Ryan Green breaks through for first GSPSS win at Riverside

The 2024 season has been Ryan Green’s best opportunity yet to take a touring win in New England’s Late Model ranks.

Saturday night, everything went his way for a change.

Green led from the practice sheets to the checkered flag to score his first Granite State Pro Stock Series win as part of Riverside Speedway’s Milton CAT Night, beating reigning champion Travis Benjamin by nearly a second at the line.

It was a long-overdue first touring win for a driver who has come agonizingly close to victory before, but had yet been able to seal the deal.

Green only had one prior start at the Groveton, N.H. quarter-mile, finishing fourth in last June’s GSPSS tilt. After practice, though, he looked like a seasoned veteran. Green carried his fast time in practice to the first of two qualifying heats, winning handily over points leader Evan Beaulieu. That win carried to the feature, where Green would roll off alongside reigning GSPSS champion and defending race winner Travis Benjamin.

And Green was not finished, overpowering Benjamin at the start to take the early lead. The Berwick, Me. racer would lead every lap in a brisk battle around the “Grovetona” high banks to win by 0.831 seconds over Benjamin at race’s end.

Benjamin, who won May’s season opener but had only run one other GSPSS race all season, made his third start of the year count with a runner-up finish.

Cole Robie finished third in only his second series start. The third-generation driver, the son of former Pro Stock racer Jarod and grandson of NASCAR Busch North Series journeyman Carleton, has been making the transition this year from Legends and Bandoleros to full-sized stock cars, cutting his teeth in weekly Late Model competition at Star Speedway.

Fourth went to Casey Call, who debuted a new car after a hard crash in July sidelined his team’s race-winning mount. Call’s sponsors helped the family team find and acquire a new nearly-race-ready car, but the young racer was forced to start and park a borrowed ride at Lee USA Speedway, keeping his title hopes alive.

Evan Beaulieu survived a late-race trip through the infield to round out the top five, minimizing his championship losses and staying atop the standings with two races to go.

Eleven cars took the green flag Saturday, the shortest field of the season following the year’s largest turnout two weeks ago. Despite suiting the GSPSS well, the track struggles to draw Pro Stocks, with a dozen cars attempting last June’s race and an August date scratched for a short entry list. The mid-August dates, in the heat of the summer with several big-ticket races ahead on the calendar, seem to be the hardest sell of all.

But no matter how many race, only three appear on the podium.

And this year, Green has been better poised than ever to take the top spot on the podium. New sponsors allowed the veteran to step up his schedule in 2024, finishing third at Star Speedway to open the season and running his first Pro All Stars Series races in two years.

But Green crashed hard in June’s Keen Parts 150 at Lee USA Speedway, sending his car to the Distance Racing Products shop for an extended stay. Joey Doiron, one of Green’s closest friends, came to the rescue with a car he had not raced himself in a couple years. Green wheeled the borrowed car to a fifth-place finish at Claremont Motorsports Park. Still in the GSPSS points race, Green brought his own car back at Hudson Speedway, finishing seventh after running in the top three early.

Green sat out the long road trip to Speedway 95 before racing Doiron’s car at Lee, recovering from a post-heat gaffe to finish tenth after starting shotgun on the field.

It was Green’s own car that made the trip to the winner’s circle, with Doiron heading up the family team’s effort in the pits. Doiron now has GSPSS wins as a driver and a crew chief this season, having gone to victory lane in the season’s second race back in May.

Green sits third in GSPSS points despite skipping a race, nine markers back of Call but in need of a big problem for Evan Beaulieu to close the gap to the lead. With only two races to go, the championship battle is all but a two-car race between Beaulieu and Call.

Those two races are spaced out over the next two months, with Speedway 95 hosting the penultimate race of 2024 in mid-September and Lee hosting the season finale in early October. Plenty of other opportunities exist in the meantime, but only those two dates gather points toward the GSPSS crown.

First wins, though, pay off in confidence. And Green is eyeing that season finale, Lee’s annual Oktoberfest spectacular, with a new view.

He’s approaching it as a series winner.

Unofficial Results
Granite State Pro Stock Series | Milton CAT 100
Riverside Speedway, Groveton, N.H.
1. (93) Ryan Green
2. (7ME) Travis Benjamin
3. (29) Cole Robie
4. (90NH) Casey Call
5. (56) Evan Beaulieu
6. (84) Jamie Wright
7. (7CT) Cory Casagrande
8. (05F) Bobby Frappier
9. (18ME) Miller Buzzell
10. (5VT) Pat Corbett
11. (75) Gary Smith

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