From Todd Michaels
Orlando, FL – On Friday, November 13, 2009 at Ocala Speedway, Ryan Partin was officially crowned the 2009 Top Gun Sprint Series Champion after coming home fourth in the night’s feature. Partin came into the series final race of the year with a slim eight point lead over second place driver Mike Schroeder.
The night got off to a very good start with Partin setting quick time in his practice group, form he backed up in his heat race. “We unloaded off the trailer very quick, due to the hard work of my father Mike Partin and our mechanic Eddie James,” said Ryan Partin. “Ocala Speedway hasn’t been the best of tracks for us, but we knew we really had to bring our ‘A Game’ in order to be competitive. I had to start last in the heat race, but the car worked great getting in to the turns on the bottom and before you knew it I was up to second. A few more laps and I would have won my heat race.”
After a brief team meeting to discuss any changes to make for the feature, based on Ryan’s feedback, very minimal changes were made as the team knew the track would slick off. Based on Ryan’s passing points from his feature race, he started fourth for the feature.
“At the start of the race I was very aggressive and made my way up to second in short order,” continued Partin. “I knew I had to get in front to avoid any trouble and Schroeder was quite a few rows behind me, so I put the hammer down and made sure no one got around me. During a caution, my crew let me know that Schroeder pulled off the track so after that I just went for the win. Unfortunately when I was challenging for the lead the left front shock started bottoming out bad and I fell back to fourth.”
After passing tech, Ryan Partin was officially announced the 2009 Top Gun Sprint Series champion by Series Director Don Rehm and presented with the championship ring, courtesy of Hilderbrand Jewelers.
“This is an enormous accomplishment for our team,” continued Partin. “A few years ago I had a very bad accident in karting that derailed my racing career. Two years ago me and my dad decided to go sprint car racing and we bought an old motor, got a Triple X Race Co. chassis and here we are. We’re just a family team that works very hard and everything came right for us tonight. I could not be more proud of my crew.”