In his first year of racing INEX Legend Cars in the Young Lions division, 12-year-old Mooresville, North Carolina, native and Cram Racing Enterprises driver Dawson "DK" Cram piloted the No. 50 Fluidyne High Performance / Ironstone Lane Rescue and Stables machine his first-career Legends victory on Wednesday, May 7th. at the Millbridge Speedway dirt track in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Millbridge Speedway has become one of the premier short tracks for the dirt racers in the Carolinas with Outlaws and Mini Karts racing weekly on the 1/6th-mile oval. However, this year the track added Legend Cars back to the facility, the first time since the late 2000s, to participate in the Wednesday and Saturday night events.
Cram has been a Research and Development driver for Kyle Beattie's SKE Karts program and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Marcos Ambrose's Thumper X Kart engines, and has supported the return of the INEX-sanctioned Legend Cars to the track. Along with competing on the weekends on the asphalt at Concord Speedway (NC), Cram has logged many laps at Millbridge this year, which paid off with his first victory.
Dawson Cram Quotes
What was it like getting your first Legends victory? "It was great! I switched away from Bandoleros at the end of last year to the Legends and there is a pretty big learning curve with the cars since they are bigger and have a lot more power. I learned a lot racing on the road course at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in January and on the Concord oval as well. I have really been able to understand how to drive the car. Even though I have been doing pretty good and got third at Concord last month, I was very excited to race it on the dirt at Millbridge. It was a great race and all I wanted to do when I took the checkered flag is jump on top of my car and celebrate!"
Has racing Karts at Millbridge Speedway this year helped get your legends win? "Yes it has, but it is different. I mean, any time you spend on a track in any car helps you understand how the track reacts in the different lanes. But the Legends are a lot heavier than the Karts so they drive completely different. I think it helped racing the Legends on the asphalt to understand the weight and power and then the Karts on the dirt at Millbridge to know the track. But I think the biggest help was running a Legends car around the little dirt track behind my Uncle Buddy's shop."
What do you thinkn of the Legends on dirt at Millbridge? " I really like it! We do not have many cars yet since they just started racing Legends there again, but hopefully the more people that know about it will start coming out to have some fun. I really want to thank the Burnetts (track owners) for deciding to race Legends again here and Kyle Beattie to help get the races sanctioned by INEX. It might take some time but I think it will be really cool to get a ton of Legends back on the dirt here in North Carolina."
CONGRATULATIONS DAWSON ON YOUR FIRST-CAREER VICTORY AT MILLBRIDGE SPEEDWAY!