CHAPTER 2 WORLD OF OUTLAW LATE MODEL DRIVER RYAN GUSTIN

By Cyndi Stiffler

Dirt Empire is hitting the asphalt with driver Ryan Gustin as our contributing writer, Cyndi Stiffler, tracks what it is really like spending a racing season in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series as she chronicles Gustin and his team.

DURING THE MONTHS of January and February, race fans and drivers of every stripe turn their attention to the Florida tracks. Many use this time to escape the cold winter conditions for warm sunshine and kick off their racing season.

Marshalltown, Iowa’s Ryan Gustin was no exception as he and his team pulled out for a long month of racing in midJanuary.

Their first stop was at Willy’s Carburetor, where they did some tuning on the engine, and then it was on to Sunshine State. When prodded for one word to best describe his Florida tour, Gustin chose challenging.

Gustin picked up his new Rocket chassis in December and got his first laps in it at Volusia County’s WoO opener. During the offseason, Volusia had put a new surface on their track and with the rainy, cold weather that seemed to plague them there in January, the surface resembled a cornfield more than a race track.

“These cars are rigid and stuck to the track and are a handful with a smooth racy surface let alone one that is rutted and rough,” explained Gustin. “These chassis just are not made for holes and baja-ing.” Gustin went on to say that the dirt on the eastern tracks, north or south, is completely different than what he grew up on in the Midwest. “Where I come from you don’t want any wheel spin, but over there, wheel spin is good thing.” The biggest thing though he said, was with both the Lucas and World of Outlaws teams converging at the same tracks, being able to qualify well was imperative, and something that plagued him almost the entire month in Florida.

Besides the obvious racing challenges, there are the ones that no one sees or perhaps takes time to consider. While the three-man team is enjoying their beautiful new hauler, they are in fact living together on the road in a thirtyfoot box and have no means to easily get around. After the team left Volusia’s season opener that was cut short by rain, they found an abandoned Sam’s Club and set up shop in the parking lot. It was conveniently located within walking distance of fast food places and an automotive store. Other times during the month long trek, the team took advantage of Uber drivers to get them to the laundromat and an evening night out at Hooters.

Without a doubt, being away from their families has to be the hardest part of being on the road. Rolling down the road for weeks at a time without them is not easy. Work and school do not allow Kendra and the children to travel along most of the time, but on this trip, they were able to fly down along with Ryan’s dad, Rick, for the last weekend of the Florida tour. After the last checkered fell, they all got to enjoy a few days on the warm beaches together before the family flew back home.

As Gustin stated, when you qualify poorly, you end up racing in the back and many times that only begets catastrophe. That’s exactly what happened to Ryan, when he got turned hard into the wall. He used provisionals the last few races of the tour, and then took his wounded chassis back to Rocket for a complete front clip before finally getting home to Iowa in late February.

In spite of the many challenges in Florida, Gustin was able to add a highly coveted Florida gator to his trophy case with a DIRTcar score at Volusia. Ironically, it was just a few days after longtime friend and sponsor, Leon Rameriz lost his battle with cancer. It was with a tear in his eye that an emotional Gustin told the crowd, “This one right here is for Leon Ramirez. He was a good friend, a great sponsor, and this one’s for the whole Rameriz family. I wanted to win this really bad for them, and we did it. Hopefully, we can keep on doing it.”

The win was definitely a boost this team needed, “It feels really good,” Gustin said, “ We’ve been workingreally hard: I think we stumbled across some things that are working really good.” As far as how this win stacks up to the multitude of stellar wins on his resume he said this, “There are a lot of good racers (in the Midwest), and these guys are the best there are in dirt late models. One of my career highlights was outrunning them, (at Volusia). It is far from my biggest payday, but as far as the level of competition, it was probably my biggest.”

The team has about two weeks of grinding shop work as they get ready to head back out for another three weeks that include tracks in Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina. You can follow Gustin’s journey on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and his website www. ryangustin.com. Tune into DirtVision to watch in in all the World of Outlaw events.

Sponsored by:

Tri Star Engines & Transmissions, Ramirez Motorsports, VP Heartland, Mahle, Quality Freight Rate, Swift Springs, Fast Shafts, Performance Bodies, ML Performance, Penske Racing Shocks, Rocket Chassis, Ace Race Wraps, Nitroquest Media.