4th Place for Ryan Litt at Berlin; Dixie, Angola Up Next

Courtesy Tommy Goudge

After a small hiccup last weekend, Ryan Litt and the #07 BS&B Radiator/OTC SPX Tools Sprinter got back on track on Saturday night at the Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan. One of the best short track racing venues in the country, Berlin is always a favourite stop on the Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Super Sprints tour with drivers and fans alike. It also happens to be one of Ryan’s favourite stops as it is the site of the Lyons, Ontario, Canada driver’s first laps led in sprint car feature competition, and the site of his best finish last season – a 2nd place on this very same weekend one year ago.

The event began well with Ryan running the 7th fastest lap in time trials. This improvement over his usual time trial performances would come into play later in the evening. Next up was the heat race, in which Ryan started 3rd, took the lead a few laps in, and drove away with a convincing victory.

Come feature time, Ryan was able to start outside pole in the 2nd position as the inversion on this night, determined by a roll of the dice by fast timer Dorman Snyder, was 8. On the initial start, Ryan got the jump on polesitter Chad Goff and pulled ahead coming out of turn 2, but a spin deeper in the pack negated this and forced a complete restart. Goff would not be fooled twice and took the lead off the restart with Ryan falling into 2nd. Eventual race winner Brian Lay came through the field quickly and passed Ryan for the 2nd position a few laps later, but shortly thereafter Ryan was able to put the #07 in front of Goff again while racing through lapped traffic and began to settle comfortably into 2nd position as nobody was in the same area code as Lay on this evening.

The very fast and tricky Berlin Raceway surface began to make its presence felt with 10 laps to go as Ryan began to experience severe tire wear - the left rear so badly worn in fact that it began to go flat. Over the last 10 laps, the hard charging cars of veteran drivers Jason Blonde and Tommy Fedewa were able to get by the ill-handling #07 machine, but Ryan was able to nurse the car home to a 4th place finish – once again the highest finishing rookie of the year candidate - despite the basically flat left rear and the right rear worn down to the cords.

The Top 5 finish should keep Ryan solidly 3rd in the points standings and leading the Owens Petroleum Rookie of the Year standings as well going into this weekend’s doubleheader for the AVSS series. Friday night the tour moves to the beautiful high banked 4/10’s mile Dixie Motor Speedway in Birch Run, Michigan before heading South to the semi-banked 3/8’s mile Angola Motor Speedway in Angola, Indiana on Saturday night. For Canadian fans wishing to see Ryan compete, Dixie Motor Speedway is just about 90 miles from the Port Huron/Sarnia border crossing. The track was renovated and expanded a few years ago and is now a beautiful and fast high banked 4/10’s mile oval with one of the best lighting systems you are likely to see at a short oval track. Ryan suffered mechanical failure in his first visit to Dixie in August of last season, but came back in September with a strong 10th place finish in the AVSS season finale and has never visited Angola before, but expects to be a force to be reckoned with at both venues this weekend.

Ryan and the team would like to thank all their sponsors for their continued support during Ryan and the #07 Beast/Claxton Sprinter’s full time campaign on the AVSS tour and their quest for the Rookie of the Year title this season, including OTC/SPX Tools, BS&B Radiator, Velocity Wings, BRR Media, BOC Gases, and Leaf Racewear.

For more information on Ryan, the car, and the team, including schedules, photos, merchandise, and contact information, please visit Ryan’s official website at www.RyanLitt.com.