Ricky Thornton, Jr.
Midway through the 2020 season, Ricky Thornton, Jr. was named as the driver of the SSI Motorsports Longhorn Chassis. Following that appointment, the native of Chandler, AZ quickly proved worthy of the ride as he scored two major wins in the midst of the disjointed season impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. That performance, in turn, led to a more permanent relationship between himself and the Indiana-based team.
Thornton garnered the attention of the Dirt Late Model world last May when he scored a $20,000 World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series-sanctioned Drydene Double Down Invitational triumph at the Jackson(MN) Motorplex. It was a huge win in this form of racing for the driver who has earned hundreds of victories in Modified competition.
That win was followed up later by another $20,000 payday. The 30-year-old pilot pulled his No. 20RT machine into a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory lane at the Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway after the checkered flag waved for the prestigious Pittsburgher 100.
The move to SSI was made easy for Thornton because of his previous relationship with that organization’s crew chief, Taylon Center.
“Yeah, it’s been really good,” Thornton told InsideDirtRacing.com when asked about his stint with SSI. “Honestly, it helped that my best friend growing up was Taylon and his cousin Freddy. Taylon is the crew chief here and that part helps because I know someone here. Todd and Vicki Burns, the owners, are super nice to us. They give us whatever we need and they’re at the shop with us to goof around with us and all that. And all of our crew guys, we’ve all known each other for at least five years so we have a good time and overall it makes our jobs a little easier.”
Thornton has scored significant wins in 2021 under multiple sanctions. He won a feature in the Wild West Shootout at Arizona Speedway, a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park, and the unsanctioned Spring 50 at the Florence(KY) Speedway.
So do these wins provide Thornton with the confidence that he belongs at the top level of Dirt Late Model racing?
“I think so,” Thornton answered. “This deal is all about what’s in your head. Going out and having success quick helped me to feel like I belong here. I think that helps and the start of this year we’ve been really good. We had that win at Bubba to get our first Lucas win of the year so that part was really good and we’ve gotten two more since. As long as we can keep building and keep learning is probably the biggest thing. I ran a Late Model since 2009 but I’ve never been this serious in a Late Model because before I had just run them around home screwing around. The more I learn, the better I think we’re going to get.”
Thornton in the SSI Motorsports Longhorn
Thornton and SSI Motorsports have opted to join in with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the 2021 campaign. One of the biggest challenges facing any driver who is racing on a national tour for the first time is lack of track knowledge on some of the speedways in which they will compete. This driver believes he has a secret weapon at his disposal.
“I would say the biggest thing was probably Taylon, my crew chief,” Thornton said. “We worked with Earl Pearson, Jr. for a while and he was with Billy Moyer, Jr. and JD(Jonathan Davenport). He’s been with a few different guys and they all ran Lucas so he knows more of those race tracks than he knows about the World of Outlaws race tracks. This deal is kind of about knowing what you need for each different place and that was probably the main reason we went with Lucas.”
After his initial success in 2020 with SSI, Thornton is even more encouraged with how things are going in the early portion of this campaign. He currently sits 8th in the Lucas Oil standings.
“We wish we would have got a couple more in Arizona,” Thornton stated. “We were really good out there. Our SpeedWeeks was kind of up and down which was more on me than the car. The car has been really good every time we’ve unloaded. But like I said, the more I can learn about the tracks, the better we’re going to be. Like going back to Florence, we were there for the North-South(in 2020), so I kind of had an idea what the race track was and stuff like that. I think the rest of the year is going to be good for us and then we’re definitely looking forward to the future.”
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