Kelley Ryan entered the night at Canyon Speedway Park with a spectacular heat race finish to set him up for an 8th place start in the main. As Kelley came down for the restart in the 2nd heat of the night, Kelley made his move to pass two cars coming down the front straight away. Kelley took 2nd position where he would finish the heat.

The track went dry-slick for the main and Kelley immediately realized the potential for numerous driver errors as the night would go on. Kelley took off and made evasous actions as the accidents unfolded in front of him. After battling for 6th place with Anthony Platt, Kelley was froced to go off the track to avoid the wreck right in front of him with one lap to go. Kelley came back onto the track only to find that his 7th place spot would not be handed back to him and he would have to invert to the back of the field. With 1 lap to go Kelley still managed to pilot the #00 car to a solid 10th place finish.

After the race Kelley said with a sigh of relief “I’m just glad we made it throught the race and finished a good top 10, alot of drivers were not expecting the track to go dry which resulted in alot of accidents, we’ll hope for a better track next time and go for a top 5 for sure”.

Stay Tuned as the Team heads out to the legendary Manzanita Speedway May 30th!

The opening race for the South West Modlite division fielded 30 top-notch cars at Canyon raceway. Big names like Terry Belcher, and Patrick Stevens have made their way into modlites to compete in this extrememly competitive devision. Kelley was going up against drivers even his dad had raced against when he was 16.

Canyon Speedway park has done a tremendous job preparing the track and has even added 400lbs of clay making a tacky track for the night. “A tacky tracks makes everyone fast” Kelley noted. “The key will be to getting used to racing on these track conditions and finding the constantly changing groove”. In Kelley’s heat he finished 6th, 1 spot away from making the transfer to the main.

With a little more seat time in place Kelley made a good finish in the semi. Kelley made his way up to second where he was battling Anthony Platt. Kelley quickly took the high line to make up ground on Anthony. Kelley came up on Platt and dove down to make the pass, igniting the crowd, and levaving Kelley and Patt side by side down the back straight away. Kelley took the low line to leave Platt with room taking him out of the groove where Anthony made his way back by.

After 3 attempts to get by Platt, Kelley decided to assume his position and be sure to make it to the main. Holding 2nd place position Bill Mcdowell made several hit and run attempts when he finally made it by leaving Kelley with 3rd for the semi.

Kelley made it to the main event where he had one goal, to finish the hectic race for the night. Kelley made plenty of passes and finished 16th in the main. Kelley commented “I was happy to be able to make the main tonight. Making the main is more luck then anything, even some of the best drivers don’t make the main everynight. My goal was to take it easy tonight and leave out the agression for now and learn alot which i certainly did. After all you have to finish a race before you can win one!”

Stayed tuned as the team competes at Canyon Speedway once again April 5th!

Ryan Racing proudly announced Saturday afternoon that Kelley Ryan would be piloting the 00 car for the 2008 season. Everyone was excited to see Kelley in a winning car and looked forward to seeing him race.Saturday would be Kelley’s first time ever driving this car. The team was treating this Winter Race as a practice session and a chance for Kelley to get some seat time and a feel for the new car.

Kelley hit hot laps for the first time in the new car and paced around the track with other top drivers such as Tony Martin and Art Garcia. The heat race set in and Kelley finished 3rd in this brand new car.

Kelley’s 3rd place in the heat earned him a 6th place spot in the main. The cars fired up and the main was on its way. The team started pacing their way on the one groove dry slick track and followed a pack of cars. Kelley was especially fast in the middle but couldn’t use this fast line due to other drivers in front of him. Kelley quickly moved to th bottom where he progressively started making his way to 4th . A yellow flag flew putting a halt to Kelley’s 4th place grab and he missed a shift in the new car under the restart. Kelley eager to catch back up with the group spun the car in turn 3 with one to go. Kelley quickly made his way back up to 7th before the checkered flag flew.

Kelley was really happy with how the day went and how much he learned. When asked about how the day went he said “it was a really good day to get to know the car and it’s boundaries, Im really looking forward to the 08 season because we have a fast car, I just wanted to take it easy today and treat it as a learning session”.

Kelley is driving his dad’s car this year: 4th place points finisher and 2 modlite wins for 2008, Mike Ryan is taking a break this year. Mike chuckled “it was alot of fun watching Kelley race, it sure is nerve racking, but at the same time it’s nice to trade the steering wheel in for a wrench and some drinks”. Mike looks forward to helping Kelley advance in the 2008 season and possibly running a few races with Kelley in a different car.

The team would like to give a special thanks to their home track Canyon Speedway Park for putting on an excellent show.

Stay tuned for the teams first race March 1st at Canyon Speedway Park!