The Busiest Driver Award: ORANGE CRUSH’S PETE RYAN
Technically, if you want to go by the sheer numbers, this should have gone to either Chris McGuire, Steve Gursky Jr. or Brian Anderson, all of Reckoning, who raced in 14 races this year; Orange Crush’s Pete Ryan only managed 10 or 11. However, it’s the nature of Ryan’s 10 or 11 that earns him this award.
Ryan not only put in a full season of racing with Orange Crush, but he also put in two night’s of racing for Damage, Inc as well. This led to an interesting situation where Ryan managed to pull off the unusual feat of racing against Reckoning in 4 out of his last 5 races.
First he raced against Reckoning for Damage, Inc in the first round of Fourth Night. Then he raced against Reckoning for Orange Crush in the second round of Fourth Night. (In the Finals of Fourth Night, he raced against Mean Green Machines for Orange Crush). Then he raced against Reckoning in the first round of Fifth Night for Orange Crush and then again in the second round for Damage, Inc. Given that Ryan also raced against Reckoning Second Night in the finals, half (or almost half) of his races in 2011 were against Reckoning.
Fourth Night, Ryan also managed to race in two consecutive first round races, sprinting from his Orange Crush car on the track to the Damage, Inc. car waiting to race the next race. Had Ryan not been ejected from the Orange Crush/Damage Inc. race Third Night for a (very debatable) driver’s door, he would have only added to his busyness.