Young Driver's Weekend Ends Seemingly Before It Starts
Ryan Lawler was full of anticpation for Saturday night's Speedfest 200 Super Late Model race at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, FL. There was nothing the young driver wanted more than to kick off the 2007 season with a strong showing in the year's first big SLM race. But seemingly before his first-ever Speedfest experience could even get started, it was over.
Ryan was involved in a crash on the intial start of Friday night's North 100 preliminary qualifying event that took out many Speedfest favorites. Ryan had a fast car in practice and time trials, putting his #31 machine on the outside pole for the North 100, but on the opening start all heck broke loose and Ryan's weekend was over.
Ryan was hit behind on the opening restart, causing his car to spin down the frontstretch where he was piled into by at least a dozen cars.
"I think some other people would agree that we had a pretty fast racecar and we were going to be tough to beat in the race," said Lawler. "It's just real disappointing to go down there for our first time and have it end like that. When we
Ryan was all smiles going into Speedfest, but the weekend was cut short.
unloaded, we were struggling, but we kept working on it and got the car pretty dang good. Then that deal happened and we didn't have a chance to even make it to the start/finish line."
Even though Lawler left Lakeland disappointed that his weekend was over too soon, he knows that he made an impression with his fast #31 machine.
"It's a fun racetrack and we had a good racecar, it's just a shame that we didn't have a chance to show it."
Ryan is currently back in the shop repairing the damage the car suffered at Lakeland. Stay tuned for more information on Ryan's upcoming schedule here at RyanLawler.net.
