WOODSTOCK, Ga. – Sean Rayhall has followed his heart from professional road racing to the dirt tracks of the Midwest.
Now, the Woodstock, Ga., resident will take the next step in that journey as he joins forces with Sipple Racin’ to drive the No. 14R Big Machine Vodka/Bigg Golf Triple X chassis for the complete Interstate Racing Ass’n calendar this year.
Running the full slate of scheduled dirt tracks in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, powered by a Competition Specialists-built 410ci V8 engine, will give the 25-year-old the opportunity to challenge for the Sage Fruit Top Apple Rookie of the Year honors.
In addition to the 31 scheduled IRA races, Rayhall is planning select Midwest Sprint Car Ass’n races, in addition to exploring options to make his World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series debut later in the season.
Rayhall will have the support of Big Machine Vodka and Bigg Golf, as well as Roin Reality Holdings, Able Roofing, SU Management and Simcraft.
“I’m extremely pumped about this 2020 season with Sipple Racin’. We’ve been working very hard with our partners all winter long getting the right equipment under us and the sponsorship in place to make this effort happen,” said Rayhall. “Even though COVID-19 has us at a stand still before the season kicks off, I’ve been spending a lot of time at SimCraft getting virtual laps and studying videos from past seasons.
“I want to thank everyone involved for the opportunity to be full time this year,” he added. “This isn’t a deal where there’s one or two people helping, it’s a group and family effort.”
Rayhall is scheduled to make his first start of the season with the Racine, Wis., based race team during the April 10 IRA season opener in Donnellson, Iowa. However, due to the concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 virus, final scheduling is unknown at this time.
Rayhall announced his retirement from sports car racing in December 2018 at the age of 23. Having driven at the highest levels of the sport around the world, he reached the pinnacle winning the European Le Mans Series LMP3 Championship in 2017.
He was a factory driver for Panoz Auto Development and driver for the factory Lexus team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship prior to his road racing retirement.
While coaching other drivers to their own careers, Rayhall was drawn to test a winged sprint car for fun. The thrill and challenge of something so different from his sports car and open wheel roots was more than he could resist.
He began racing winged sprint cars in 2019 before planning a full season in 2020.