11/18/2015
Season Summary: Ricky Stangl
(Photo by TeeJay Crawford Photography)
KINGSVILLE, Mo. – 2015 was a breakout year for Ricky Stangl, as he earned a track championship at Double-X Speedway in California, Mo. Whilst competing both with and without wings throughout the season, he captured his first sprint car win while securing nine additional top-five finishes in 20 main event starts. The Lee’s Summit, Mo. racer took care of his equipment as well, only failing to finish twice over the course of the season.
Starting the year off with three nonwing races, Stangl impressed right out of the gate with a runner-up finish after starting eighth at I-35 Speedway in Winston, Mo. on April 11. The following weekend, things again looked promising for a strong finish at Callaway Raceway in Fulton, Mo., but a DNF was the result in the end. Next, Stangl made his United States Auto Club debut at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., where he made the main event against the best in traditional sprint car racing and finished 20th.
To start May, Stangl headed to Wheatland, Mo. and Lucas Oil Speedway for the ASCS Warrior Region’s first race of the year, the “Open Wheel Showdown.” There, he rallied from the 16th starting position to finish seventh. 24 hours later, he was at Double-X’s season opener and earned a fourth-place finish. Rain washed away most of May, but it couldn’t wash away Stangl’s first sprint car triumph on the final day of the month at Double-X.
Back in nonwing action at I-35 on June 6, Stangl again put on a show, picking up nine positions en route to a third-place run. To close out the weekend, he took a fourth-place finish at Double-X. Another top-five came two weeks later at US 36 Raceway in Osborn, Mo. He missed out on the ASCS National Tour race at Lucas Oil on June 20, finishing sixth in the B-Main, but redeemed himself with a sixth-place result at the “Tribute to Jesse Hockett” at Double-X the next day.
July started with the ASCS Warrior “Red, White, and Blue Tour” over the Independence Day weekend, but Stangl had a difficult weekend. A DNF at Callaway came before failing to transfer from the B-Main at Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Mo. He did finish at Double-X to round out the mini-series, taking 12th.
Stangl bolstered his bid for the Double-X points championship over the final four races, finishing inside the top-five each Sunday night, highlighted by a Warrior Region runner-up during the “Clyde Wood Memorial” on July 26. Ultimately, Stangl attained the title over defending track champion and perennial standout Jonathan Cornell by a mere 13-point margin.
In his final nonwing start of the season, Stangl posted a solid sixth-place result at I-35. Making an attempt at the reopening of the Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia with the National Tour, a crash in the B-Main kept him from finishing. After taking 13th at Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Mo., several problems plagued Stangl for the remainder of the season and cost him a shot at a podium finish in the ASCS Warrior point standings. Another 13th-place finish at Randolph County and 11th at US 36 weren’t fatal, but a heat race DNF on night one of the “Jesse Hockett Memorial” and subsequent scratching for the weekend put a damper on Stangl’s point total. In the end, he still maintained the fifth spot in the Warrior rundown to cap his season.
Stangl would like to thank Engine Connection, Terry Young Concrete Construction, Rick’s Auto Clinic, Midwest Heavy Construction and all the local NAPA stores in Kansas City, as well as all of his great fans for their continued support.
2015 Stats
23 races, 20 features, 1 win, 5 podiums, 10 top fives, 13 top tens, 2 DNFs
Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RickyLeeFans/
Article Credit: Redbeard Promotions