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ED
DACHENHAUSEN WINS NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Sept. 23, 2003) – Ed
Dachenhausen logged more than 8,700 miles this year, commuting between
his home in Danbury, Conn. and Chemung (N.Y.) Speedrome, where he won his
first track championship this season. The long haul has paid off in an even
bigger way. Dachenhausen, who recorded 12 wins and 17 top-five finishes in
Chemung’s B-Modified “We had the track championship sewn up a couple of weeks before the season was over and it really never sunk in until the last week. We finished the race, my father had a bottle of champagne and we celebrated and made it a big deal,” Dachenhausen said. “It’s just been an unbelievable season.” Dachenhausen’s racing career began much closer to home, at Waterford (Conn.) Speedbowl. “We first started racing Late Models when I turned 16,” Dachenhausen said. “We went to the Waterford Speedbowl in 1990. It was tough. I didn’t qualify for a feature race all year. It was one heck of a learning curve.” By 1997, Dachenhausen had improved his performance enough to move up to Waterford’s premier SK Modified division – a popular style of cars in Connecticut that are similar to Chemung’s B-Modifieds. In 2001, Dachenhausen was looking for another place to race and he found it after seeing Chemung Speedrome on television. On his first trip to the 3/8-mile track, he received a warm welcome and has been going back ever since. “You show up there, you walk in the gate and people are shaking your hand, asking how your trip was,” Dachenhausen said. “They don’t treat you as an outsider. You’re just there for the same reason they are – to race and to have fun.” Dachenhausen and his wife, Debbie, turned the weekly 460-mile round trip into an opportunity to spend time with their two children, Brianna, 5 and Tyler, 2. Each weekend, Dachenhausen brings his family to the track in a motorhome while his crew members stay in a nearby hotel. “It’s a mini vacation every weekend,” Dachenhausen said. Dachenhausen has earned another vacation of sorts – he will be honored along with the other NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series regional champions at the series’ annual awards banquet, Nov. 1 in Nashville. McFARLAND WINS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP … Mark McFarland, of Winchester, Va., won the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series national championship after a dominating season at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Va. McFarland recorded 16 wins and 18 top-five finishes to win the Atlantic Region championship and his racing record was deemed the best among the eight regional champions, according to the NASCAR CPI rankings. McFarland will collect more than $213,000 in post-season awards, the largest point fund award to a single driver in the history of the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series.
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division, has won the 2003 NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Northeast Region
championship. Dachenhausen is one of eight drivers to win a NASCAR regional
championship this season and he will collect nearly $45,000 for this
achievement.