Forum: Northern California Sprint Car (go)
Moderators: StuDeedooo

So does anyone know anything about Ryan Kaplan running SCCA at Laguna Seca over the weekend?

Class? Results?

from his website... Ryan sets fast time and wins Sunday's Formula Continental Race @ Laguna Seca!!

From Mylaps.com...

SCCA SF Region, Formula Continental

Saturday

Practice:

3rd, 1:45.699 76.224mph

Qualify:

3rd, 1:36.916 83.132mph

14 lap Race:

3rd, fastest race lap at 84.680mph

Sunday

Qualify:

1st, 1:32.289 5 87.300mph

12 lap Race:

1st, Margin of Victory: 5.6 seconds

...

forgot to mention that Ryan was in a 1992 Swift. Thats a 15 year old car he won with!

Nice... The kid is a gasser!

...

From Ryan's newsletter:

----------------------------------------------

10-3-07

Dear Friends and Supporters,

This weekend I participated in my first road course race ever at Laguna Seca in Neil Porter's Formula Continental. I had a lot of fun and progressed every time I got on the track. It was a double regional race weekend, which means there where two races in one weekend so it gave me a lot of track time. In the first race of the weekend, I qualified third and finished third in the race. After that, I took everything that I had learned and I went out, qualified fast time by two seconds, and won the main event in the second race.

Here is my story:

My first practice session went smoothly and I started to get comfortable with how the car shifted and felt. After practice I had a little bit of time before qualifying where Neil and I talked about what I needed to do. He told me to work up to speed and he hoped that by our second race of the weekend we would be ready to qualify and run up front. I ended up qualifying third my first time out but I knew that I had not pushed the car to its limit. Neil and I sat down and talked about which parts of the track I could push the car harder in during the race on Saturday and I agreed. However, I was not ready for how complicated the race was going to get with all of the other classes involved.

I got to the track on Saturday and I was ready to race. I was going to be starting about ten cars behind the fastest car in my class and I thought I was going to have a good chance of catching him, but it ended up being harder than I thought. The Formula Continentals where mixed in the race with a variety of other classes that consisted of cars that went fast down the straightaway and slow through the corners. Where our car was slower down the straight-aways and faster through the corners so it made it tough to get a clean lap without having the other cars blow by you down the straight-aways and be in your way through the corners. I ended up finishing third in the race because I was not sure how to race with the other types of cars but I still cut the gap between the leader and myself to about three cars. After the race, Neil and I sat down and discussed how you have to take the faster cars line away going down the straight-aways and out brake them into the corner. Besides that, he informed me of how important our qualifying session for the next race was going to be. If I could qualify well and start in front of the other cars in my class then they would be the ones having to catch me while dealing with all of the traffic.

When it came time for qualifying, I decided to lag back and throw away a lap in order to get a run at one or two clean laps before I would catch one of the other cars. It worked out to my advantage and I got two clean laps where I was able to set fast time by two seconds. This was just what Neil and I wanted because I would have a space cushion of about ten cars going into Sunday's race.

When it was time to race on Sunday, I was confident that I was going to have a good chance at winning as long as I did not get caught behind the bigger cars. When the race started, I got a good start and had some cushion between myself and the cars behind me. I felt like I spent the whole time watching my rear view mirrors just to make sure none of the bigger cars in the class where going to dive-bomb me going into the corners. I ended up holding a lot of them off and I had about a ten-second lead over the next car in my class before a full course yellow came out with about four minutes remaining in the race. The race ending up finishing under caution when we reached the twenty-five minute mark and I won my first road race! It felt great to be able to come out to the famed Laguna Seca Raceway and win in my first weekend racing with SCCA. I had a great time and I hope that I can do more of it in the near future. I would like to thank Neil Porter and his crew for giving me a great racecar and great advice all weekend, without them this would not have been possible!

Our next race is on October 27^th in Las Vegas with our USAC dirt midget. Have a great week and I will talk to all of you soon!

Ryan Kaplan

www.ryankaplanracing.com

Racing Pictures

Getting Ready

Qualifying

The Famed " Cork Screw"

Neil Porter and I

Formula Continental Winner!

Congratulations Ryan!!!

Hope to see you in the winner's circle in Vegas!!!

Mike Andrea Janet & Kyle
MAJ1K Motorsports
www.kylelarsonracing.com

Totally, utterly, AMAZING!!!!!! Come on someone grab him for a 410 sprint ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is NOTHING this kid can't drive AND win in!!!!!!!!!

It's too bad Ryan is a couple of years late for Jack Roush's reality TV show... He could have kicked some butt!!!

Not sure Sandy how much time he should spend in a 410. With his goals, he might be better off bypassing that division alltogether.

True Top, but I would love to see him in a 410 for a year. So far his resume shows he can drive anything and win. Would like to see a spot on it where he races and wins in a 410 also. Would not hurt him to run The Nationals in Knoxville one time.

I honestly have never seen, in 61 years, anyone who is so capable of driving anything with 4 wheels and winning right off the bat! I know I drove everyone crazy about Kasey Kahne, but Ryan is sooooo much better than Kasey and I would never have believed there would be someone better, but Ryan has a very rare talent I have never seen in any other driver. He has mastered so many types of race cars and has won so very quick in each type.

I guess it's time for me to go to the main Hosehead board and do what I did for Kasey. Ryan is more than ready to be recognized nationally. I hope you Hoser's will get on the bandwagon with me and let's get this kid's name out there!

Way to Ryan!

Looks like you were the man.... much better than Sammy ran when I saw him there in 87 in an ARS car for the Cahill Bros. He actually qualified well but spun coming out of the Corkscrew on the warm-up lap & got the car stuck in a ditch!

Of course Ryan wouldn't know that because he probably wasn't born yet

The quickest way for Ryan to get the National recognition he deserves is to compete at the national level. Personally I would love to get Ryan back to the midwest and see him run USAC at the national level and if he is as good as I think he is it won't be long until he gets a shot. Right now the demand for drivers who can do it all Dirt / Pavement Sprint / Midget is at an all time high. If Stenhouse lands where the rumors say he will there may be an open seat. With Lil Swindell rumored to be heading south there might be an opening at KKR (Sandy with your Kasey connection get Ryan the deal) although that seat is rumored to be filled.

Not saying its impossible but to get noticed by those who pull the strings you have to be racing and winning against the best in the business and right now they are all considered to be in the midwest.

One of the things that seperates those who "make it" and those who don't are the sacrifices they are willing to make to "make it" happen.

Ryan, there is no doubt that you are very talented behind the wheel of a race car and from what I hear from everyone I have talked with about you a class act out of the race car.

Best of luck!!

Tim Clauson