Ryan Smith Focused On Chasing All Star Sprint Championship

Story By: SHAWN MILLER / RYAN SMITH RACING – PORT ROYAL, PA – Ryan Smith is ready to put all the bad luck that has plagued the new Leidig/Warko/Smith racing team to start the year in the rearview mirror as he resumes his pursuit of the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions title this Sunday when the series returns to action at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio.

Smith battled tire issues with the team’s trailer coming home from Florida in February. Then last Saturday, just as the team was getting ready to head to Port Royal Speedway, there were issues with a tire on the truck. During the feature event that evening, Smith experienced tire problems on the race car.

“All you can do is laugh about it and hope all of that is behind us,” Smith said. “The good news is we got to shake down the car Saturday and we had speed.”

Smith won a heat race in his familiar No. 94 from the pole position to advance into the feature redraw. He pulled the No. 2 to start the main event on the outside of the front row.

“I settled into third and caught Doug (Esh) and Greg (Hodnett) once they hit lapped traffic,” Smith said. “On lap times we were right there with Doug and Greg, but then the caution came out and I had a right rear tire seal over. Both rear tires were from last year; the right rear was new and the left had a few laps on it. I decided to change them last minute before the feature and didn’t get a chance to sipe them. After the caution it didn’t matter what I did the car was just junk and I was backing up fast so I decided just to pull off. Without a caution who knows, but I think I could have run at least third.”

Smith was credited with a 20th-place result.

This week Smith and the team have been hard at work preparing the No. 59 sprint car that they raced in Florida to start the season for Sunday’s All Star event. Weather permitting, the team will also compete on Friday at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., for one final tune-up.

“We would like to race Williams Grove Friday, but the weather isn’t looking good,” he said. “We went through everything on the No. 59 car and it’s ready to roll and hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate with us.”

Smith placed second during his most recent race at Atomic Speedway.