Ryan King(left) with Mike Nuchols of Warrior Race Cars
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series is about to embark on a long string of race weekends that will finally have their competitors on the road to compete in front of fans(at some tracks). On Friday night the national tour will journey to Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC then move to Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN on Saturday evening.
One driver who will be joining the regular LOLMDS stars at Smoky Mountain is Ryan King of Seymour, TN. The pilot of the No. 1G Warrior Race Cars house car is no stranger to that series having competed in their races on numerous occasions over the past several seasons.
According to the former quarterback at Seymour High School, joining in with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and its teams provides an opportunity to gain knowledge from some of the best in the sport that can then be applied when his Brian King Roofing team races regionally.
“We go to those races to win,” King said of regional events in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Our expectations are a little higher when we come to those types of races. We go to the bigger shows to learn and we try to apply it at other races.”
And King’s crew will enter Lucas Oil races such as the one at Smoky Mountain on Saturday when it makes sense to do so.
“We’re going to run what we’re capable of,” King explained. “We plan on running as many Lucas shows as we can feasibly make it to and we can get prepared for. When we’re not doing that we’re going to be right around here racing closer to the house in whatever pays the best.”
Ryan King in the Warrior house car
Most recently, King raced with the tour at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, GA back in May. After making the feature on the first of three nights, the No. 1G was unable to get into another main event during the span in south Georgia. Still, the team was encouraged by their results.
“We had one decent night down there but the rest of the time we had some mishaps early on,” King reported. “That’s just such a fast race track and once you get behind early on you don’t get caught up and that was the tale for us the other two nights. We just got behind early in the night and couldn’t get caught back up to speed. We had some speed so we can’t be too hard on ourselves, but there are some things we could have done a little better early on to help ourselves out. We kind of hurt ourselves a little bit.”
King and his team applied the knowledge gained from his Lucas efforts this past weekend when they earned a third place result in the Schaeffer’s Oil Iron-Man Late Model Series at Wartburg Speedway on Friday night then added a seventh in that same series on Saturday at I-75 Raceway.
King didn’t race as often early in the season as is normally the case. His time has been otherwise occupied by a recent development.
In January, King and wife Brittany welcomed daughter Kinsley to their family.
“It’s been fun,” King declared of fatherhood. “Anybody that has a kid knows it’s an experience all on its own. I don’t know, it’s something you can’t really prepare for until it happens but we’re loving it. It was a planned deal and we had just got to that point where we decided that was the next thing we wanted to do as far as career, racing, and everything. We’re having fun.”
King is not the only racer from his hometown of Seymour. Former United Championship Racing Alliance champion Rusty Ballenger and driver/chassis builder Chase King are among numerous drivers who have graduated from Seymour High School.
King believes there is a simple explanation for that proliferation.
“I guess it’s with 411(Motor Speedway) being so close,” King reasoned. “That would be the only reason I know because Seymour High School is only about two or three miles from 411. It’s been there so long, it’s a racing community. Me, Rusty, and all of us grew up in Seymour going to the races. That just shows how important it is for the kids to grow up doing that kind of thing and keeping it a generational thing.”
Respond to this post on Twitter by following @RichardAllenIDR and @MichaelRMoats or by liking the InsideDirtRacing.com Facebook page.
Also, NASCAR and pavement racing fans can check out InsideCircleTrack.
