David Mayhew and MMI are teaming up again for a run at the 2010 K&N Pro Series West title. After two victories and a strong sixth place showing in the final points despite not running in the season finale, both Mayhew and Team Owner Steve McGowan are confident they can be a serious contender for the title. " We had a good year in 2009, but we let a couple of wins slip away," said McGowan. "(Crew Chief) Terry Henry does such a good job of preparing the cars if we can avoid wrecks we have as good a shot as anyone. We are really working on our short track program."
Also returning to MMI in 2010 is 16 year old Dallas Montes who drove a Legend Car for MMI last season resulting in the 2009 Rookie of the Year title at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Montes also posted 5 main event wins. "Dallas really showed he could drive last year," said McGowan. " I wanted to give him the chance to move up and see what he can do in the bigger cars." Montes is planning on running 5 races in the Spears SRL series as well as 3 races in the K&N Pro Series West. Mix in some late model races in a Randy Smith owned car and the young driver will be very busy in 2010.
"I know a lot of people are showing confidence in me," said Dallas. " Now I need to prove I can do this, but at least I'm getting that chance. Without the support of Steve and Randy and my other sponsors, I couldn't do this."
While the learning curve will be steep for Montes he has surrrounded himself with experience. " Having David to lean on and learn from will be huge for me and working with Terry in the shop will teach me alot," Montes said. " All the guys on Mayhews team are helping me and my dad. They want to see all the cars run well."
While the focus of Mayhew will be the 2010 Championship, the team also plans to run some ARCA races if things work out. " If we can find some additonial funding we may run some ARCA or East races. We will probably run some SRL with David also and that would help with Dallas having him racing at the same event," said McGowan.
One big surprise out of the MMI camp is that Terry Henry is planning on trading in his crew chief uniform for a driving suit at select SRL events. Henry is planning on getting back behind the wheel in the SRL car for the second event at Orange Show Speedway.
All of Team MMI has been busy preparing cars for the upcoming season with the team making plans for a two day test in Roseville March 6 and 7th. Both Montes and Mayhew will be logging laps with Montes in the SRL number 17 and Mayhew testing two different K&N cars. "We are trying some different things and wanted to back to back the cars to really get a feel if we are making progress," said Mayhew.
In addition to MMI, Montes and Mayhew would like to thank Henrys Race Prep, Victory Circle Race Cars, The Bakersfield Jam, KHI and Joiner Motorsports for all the support. You can check out results, updates and photos at dallasmontesracing.com.
