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Ricky Thornton Jr. Tops C.J. Rayburn Tribute at Circle City Raceway

Prepping for The $250,000 Challenge and Show-Me 100

Ricky Thornton Jr. is returning to his dominant ways just as the 2024 season is ramping up. The Chandler, Ariz., native's latest accomplishment came at Circle City Raceway on Saturday driving the SSI Motorsports / Coltman Farms / Hoker Trucking No. 20RT Dyno One Inc. / Excel Floor Covering / Sub-Surface of Indiana / Longhorn Chassis / Clements Racing Engine Super Late Model.

Thornton bagged the $10,000 Northern Allstars Late Model Series-sanctioned C.J. Rayburn Tribute at the Indiana oval to record his 10th win of the season.

“It really sucked there for Daulton (Wilson), I don’t know if we would’ve been able to get (by) him without that,” Thornton said. “The track was really good, you could run all over it. I really didn’t know at the end where I needed to be, if I needed to be around the bottom, or not, but I figured heck ‘I got to the lead running the top, so I might as well stay up there.’ Josh (Rice) gave me plenty of room, I feel like we had a really good race, me and him, too.”

In his lone Super Late Model start of the weekend, Ricky Thornton Jr. was one of 26 Northern Allstars Late Model Series competitors entered at Circle City Raceway (Indianapolis, Ind.) on Friday for the C.J. Rayburn Tribute.

Starting the main event in fourth via a runner-up showing in his heat race, Thornton took command of the lead on lap 23 and paced the final 18 circuits to capture his 10th win of the season and the $10,000 top prize. He finished 2.780 seconds ahead of Tyler Erb with Josh Rice, Tanner English, and James Rice rounding out the Top-5.

Thornton’s weekend concluded with a double duty evening on Saturday at US 24 Speedway (Logansport, Ind.) aboard his Driven Performance Midwest sponsored Micros. After going seventh-to-first in his A Class Non Wing Micro, Ricky didn’t compete in the A-Main and was an early exit in the Non Wing Outlaw main event.

Full results from the events can be found at www.CircleCityRaceway.com and www.US24Speedway.net.

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