World Series Becomes Test Session for South Carolina's Gus Dean

No. 56 Team Works out New Car Bugs at Speedweeks

The grandstands at Myrtle Beach Speedway this Saturday night will be full of Gus Dean #MASHONIT t-shirts when the young South Carolinian returns home to compete in the Dean Custom Air 250 CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series event.  From nearby Bluffton, South Carolina, Dean is prepared to battle at his home track for the first time in 2013 in front of many family and friends.  Free tickets for Saturday's event can be found at many local businesses in and around the Myrtle Beach area and can be printed now from CARSProCup.com. 

February 24

After running full time in the CARS

X-1R Pro Cup Series in 2013, Gus

Dean has made the transition to

Super Late Models for the 2014

season.  Dean kicked off his Super

Late Model venture with the World

Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing

at New Smyrna Speedway (FL)

last week where he and his team

met many kinks to be worked out

associated with such a transition.

Dean and team brought a brand new car purchased from Brad Keselowski Racing to the week-long event and treated their time as a test session.

"It's been about a year and a half since I've been in a Super," said Dean.  "Other than that we've been running Pro Cup, which in my opinion drives completely different.  This is a brand new racecar, an old Brad Keselowski racecar that we've rebuilt from the ground up.  It probably had a few bugs in it, we wanted to test it a week or two prior to Speedweeks but weather didn't allow us to do that so we took a chance and came down here and used it as a test. 

"I think we learned a lot," said Dean.  "We definitely made some gains on it and have a lot to go.  And now that we have some time we're going to do some testing and hopefully by the next race at Dillon (Motor Speedway, SC) we'll be on top of our game."

Over the four night's that Dean competed at New Smyrna Speedway the team was able to use the track time to their advantage for the future.

"The first night I feel was mostly driver error, just me getting back in the swing of a Super Late Model," said Dean.  "That was the first time I was in that car was that day.  The only other time it's been cranked up was at the shop.  So I think a lot of that was driver error, just me getting back in the rhythm of a Super Late Model. 

"And then the second night I feel like was more of a combination of both because we did have a really tight racecar," explained Dean.  "The third night we had a really fast racecar but we just got taken out a little early.  It wasn't anyone's fault, just the circumstances of the race and then tonight I feel like we really needed to work on the car. 

"But the crew did an excellent job all week," said Dean.  "They really busted their tails, I'm proud of them and if we keep showing up to the track and working this hard with all of us pulling in the same direction like we did this week, one day we'll be unstoppable."

Compared to his Pro Cup experience, Dean felt that one of the biggest transitions will be in the driving style necessary to be competitive.

"Pro Cup cars in the corner are more of a finesse skill," said Dean.  "You have to really baby them through the corners and use the brake to drive those cars on the nose.  These Super Late Models are a lot more radical, you have to drive them off the rears a lot just letting them step out, letting them hang out.  Then you drive them in a lot further and off a lot harder, so it was definitely a little bit of a learning curve but i think we've got it by the horns now and hopefully by the race at Dillon we'll have it all under control."

Dean's 2014 season will feature an array of Super Late Model and CARS X-1R Pro Cup Series events that will allow the driver a diverse schedule of competition.

"We're going to run a lot of title races," said Dean.  "Mostly Super Late Models with a few Pro Cup races thrown in there.  We are not running points in any series this year just to give us the freedom to be able to move around from race to race and to be able to run some of the major events that we've been wanting to race."