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| NEMA
Youngster Sean Cassie |
The Pelham, NH-based Cassie family,
continues a trend in NEMA – talented youth in outstanding equipment – set in
motion three seasons ago when the club lowered the minimum driving age to 16. NEMA had
three teenage winners – Ryan Dolan, Bobby Santos III and Kyle Carpenter – last
season. .
“They are getting a lot of exposure and I’m looking forward to racing
them,” Cassie says of NEMA’s youngsters. “I hope, at some point, to join
them on the win list.”
Cassie spent the last two seasons at Lee USA Speedway, one of the nine facilities NEMA
will visit in 2003. “One of the great things about NEMA is the travel,” says
Cassie. “You race on different tracks instead of the same one every week. Handling
different tracks is something you should learn when you’re young.”
Although he has an impressive Go Kart and Mini Sprint resume, Cassie comes to NEMA from
two strong seasons in Lee’s Hobby Stock and Late Model divisions respectively.
Although he was only 15 (he had a special insurance policy), he finished second in
Lee’s Hobby Stock division two years ago, winning seven features.
He finished eighth in Late Model points a year ago, winning three times, despite a
season-opening crash that cost him seven races. Starting 17th, he was running third when
he was collected in an altercation involving the leaders. He wound up with an assortment
(knees, leg, arm) of broken bones and a destroyed racer.
“We came back with a brand new car,” Cassie boasts, singing the praises of
veteran builder/competitor Wayne Helliwell Jr. “He was the man behind us coming
back.”
Cassie traces his career to a “little dirt go-kart” he received on his 10th
birthday. A friend of the family, after watching Cassie drive the kart, told Jim of Sugar
Hill Speedway. “We took a ride up there and I got to try out a Kart,” Cassie
remembers. “I loved it and we bought one.”
After four Go Kart championships he moved on to the Mini Sprints, winning two more.
“Half the size of a Midget and way more than half the motor,” says Cassie who
nonetheless believes the Mini Sprint experience will serve him well.
Lee is one of nine tracks NEMA will visit this season, joining Thompson, Waterford, Star,
Beech Ridge, Oxford, Adirondack and Oswego.
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