Layne Riggs was finally able to break through and score victories in the CARS Response Energy Tour last season. This year, he’s hoping to score more wins – and maybe a championship.
The 15-year-old from Bahama, North Carolina is the son of former NASCAR driver and two-time Southern National Motorsports Park track champion Scott Riggs. He was able to pick up wins last year at Dominion Raceway, edging out veteran Deac McCaskill in a photo-finish, and at Orange County Speedway. Now, as the series heads to Tri-County Motor Speedway to kick off a season anew, Riggs is confident that he can contend for more.
“I think the way we ran in testing, I think we were one of the fastest cars there,” Riggs told Race22.com. “I know this track pretty well. I’ve got the good line. We come back with different cars every time we run there, but this is the same car we won in twice last year. Hopefully, it pays off and gets us another win.”
Riggs’ main goal is to win races this season. While a championship in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour would be a feather in his cap, Riggs ultimately believes in going for wins and letting the points sort themselves out.
“[Winning the championship] is a goal,” Riggs said. “The goal is to get as many wins as we can. The biggest publicity you can get is winning races and being atop news articles on the race pages. A championship does come overall but it’s better to get individual wins so we’re going to run as many big races as we can find.”
Riggs’ victories in the CARS Tour at Dominion and Orange County were seemingly inevitable. In his rookie season, the teenager showed speed but often faded towards the end of the races. Last year, Riggs focused on being fast on the long run, putting complete races together and being in contention at the end.
“I think I just learned as a driver, these longer races, how to manage tires and know what kind of setup we need,” Riggs explained. “It might not be good at the beginning of the race but it will get better on the long run. At first, I was looking for speed and now, I’m looking for what’s going to be there at the end.”
In addition to competing in the CARS Tour, Riggs is also looking at competing in big races at Southern National Motorsports Park, Myrtle Beach Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Langley Speedway as well as at Carteret County Speedway and Ace Speedway – which are both new additions to the CARS Tour schedule in 2018.
“If we have an off weekend, we’re down to go anywhere as long as the track and the rules welcome us,” Riggs remarked. “If we’re able to work with the rules, we’ll try to go and learn more as a driver.”
As for right now, Riggs’ focus is on this weekend’s race at Tri-County, a race that features quite possibly the most competitive and talented field in CARS Tour history.
“Not only this race but every race we’re going to go is going to have a stout field of competition,” Riggs commented. “Better CARS Tour guys and NASCAR guys running it. If you want to see the best racing and competition, you’ve got to go to the CARS Tour where half the field can win.”
Saturday’s CARS Tour Mtn New Do The Dew 150 will go green at 3:15pm EST. The race will be broadcast live on CARSTour.TV and Race22.com will have live, interactive “RaceDay Live” coverage.
