Saturday night, eight-year-old Joey Bauler of Santee, entered the rank of Driver when he completed his first race at Barona Speedway Park, in Lakeside California.

Joey was one of 17 mini-dwarf drivers that competed in Hot Laps, Heat Races and a 15 lap Main Event. Joey competed with youth between the ages of 5-12. The racecar Joey was driving was leased from the Mini-Dwarf car association that gives youth and their families and opportunity to "test" the sport .

Joey loves stock car racing and is no stranger to it. Perhaps it is because his mom is one of the drivers for the D2Dracing.com team that features a NASCAR Featherlite Southwest tour and Late Model Sportsman racecar. " Joey is often at the garage working on the racecars with the rest of the crew, and knows quite a bit about them." Said Joey's mom, Sandy. Joey has been counting the years until he was old enough to drive his moms racecar.

When his 22 year old sister recently raced her first race at Cajon Speedway in an Allison Legacy car, he was feeling left out. Then, through a recent San Diego Racers Against Drugs event, the D2D team met a group of drivers who provide mini-dwarf cars for youth to lease. They get actual racetrack experience and learn sportsmanship, flags and racing procedures. "There is a lot more to racing than most people realize and this offers them the opportunity to learn the basics skills" Said Sandy.

Although, who knows where this will lead. In the meantime he will be having fun and learning the hard knocks of racing. But Joey already has a plan, "I wants to keep racing and someday race against my mom and sister."

Becky Brewer
PR and Marketing Assist
PR@D2Dracing.com
Gibson Communication Group