Ryan King
Ryan King is certainly no stranger to success on dirt race tracks all around the southeast. The Seymour, Tenn. driver is coming off a 2015 campaign that saw him place second in the overall NeSmith Dirt Late Model Series standings behind Hall of Fame member Ronnie Johnson while also achieving Rookie of the Year honors on that touring circuit for Crate Late Model race cars. Previously, the young driver had earned the Rookie of the Year title on the Southern Regional Racing Series back in 2013.
With those accomplishments on his resume, it should have come as little surprise when Knoxville-based Warrior Race Cars enlisted the talents of King to pilot their house car during the recent Super Bowl of Racing event sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at the Golden Isles Speedway in Waynesboro, GA. Accompanied by Warrior boss Sanford Goddard and veteran crew chief Mike Nuchols, the combined King and Warrior effort set out to test their skills against some of Dirt Late Model racing’s top stars with the national touring series.
“It wasn’t anything that was really all planned out,” King explained of the arrangement with Warrior in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “We’ve been on a shock program with Warrior on our Stinger car, I’d been running the Fox Shocks. That’s kind of how we developed a relationship with Warrior. We had talked to them about some of their cars and stuff then Mike brought it up to us about possibly driving their house car, but we didn’t really set a date or anything as far as driving it. We were thinking about taking it to 411 for that $7,000(actually $7,151) race up there but then he called us up and asked what we thought about taking their car to Golden Isles.”
King’s team had already planned to participate in the Golden Isles event with the NeSmith tour, which would be conducting two races in conjunction with the LOLMDS.
King focused his efforts on making the Lucas fields
“Our goal is to make the races,” King declared of his efforts in the Warrior car prior to hitting the take at GIS on Friday night. “If we’re going to race, we’ve got to make the race. That’s the number one goal. With this being kind of unexpected for us, we don’t really know what to expect. I’ve made a few Lucas Oil races in my own car but this is a scenario I’ve not really been put into before so we’ll just wait and see how we line up speed wise and go from there.”
Indeed, King and the Warrior qualified for two of the three features during the weekend. On Saturday afternoon, King finished fourth in his heat race to make the main event while at the same time sending two of the sport’s biggest stars, Scott Bloomquist and Jimmy Owens, to a B-main before they could compete in the feature. Ultimately, the No. 1G car pulled off prior to the finish and settled for a 22nd place result.
On Saturday evening, King once again held off two of the dirt racing biggest names when he finished third in his heat ahead of Earl Pearson, Jr. and Darrell Lanigan. After the feature was delayed until Sunday afternoon due to rain, King posted a 15th place finish in the race that paid Josh Richards $15,000 for the victory.
The 24-year-old driver counted the time in the previously unfamiliar car as a learning experience.
“The power is a big difference,” he said of the variance between his regular Crate Late Model and a Super Late Model. “Everything else is the same, but you drive them totally different based on the power.”
The Warrior house car
And further, King relished the opportunity to try a new type of chassis.
“That was one of the things that had me curious the most, because other than practicing a few other cars that are different, I’ve pretty much driven Stinger cars the whole time I’ve been racing,” the driver said. “I wondered if I would notice a difference or if I wouldn’t. When I got out there in practice, everything felt pretty comfortable to me. It wasn’t anything different from what I’m used to except maybe just a little better than what I’m used to. With Mike doing the shocks and everything, they know a lot about these cars.”
