MOORESVILLE, N.C. — official team release by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Tom Baker photo —
Ryan Millington is gunning for a rebound in his next 100-lap Late Model Stock Car main event, part of Saturday’s NASCAR Whelen All-American Series program at Hickory Motor Speedway.
Millington comes into Bojangles’ Church Night, also round six for the Paramount Kia Challenge Series, hoping to recapture the winning momentum that put him atop the mini-series and track point standings early on in the year.
Last time out, in Paramount Kia round five on May 28, Millington qualified fourth and ran in a top-three position for the first half of the 100-lap event. He looked poised to continue the charge forward and challenge for his second victory of the HMS season, but had a motor expire on lap 60 that dropped oil and caused him to spin up the track and make contact with the outside wall.
Unhurt in the crash, Millington was still credited with a fifth-place finish and sits second in both track (-8) and Paramount Kia (-4) points going into the new weekend.
“Hopefully we got all our bad luck out of the way last weekend,” Millington said. “The car was super fast and drove amazing all day last time out. We had no warning (that the motor was going to blow), and when it did I just had to hang on. It backed in the wall pretty good, but we’re not going to let it get us down. We took a little bit of a hit in points but it’s still a long summer yet to go.”
“Thanks to my dad, Christian PaHud, Brandon Hinson and all the guys on the crew that are doing what they do to get us back on track and keeping us up front, as well as my sponsor TAO TAO USA.”
In addition to his run on the pavement last weekend, Millington also competed in the nationally-renowned Speed51 Open for mini outlaw karts at Millbridge Speedway on May 25, as part of the 10 Days of NASCAR Thunder around the Charlotte, N.C. area.
Millington ran from sixth in his B-Main to finish second and make the 24-kart field for the main event, where he started 19th in search of the winner’s share of $5,151. However, his efforts were hampered by a lap two crash where he was collected in a multi-kart melee that punched a hole in the top wing.
Despite the crash damage, however, Millington still managed to restart and manhandle the ill-handling kart up to an 11th place finish against some of the best outlaw kart drivers in the nation, including eventual winner Kyle Larson.
“We would have been a threat, I think, if we hadn’t had that first lap crash,” Millington said. “A kart spun right in front of me and I didn’t have anywhere to go, because the guy behind me didn’t lift and I just got pushed into the mess. It bent the wing a put a pretty big hole in it, but we weren’t going to give up. The damage made it super tight but we still fought our way forward and finished 11th, which I think is a huge feat with everything considered.”
“Thanks to Kyle Beattie, SKE Chassis and everyone on that team that helped put a fast kart underneath me in that event. It’s always fun to come back onto the dirt and have a good time; the luck just wasn’t on our side in that one.”
As Millington returns to the pavement, it’s of note that he enters the new weekend at Hickory in search of his ninth-consecutive top five finish at the track, dating back to the end of the 2015 season.
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
