed that race, we fell down to third and we could never get those points back with how well Ryan and Woody were running every week. We got out of our rhythm a little bit when we missed that race, and we had a couple finishes outside of the top-10, which didn’t help. I would say that it was like a boxer with a speed bag. It takes a certain skill and rhythm to keep on hitting that bag and when you interrupt that, it takes a little bit to get that rhythm back and I think that happened to us. Driving for Richard Petty was the opportunity of a lifetime for me and I couldn’t pass it up. We still had a good year and we’ll come back strong this year and give the championship another shot. If we come up a little short again we still have plenty of years left to give it another try.”
Moltz will begin his quest for a Late Model track championship at the 40th Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, scheduled for April 29-May 1. The Whelen Modified Tour will headline the Sizzler with Stafford’s five NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions joining them on the card. Tickets for the “Greatest Race in the History of Spring” are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced at $38.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR