STATESVILLE, N.C. – 14-year-old Ryan Millington padded his hold on second place in the Hickory Motor Speedway late model stock car point standings with two top-10 finishes in Saturday’s twin 40-lap feature events at the .363-mile oval.
Millington qualified sixth for the first of the two races, holding down a solid sixth for the first three-quarters of the sprint before fading to ninth over the final 10 laps with handling problems.
After making wholesale changes to the machine, the No. 17M was far better for the second 40-lap event, where Millington started 11th but was able to fight his way through traffic. He ultimately made a last lap, last corner pass on points leader and rival Dexter Canipe Jr. for sixth in the final rundown, making up crucial points in his quest for the track title.
“Man, there wasn’t a lot of action in the first race, but we made a ton of changes and were so good for race two,” Millington said. “I was really proud of our team’s effort after a tough start to the day. Definitely in the second race, I feel like we had the fastest car but just started too far back to be able to get up and challenge for the win.”
“I got held up by some slower traffic early on, but passing Dexter at the end felt really good and was a boost to our confidence. We’re not giving up on this points fight just yet!”
Millington heads into the next event at Hickory – Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet Birthday Night at the track on July 16 – 38 points back of the lead in the season standings and 16 markers in arrears in the Paramount Kia mini-series rundown.
The July 16 race will be the eighth round of the Paramount Kia Series.
Millington will also return to the mud-slinging Millbridge Speedway, where he will pilot a mini-outlaw kart for Kyle Beattie’s Sprint Kart Enterprises (SKE) team on Wednesday night, July 13.
Follow Millington on Facebook by searching Millington Motorsports, and for more information on driver and team, visit his website at www.RyanMillington.com.
About Ryan Millington
Ryan Millington is an accomplished 14-year-old racer from Statesville, North Carolina. Growing up in a family with a background and love for the sport, Ryan has already been a winner on both dirt and pavement, competing in several different types of cars.
Millington has won over 80 races in go-karts on dirt and has also won on INEX legends cars on pavement. In 2015, Ryan had legends car wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Anderson Motor Speedway, and scored a mini-outlaw win at Millbridge Speedway on the dirt.
The personable teenager has also had a pole and several strong finishes to date in the Millington Motorsports No. 17 late model stock car. 2016 will find Ryan and the team concentrating on building their late model program out of their shop in Statesville, N.C.
Ryan’s promotion and coaching is handled by veteran Performance Coach Tom Baker of Team Full Throttle in Charlotte, N.C. His marketing partners include Scott Millington Motorsports and TAOTAO USA Inc.
CREDIT: Millington Motorsports
