Kaylee Bryson will make her sprint car debut this Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Florida.
Bryson’s first start will come in the “Sandi DeCaire Classic” that will be sanctioned by the BG Products Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series.
It was first announced on July 26 of Bryson’s plans to compete in this event. At the time it was unclear how many more, if any, pavement sprint car starts Bryson would be making in the near future.
Aaron Pierce, Team Manager for AP Development, is no stranger to pavement sprint cars. He has won events with Must See Racing, AVSS, King of the Wing, and HOSS, explained the long-term plans for Bryson involving sprint cars.
“She (Bryson) is going to run for rookie of the year in the USAC Silver Crown Series next year” explained Pierce. She can only run 4 races this year. I’m trying to get her experience outside of USAC Silver Crown Series. If you can go fast in a winged car, you can go fast in anything.
“Citrus County is kind of a small little place where the speeds aren’t too ridiculous,” Pierce continued. “I just wanna get her feet wet and give her another experience. If she does this, she will have driven four different types of cars, in the past 2 weeks, at three different tracks.
“Kaylee will be doing some more pavement sprint car stuff in Florida this winter. Right now, we just wanna have some fun. Next year we’ll turn her loose in the USAC Silver Crown car all year. We’ll run some select Trans-Am races with her also. She really wants to go to the INDYCAR Series someday and I’d like to help her achieve that goal.”
Bryson herself is excited about this weekend’s opportunity to compete in a winged sprint car, but always felt her first sprint car start would come on dirt.
‘Its kinda crazy because I grew up racing on dirt in Oklahoma” explained Bryson. ”I knew I’d probably be in a sprint car at some point, but I never thought it would be on pavement. Growing up I was always watching dirt sprint cars. I really didn’t know pavement was a thing for sprint cars. That’s new to me. I always found the road coarse stuff exciting, but didn’t realize it was possible to do it in a winged sprint car on pavement.
We’re gonna go test this Friday in Florida and I’m super excited,” Bryson continued. “This is completely new to me. It’s also a new challenge and I’m looking forward to it. I’m coming in with expectations to be competitive. The first few laps is where you learn and have to gather everything as fast as you can. You just have to jump out there and be as competitive as you can, as fast as you can. That’s how you compete and get better. I’m really looking forward to this experience this weekend.”
Bryson will also be joined this weekend by another female driver, Taylor Ferns, who is currently finding success in the USAC Silver Crown Series.
Ferns, who hails from Michigan announced three days ago her intentions to compete this weekend. Ferns already has 2 podium finishes in USAC Silver Crown competition in 2022.