Story By: MANDEE PAUCH / MIKE MAHANEY RACING – KING FERRY, NY – After a busy 2017 season, the hot shoe out of King Ferry, NY, Mike Mahaney, plans on tackling just as much, if not more races for the 2018 season.

Once racing season kicks off in the northeast, Mahaney plans on tackling a different route, unlike years past. Mahaney plans to once again race in four different divisions, but this year he has no plans to run for a track title.

“We’re going to hit enough shows with all of the special events that we really can’t be at weekly tracks, plus the special events pay more money, which helps us to keep racing,” Mahaney said. “I also feel that the special events give our sponsors more exposure as well.”

Mahaney’s northeast season will start at Georgetown Speedway on March 17th for the Short Track Super Series, which he plans on running, when time permits, in the Olum’s No.33 car.

After much success in Doug Emery’s No.33 sprint car last season, Mahaney and the team plan to chase even more races this year in honor of Emery’s 30th year with the ESS series. “We’re going to try and run the entire Empire Super Sprints series,” he said. “The first ESS race for us will be at Outlaw Speedway on April 20th.”

Mahaney and the Breitenstein Motorsports No.14 Small Block Modified team have big plans for their second season together at Grandview Speedway. After collecting his first career win at Grandview, the team will be chasing more Saturday night shows at the dirt oval as well as select Thunder on the Hill shows.

The Buzz Chew No.88 team plans to chase most Super DIRTcar Series races, some King of Dirt 358 races as well as a few Short Track Super Series races.

Mahaney plans to hit Action Track USA in Kutztown, PA with the No.33 SpeedSTR every chance possible in between his busy schedule.

“I’m really looking forward to hitting some of the big events this year – the Empire Super Sprints CNY Sprint Week, the World of Outlaws show at Weedsport Speedway and Fulton Speedway. For the Buzz Chew car we’ll once again hit the Fulton 200, Super DIRT Week, Eastern States 200 and World Finals. With Breitenstein’s our biggest events will be the Forrest Rogers and the Freedom 76.”

While Mahaney is eager to get the season started in the northeast, he’s currently in the process of getting the Buzz Chew No.88 Big Block Modified dialed in for the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park for Feb.13-17th.

“We were at Volusia last year and two of the four races got rained out,” he added. “Both of the other nights we were struck by failures. This year we have five races lined up. We have two very well prepared cars – one new one and one that ran really well at Charlotte, which I feel is a very similar configuration track to Volusia so I’m hoping to have great results.”

After Volusia, Mahaney and the team will make the trek back to New York to prepare the Buzz Chew cars to go to the Fulton Highbank Holdup on April 28th with the Super DIRTcar Series as well as prepare the Olum’s No.33 for the Georgetown Speedway opener.

“Once we get back it’ll be time to start cranking everything out for the early openers,” he said. “It’s going to be a very busy year. A lot of friends and sponsors have come together to help me make all of this happen. I’m very thankful to have everyone’s support. I’m looking forward to the season starting.”