Ryan Shupp Revved Up About The 2017 Season

Column By: RANDY KANE / RPW – MOHNTON, PA – Ryan Shupp is revved up about the 2017 racing season.

In the wake of his unexpected, self-admitted poor performance in 2016, running at Big Diamond Speedway and Grandview Speedway aboard his family-funded Shupp’s Hydrographics TEO Fabrications crate motor powered No. 15R Sportsman entry, Shupp is driven to improve his showing.

“Last season,” explained the 35-year-old driver. “Our motor program just fell on its face. I had it freshened over the winter and that engine builder just ruined it. I thought we’d have power and my car was just a real dog, that entire season. It turned out being a wasted season.

“This winter, we took it to Wide Open Technologies in Boyertown and they checked out our carburetor, put the engine on the dyno and went over everything. They corrected everything the previous engine builder messed up and now we’ve got more than enough power under the hood. We hope to run Grandview the full season and we want to see how everything goes,” offered the Mohnton pilot.

In 2015 as a first-year Sportsman chauffeur at Grandview, Shupp ended up 19th in the standings, had many good runs and darn near pulled off a victory on a night he ended up as runner-up at the Bechtelsville dirt oval. He had a strong rookie year.

Last season, Shupp started off the year racing weekly at Grandview, but wound up running much of the season at Big Diamond in Forestville. It worked out better that way for the second-generation racer.

“My father’s wife had a bad motorcycle crash and he couldn’t go to the races with me,” announced Shupp. “All my crew help after that could only help me on Friday nights. I was short on Saturday night help and buying that Grandview NASCAR pit license was crazy at that point in the season. My dad and his wife couldn’t leave home and it just worked out better racing at Big Diamond. We were awful all summer because of our engine troubles. I was happy to see the season end, honestly.”

In 2017, Shupp again has all his ducks in a row and he’s anxious to return to weekly racing at Grandview.

“I love running at Grandview,” announced Shupp. “I loved Penn National more, though, as a kid. Grandview is close to home and I always wanted to race the bigger cars and do it at Grandview. I started out when I got out of high school in 1998 and we started running Micro Sprints and, eventually, we raced every small car class we could. I figured out Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway and took the championship there in 2004. We raced for about 17-years or so and my goal always was to jump into a bigger car at Grandview and see how we’d do with it.”

“In 2014 we purchased a car, engine and trailer and I got an opportunity to get my feet wet at Susquehanna and I think I ran about 50 or 60-laps just staying out of everybody’s way, basically. In 2015 we grenade the engine at Grandview in practice and missed the first five races. Eventually, we purchased a crate engine and it’s been a good deal, except for 2016. Now, we’re up to speed again and I am excited about racing, again, in 2017 as a regular at Grandview,” submitted Shupp.

The coming season, though, just might be the last one, for Shupp. Time will tell.

“My dad is talking about moving to Delaware with his wife and, if he moves, he owns everything and he’s the biggest helper and supporter I’ve got,” noted Shupp. “If he moves away, I’m guessing, but 2017 might be my last season in one of these cars? We’ll see how things shake out. This year I plan to give it 110% every time we go out on the track. I’d love to keep going, but I cannot afford to do it on my own. Hopefully things will work out.”

In the meantime, Shupp is revved up about racing in 2017. Now, he’s anxious to show everyone what he’s got.