Ryan Griffin

Ryan Patrick Griffin (born October 14th, 1990) is an American race car driver currently competing in the NAAC Launch Energy Championship Series, driving the #86 Scilab Lenard for Durbin Sport Racing. He previously competed in the FARC Lowe Dollar Series, and less successfully in TM Lights, where his license was revoked due to erratic driving.

Early life
Ryan Griffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1990 and spent most of his time growing up in Warren, Michigan, and eventually moving to Sterling Heights, Michigan, where he currently resides. From a young age, he had an interest in racing.

Early career: "Dirt Duels"
Griffin began his racing career at 15 driving late models at Tri-City Motor Speedway in Auburn, Michigan. Griffin was known for two memorable moments at the track. The first was in his first race as wheel contact between him and another driver caused his car to ramp off his opponent's car and flip once. The second was a number of incidents that occurred one weekend between Griffin and another driver by the name of Kevin Heart that became known as the Dirt Duels.

Griffin and Heart were the same age, 16, at the time. The first incident occurred in one of the heat races prior to the main event. Coming to the finish, Heart made a dive bomb move in an attempt to pass Griffin for 2nd. Heart's car slid up the track and across Griffin's nose putting both cars into the wall at the finish line. Despite both cars finishing 2nd and 3rd, Griffin was livid about the incident saying that Heart needed to "pull his head from his [expletive]" and "use his [expletive] mirrors". Later on in the main event, Griffin and Heart found themselves battling for the lead late in the race. Going into Turn 1 with three laps to go, Heart again pulled the same move. This time, however, he cleared Griffin by inches. Going into Turn 3, though, Griffin rammed into Heart, taking both cars off track. Griffin recovered to finish fourth, but Heart finished 15th. Afterword, the two nearly came to blows in the garage area. After a talk with officials, both let cooler heads prevail and nothing more occurred.

2011: ARLA Elite Series and Thunder Trucks
Griffin's performance at Tri-City didn't go unnoticed. Jim More, owner of Great Lakes Motorsports and a local Michigan native decided to take a chance on the young driver and signed him to drive a No. 35 Mega Mart-sponsored Fortner in the ARLA Thunder Trucks. In one season with the team, Griffin scored a best finish of 13th at Tampa Bay.

Along with his ride in the Thunder Trucks, Griffin was also given the chance by More to drive the No. 35 Mega Mart-sponsored Cromwell CS part-time in the ARLA Elite Series. Griffin scored a best career finish of third in the Xenos Alberta Duels, his first start in the series. One of most promising runs Griffin had was in the second race of the Albuquerque 300. Griffin was running as high as second late in the race, but a brush with the wall and change in the cars handling relegated him to a 6th place finish.

Griffin also attempted to make the 2011 TM Master Cup event at Decatur, but was involved in a crash and didn't make it out of pre-qualifying.

2012: TM Lights
For 2012, GLM announced plans to run two entries in the TM Lights Series. Griffin was signed to drive the No. 18 HP Engineparts-sponsored Bolden. In his debut at Las Vegas, Griffin started 3rd and finished 11th after leading a couple of laps. Griffin's best performance was in the Round of Georgia at Road Atlanta where the rookie finished 3rd despite a mid-race collision with Mike Andrews.

Griffin's season almost ended early though. While testing for the invitational Hanmore Formula Overdrive event at Texas Motor Speedway, Griffin's car suffered a tire failure going into Turn 1. The car became airborne and struck the catch fence in-between turns 1 and 2 with the back half of the car. As a result of the crash, Griffin was left with a broken collar bone, a sprained left wrist, and some bruised ribs.

Griffin returned to the car at Peoria, but that race as well as the next two at Mosport and Portland proved to not be very kind to the young rookie. Despite this, Griffin is looking forward to the rest of the season.

After causing several incidents during the TM Lights race at Ohio Motor Speedway (one of which was missed during the race recap), Griffin was parked for the next race in Quincy.

After the suspension, Griffin tried to rebound at Road America, but he overdrove the car and crashed out.

One-off events
Griffin attempted and made the Dash Cup Spa GP. Starting 4th, Griffin spent the early laps battling former Dash Cup champion Ben Atkins before taking the lead and setting sail. However, it wasn't meant to be. An accident with teammate Jeff Fischer and fellow one-off driver Jacob Eichholtz relegated him to a 13th place finish.

Griffin attempt the TM Master Cup Series Round of Indianapolis. He made it through pre-qualifying, but finished 5 spots out of the transfer spot in the qualifying race.

Griffin attempted the ARLA Elite Series Rockford 200, but failed to make it pass the heat race.

Griffin will run the Hanmore Formula Overdrive World Championships at the Texas Motor Speedway.

2013 plans
Griffin will return to the ARLA Elite Series in 2013. This time he will be full-time in the Ike Durbin Inc. #86x. Griffin will also run part-time in the Dash Cup series.

Personal interests

 * Griffin has had a interest in classic cars since he was a kid and currently has a custom hot rod that was given to him by his car owner, Jim More.
 * Griffin also considers himself a big fan of the Beatles. He considers himself a general fan of 60s, 70s, and 80s music though.
 * Griffin can also can play the piano and was taught the rhythm guitar by More. During the Mini Indy 500 ARLA race weekend, Griffin and More played in a Beatles tribute band. Griffin also played a few songs with fellow driver Trey Ashby and teammate Ike Durbin.  The trio will also play a concert at the Rockford 200 race weekend.
 * Griffin is also on good terms with his teammate Durbin. He has been known to refer to him as his "older brother".
 * Griffin is currently dating ARLA Tornado Alley Truck Series driver Lucy Barnton. The two met at the Mini Indy 500 concert, but were unable to reconnect. Griffin though using Twitter as fellow drivers Tom Delgado and Packer Carroll did was able to get back in contact with Barnton. During the Rockford concert, Griffin invited Barnton on stage. After performing John Lennon's song "Real Love" which he dedicated to her, Griffin proposed to Barnton and she accepted.
 * Griffin is also currently working on a music album composed mainly of songs that he has written himself. Durbin and Ashby are supposedly featured on the album as well. The album is to have 13 tracks, three written by Durbin, three written by Ashby, six written by Griffin, and the last track being a live cover of Hey Jude as performed by Griffin's Beatles tribute band, Yesterday and Today. It will be recorded at the Rockford 200 concert. The working title of the album is self titled "Ryan Griffin" with the subtitle "Music with Friends". The cover art was designed by a body fabricator at the GLM shop, and it features a trophy case full of trophies with an acoustic guitar in the center of the case. The album will be available starting the Monday following the Rockford 200 and at the souvenir trailer during the 2013 ARLA season.
 * The Yesterday and Today Beatles Tribute Band headlined a concert at the Rockford 200 race weekend. The event, organized by More, featured Griffin in not only the Beatles Tribute Band but also in a Rolling Stones Tribute Band, Let It Bleed.
 * Griffin is known to chime in on different topics on Twitter. This was reference by James Spalding, the host of The Fuel, a TM Master Cup-related radio show.