Besides at New Asheville Speedway, along the way Tissot has also visited victory lane at NASCAR sanctioned tracks in North Carolina such as Hickory Motor Speedway and Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, plus in the Palmetto State at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
“I guess growing up in Asheville and attending racing down on ‘The River’ on Friday nights and having friends who raced there, really there was no way I wasn’t going to climb in a race car,” said Tissot while reflecting on his early days in racing. “There’s a lot of history surrounding New Asheville Speedway, with such great drivers as Jack Ingram, Bob Pressley and his son Robert, plus many other good wheelmen who raced at the track. I’ll never forget winning my first race at Asheville, because I really felt like I had accomplished something huge. With the track no longer open, I consider it a great honor to be able to say I won two New Asheville Speedway championships, forever writing my name in the record book.”
With Tissot enjoying much success on the local level, he branched out and began competing with the NASCAR Slim Jim All-Pro Series, United Speed Alliance Racing Hooters Pro Cup Series, and United Auto Racing Association - Short Track Auto Racing Stars. He won not only feature events with each series, but in 2003 he captured the UARA-STARS championship on the strength of four victories and only finished outside of the top-10 once during the season.
The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is the country’s leading program for weekly short-track racing, with more than 10,000 drivers competing at NASCAR sanctioned short-tracks spread out all across the United States and Canada.
After finishing fourth in UARA-STARS points in 2010, Tissot decided to step away from the series in 2011 and focus his attention on winning the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock championship at Kingsport (Tenn.) Speedway, with fellow Asheville resident and former NASCAR racer Robert Pressley promoting the facility.
For many race car drivers the season Tissot put together last year at Kingsport Speedway would leave them satisfied, as he captured five Late Model Stock feature wins and recorded 18 top-five finishes in 21 starts. He also earned seven pole awards along the way. The 42-year-old Tissot also thrilled the Model City crowd by leading flag-to-flag in winning the UARA-STARS Courtesy Chevrolet 150 last August.
Tissot was in contention to win the track title entering the final event of the season, as he was only seven points behind. However, he wasn’t able to close the distance and finished second in the track standings.
“Yeah, overall I guess you could say we had a very good season last year,” Tissot said while thinking back about competing in the Volunteer State in 2011. “As a racer, bottom line is you want to win races. And we won five features. We also qualified on the pole on seven occasions. To be quite honest, we really had a good car every Friday night and we knew we were legitimate threats to run up front and win.
“As racers go, we’ve got that competitive side to us and we’re always looking back at races we felt we should have won. You never want to leave anything on the table. But I truly feel like we let three victories slip through our grasp, and then come the end of the season you’re thinking about what might have been. We finished second in track points and also second in Tennessee State NASCAR Whelen All-American Series points. And, hey, last year is last year and all of our attention is now focused on the upcoming racing season. We hope to win more races and also capture the track championship. I’m ready for racing to get cranked back up.”
The start to the 2012 racing season at Kingsport Speedway is quickly approaching, with the season-opener scheduled for March 10. Tissot has been busy during the winter off-season preparing his equipment for what he hopes will be a championship run.
“It’s a given fact if you want to win races it all begins in the race shop with preparation,” Tissot said yesterday while taking a break from working in the shop. “If you’re not ready to race when you leave the shop and have to scramble and work on the car when you arrive at the track, that just puts your back against the wall. Our equipment is good, it’s well-prepared and I really believe we’ll make some noise and win races. I believe we proved to everybody last year that we had a race-winning and championship-contending team.
“But one thing we face in racing is it’s a costly deal. We’re looking for additional sponsorship help to come onboard with Tissot Racing, and we’ll take you on a ride with us to the 2012 Kingsport Speedway NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock championship.”
For more information regarding Tissot Racing, contact Lee Tissot at (828) 243-8549 or via email at jtissot@bellsouth.net.
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Press Release Prepared By:
Walden Motorsports Communications
Johnson City, TN
(423) 928-9644
