Sprint

Basinger to shoot for USCS rookie title

Granite Quarry, NC - 18 year old Ben Basinger of Granite Quarry, North Carolina, has announced plans to compete for the United Sprint Car Series "Top Rookie" title. Basinger plans to run the entire USCS National schedule, which includes races on ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Granite Quarry, NC - 18 year old Ben Basinger of Granite Quarry, North Carolina, has announced plans to compete for the United Sprint Car Series "Top Rookie" title. Basinger plans to run the entire USCS National schedule, which includes races on asphalt and dirt ovals in eight states. His first event will be the USCS opener at Concord Motorsport Park's half mile asphalt tri oval on Saturday night April 21st.

Basinger, who has raced part time with the ASCS, AOAS, and USCS over the past year and a half, is still eligible to compete for the USCS Rookie honors since he has run less than 20 events in winged sprint cars. He finished third in the point standings in an abbreviated 2000 ASCS Southeastern tour schedule.

Young Basinger's Red Star Motorsports racing team has just inked a nice sponsorship package with Charlotte's WRFX 99.7 FM "the Fox" radio station. The station is home to the popular John Boy and Billy Big Show morning broadcast heard on stations across the nation each weekday morning and listened to by millions of race fans. He hopes this will, as well as giving the station their money's worth thru his promotional efforts, give him some added exposure to further his professional racing plans. He will run the number 99 on his car in 2001 to identify with his sponsors location on the FM tuner.

Basinger got his start in racing, like many of today's top racers, in karting at age 8, where he found success in WKA state and National events for 6 seasons. He then gained further experience from racing stock cars at age 15, on ovals in North Carolina, before moving on the 700 horsepower outlaw-style sprint cars at an early age.

"I'm very excited about our racing plans this year with USCS, " states Basinger. " I hope to win the rookie title and finish as high as possible in the National standings, hopefully high in the top 10. I know this will be great experience for me as USCS has some of the top drivers in the country competing in the series. Last year, their champion, Kenny Adams, was about the toughest guy around. I also know that their top rookie in 2000, Michael Miller took home awards worth about $5000 at years end and finished 10th in the points. Not too bad!" said Basinger.

"What I'm really looking forward to, is that the USCS goes to so many different tracks on both asphalt and dirt surfaces, which I believe will help me gain a tremendous amount of experience for my racing future," the rookie concluded.

Basinger's # 99 is crew chiefed by his father, Chris Basinger, who is fortunately assisted by veteran racer, David Heno, who will also drive a team car sponsored by WRFX's sister station, WKKT in Charlotte. Heno has a broad range of racing experience as a fabricator and crew chief added to his driving background and is expected to be a great deal of help to the rookie's efforts. Rick Johnson is the Red Star Motorsports team's V.P. of Promotions and Marketing and is responsible for landing much of the team's sponsorship.

Ben will go to work at each USCS event inside the office of one of Dale Cox's Clincher Chassis sprint cars built in nearby Concord. He is additionally sponsored by the beverage, Smirnoff Ice and Granite Tire & Alignment.

In addition to racing, the East Rowan (NC) High scholar is attending Cabarrus Community College, studying Automotive Technology.

-USCS-

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