(Stafford Springs, CT)---Coming off a disappointing 2009 season, Sean Cassells and his Village Springs/XtraMart team with driver Zach Sylvester are looking to turn their fortunes around for the 2010 season at Stafford Motor Speedway. The team has changed its number from 49 to 51 and the car has a new spec engine from Larry's Auto Machine, which Cassells hopes is the beginning of good things to happen to the team.

"We changed the number and we have a new Larry's Auto Machine spec engine, everything else on the car is the same from last year," said Cassells. "We're the only car with a Larry's spec engine, so we hope that will be an advantage for us. With what we learned by running the spec engine last season, we know exactly what we need to do this year. Our engine had great dyno numbers, we'll just have to see now how well it does when it gets out on the track."

The Cassells team has forged several relationships over the past several seasons that are still continuing. Cassells is teaming with Glenn Johnson once again and he will carry sponsorship from XtraMart, two relationships that Cassells says has kept him in the racing game.

"We're going to be partnered with Glenn Johnson again and we'll have XtraMart on the car again along with Village Springs Water," said Cassells. "What I've been able to build with Glenn the past couple years goes beyond racing, we've built up a lifelong friendship. Around 2006, I was pretty much ready to be done with racing until I partnered up with Glenn. He let us use his shop and they build all their own parts and pieces and we had access to that as well. Another great partner we have on board with us is XtraMart. Rob and Pat Corona are great people, and they're a great sponsor to have. I've always wanted to be a car owner and have my own car out there on the race track and partnering with Glenn and XtraMart has allowed me to do that."

Although the Cassells team's last win at Stafford was nearly three seasons ago, the team is upbeat and confident that they can return to their winning ways and be a contender for the championship.

"Our goal this year is to get back to winning races and finishing in the top-5 every week," said Cassells. "We know we have a fast car, we just have to get the finishes. We've had some really strong runs the last couple seasons, we just haven't gotten the finishes to show how well we ran. It all comes down to the engine. You have to have a really strong engine if you want to get to the front in a 40-lap shootout. If you look at the extra distance races the last couple years, we've run very well because that is Zach's type of race. But when you only have 40-laps, you have to get to the front pretty quickly. We're confident that if Zach can get into victory lane a couple of times this year, we know we can be championship contenders because that's the type of driver that he is."

The quest to be championship contenders this season for Cassells and his team begins at the 39th Annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler Weekend scheduled for April 23-25. Tickets for 39th Annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler Weekend are now on sale at the Stafford Motor Speedway box office. Tickets are priced at $35.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, $38.00 for reserved seats, and free for children ages 5 & under. Tickets are good for admission to the Saturday April 24, and Sunday, April 25 portions of the Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, with the Friday, April 23 practice session open to the public free of charge.

For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.

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