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Lupton Overcomes Adversity

Headed into the Auto Club Late Model race on June 25th at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, Dylan Lupton was labeled as the favorite to win. After sweeping the twins the weekend before, the #56 was riding a wave of momentum that nobody else could surf headed into Saturday. Unfortunately, the current of reality snapped back during qualifying.
Practice was a sign of the success to come, when Dylan put his #56 High Point Racing machine second fastest in both sessions. Heading onto the track for qualifying, Lupton revved up the engine and started to pick up speed. Upon taking the green flag in his time trial, smoke began to blow out of the rear and the #56 came to a halt without completing a single lap. Lupton’s engine was toast.

The HPR team scrambled to transform the #50 of Huddleston, into a race ready machine for Lupton, including swapping distributors from the #56. This put him in the newest RCF bullet from the High Point Racing stable. The wave of momentum appeared to be nothing more than a trickle at this point, but a determined young rookie and team were not ready to give up. Dylan started at the tail end of the field, with fifteen strong competitors in front of him.

Once the green flag flew, Dylan’s strive was more evident than ever. It only took him six laps to climb into the top ten, as he drove around the traffic ahead. Concentrating on keeping the car clean and making it to the finish, Lupton worked his way into the top five before the race had even reached half way. Maintaining his equipment further into the run, a late race caution was exactly what Lupton was looking for with the race restarting with four laps to go. The green came out for the final time and Dylan shined some muscle on the competition, passing two more cars before the checkered flag flew on the field. Lupton had hard-charged his way through the field and had passed twelve cars in a mere forty laps on his way to finishing third.
The podium finish helped propel Dylan into a tie for fourth in points, only eight points behind fellow HPR teammate and rookie contender Nik Romano who sits second in points, and 54 out of the points lead held by teammate Brandon Davis.

This is Dylan Lupton’s first year in the Auto Club Late Models at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Last year, Lupton won the Langer’s Juice S2 championship in an exciting battle to the end. Dylan’s next race in the late model is scheduled for July 16th at Toyota Speedway. For more information on Lupton, please visit www.luptonracing.com. Lupton would like to thank Durocast Radio, Lupton Excavation, D Racing Enterprises, High Point Racing, Justice Brothers, Liz-Zard Engines, Racecar Factory, and all the fans for the support.

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