CONCORD, N.C. — 18-year-old New York young gun Dane Lorenc is hitting the road for a new challenge during the 2018 season.
Lorenc confirmed to Race Chaser Online Friday afternoon, ahead of the second day of the Textron Off-Road World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, that his family team will be partnering with Destiny Motorsports to contest the full World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series schedule.
The Buffalo, N.Y. native’s quest for Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year honors will begin with the DIRTcar Nationals in February at Volusia Speedway Park.
“This is a pretty big deal and something I’m really excited about,” Lorenc said. “(Destiny Motorsports team owners) Rick and Barb (Rogers) are great people for us to be able to work with and I’m really looking forward to going out on the road and experiencing a lot of firsts this coming year.”
“At first, we started thinking about going on the Outlaw tour by ourselves (as a family), but once we started talking to them … a partnership made a lot of sense and will be a big help to us, because they’ve done the Outlaws schedule for a while and they’ll be able to help us understand a lot of what to expect. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Lorenc will have plenty of resources at his disposal, but perhaps one of the biggest will be a teammate in Parker Price-Miller, who plans to return to the seat of the Destiny Motorsports No. 4 next year.
“Having Parker as a teammate will be a great help to me,” Lorenc explained. “He and I are both young guys and our driving styles are pretty similar … so my goal is going to be to lean on him and soak up information as I start to learn some of these tracks I’ve never been to before. It’s going to be a learning curve, for sure, so we’ll just have to take it one step at a time.”
Lorenc added that going into the year, the idea is to set goals that are manageable as he and his family learn the ropes of a roughly 90-race schedule that criss-crosses the country.
“We’re just planning to take it one race at a time,” Lorenc said. “We’ll be trying our best and giving it our all. We know it’s not going to be easy starting out, but we’re excited to learn and looking forward to the challenge.”
Simply having the opportunity to call himself an Outlaw in 2018 is something the teenager is already reveling in.
“Like I said before, this is huge … probably the biggest opportunity I’ve ever gotten in my career,” Lorenc smiled. “I’m really excited to get going with this; for a kid from New York to be able to go on tour with the best drivers in the world is something I could have only imagined to have the chance to do a few years ago.”
“Now that it’s here, I can’t wait to make the most of it.”
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network, as well as a periodic contributor to SPEED SPORT Magazine.
Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.
The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: [email protected]
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
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