While Mick Dann’s Street Stock career has been quite a successful one, the level of younger talent entering the class has sometimes left him wondering if he’ll be able to remain competitive. However, his recent National Title campaign proved that this is certainly not an issue for him.
Having competed in the past 22 consecutive National Titles, the first of which took place in 1998 at Mount Gambier’s Borderline Speedway, the 41-year-old racer had racked up five podium results prior to this season’s running of the event, clinching the runner-up spot in 2001, 2009 and 2012, along with placing third in 2000 and 2015.
Despite this slew of podiums, Dann wasn’t one of the favourites heading into the event, simply due to the company he was in and given the fact that he’d only completed four race meetings so far this season, but after having purchased a brand new VY Holden Commodore from Razztech Motorsports owner Paul Razum, he’d well and truly hit the ground running.
Qualifying in position seven for the National Title-deciding feature race at Mildura’s Timmis Speedway, Dann’s experience came to the fore, with the driver managing to not only survive the turbulent race conditions, but power forward to what was the fourth runner-up National Title result of his career.
“I was quite overwhelmed by my second-place finish and it just proved to me that after all these years I can still mix it up with the best and hold my own,” admitted the Mount Evelyn, Victoria resident, whose pit crew includes 2000 National Street Stock Champion Daniel Barton.
“The amount of young drivers coming up through the Street Stock ranks is really exciting to see and the class just continues to get more competitive, making it much harder to achieve results like this, so as a team, we’re very proud of ourselves.
“We try not to get too caught up in planning and chasing results, and we just takes each race meeting as it comes, so when we do achieve a result like second place in a National Title, it definitely gives us a massive confidence boost and shows us that we’re still just as competitive as ever.”
With around half a dozen race meetings remaining this season, including the Street Stock Easter Extravaganza at Swan Hill’s Sonic Speedway on Easter Sunday (April 21) and the Top Gun event at Timmis Speedway on May 4, Dann will once again be contesting a full season in 2019-20, with his schedule including a trip to Tasmania for the National Title at Latrobe’s Gulf Western & Independent Oils Raceway, which will also be followed by the Tasmanian Title.
Dann would like to thank the following 2018-19 season sponsors for their support: Tin Hunters, IPTA Fibreglass, and Razztech Motorsports. Special thanks go to his dad Steve, Daniel ‘Barts’ Barton and Jason ‘Clutchy’ Stewart.
