Ryan Litt bound for the sunny south

By Tommy Goudge (November 5, 2009) – While many area sprint car racers are finished for the year, Ryan Litt still has two more events left on his calendar.  The twenty-two year old will make the trip from London, Ontario to Concord, North Carolina this weekend for the North/South Shootout on November 7, before finishing his season at Florida’s Citrus County Speedway on November 14. 

Ryan will race in both events behind the wheel of a DeCaire Motorsports entry as a teammate to Tampa Bay Area Racing Association champion Troy DeCaire.

“(I’m) looking forward to the road trip, and really excited to be driving for Terry DeCaire,” says Ryan. “Hopefully we can get the car working good, and put it up front. It will be a bit of a change running a different car – I’m hoping to get comfortable in it quickly.”

The North/South Shootout event at Concord is now in its seventh year, and features one of the biggest races of the year for NASCAR tour-type modifieds, along with the CRA Super Series and the TBARA Sprint Cars.

“It should be a really big event,” says Ryan. “They have some good classes running with us, like Modifieds and Late Models, and from what I hear it's a really nice facility.”

Concord is indeed an excellent facility with seating for 8,500 along with many other amenities, and it’s also a unique challenge for the racers.  The half mile track is a tri-oval and produces very high speeds.

“It does look like a tricky track to figure out with the dog leg down the back stretch,” says Ryan. “I'm sure after a few hard laps we'll be close.”

After the Concord event, a few days of rest and relaxation in Florida are in store before Ryan gets behind the wheel of a sprint car one last time in 2009.

“From Concord we are going down to the Tampa area to hang out for a few days, and then we’re running a TBARA race at Citrus County Speedway,” says Ryan. “From what I hear (Citrus County Speedway) is a tight bullring.  I like that close-quarters racing, but I realize a lot of it has to do with starting position and luck so we'll hope for the best.”

While Ryan has competed against some of the regular TBARA drivers when they’ve traveled up north, these events will mark the first time he has competed with the TBARA series.  Both tracks are also new venues for Ryan, and he’ll be competing for the first time in both states.

“There are some really tough drivers in TBARA and some really strong cars,” says Ryan. “I really hope we can show up well, build off this and run more often down south next year.  I have to thank my family and all my sponsors for the support on this trip - I couldn't do it without them.”