Over the past three seasons, Ryder Laplante has spent his full-time racing career in transition from Micro Sprints to the Sprint Car world. This year, he’s taking on his biggest challenge yet.
The 18-year-old from Calera, OK, has committed to chasing the 2025 American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) National Tour schedule, piloting the family-owned Oklahoma Truck Driving Academy, Moss Racing Engines-powered Maxim Chassis No. 88R.
While he’s made only seven career appearances with the National Tour, Laplante had a standout performance against the field in May at Rush County Speedway, driving from seventh to third behind Matt Covington and race winner Seth Bergman.
“I ran with [ASCS] quite a bit last year and I could keep up with them, I could outrun them, I could beat them, for sure,” Laplante said. “Just needed some luck. We were kinda underpowered last year, but we’ve got some more power coming, so they better watch out.”
Before jumping into 360 Sprint Cars, Laplante was a National Open Wheel 600cc (NOW600) Micro Sprint Series champion of the Restricted A-Class division in 2018. He continued with Micro Sprints through 2021 until mixing-in 305 Sprint Car events starting in 2022, and made his 410 Sprint Car debut the following year.
After a mix of 305, 360 and 410 Sprint Car starts last season, Laplante has settled on the 360 division to be his career’s next step. While he’s refrained from jumping directly into the 410 division, he said he learned a lot from his time spent in the seat last year.
“I started with a 410 and went down to a 360, and it kinda felt slow to me — that’s why we were so good out of the gate,” Laplante said. “That helped me out a lot.”
While getting to know his new competitors on the road, Laplante will also get accustomed to the ASCS race format, in which Qualifying results can significantly contribute to or disrupt a driver’s chances for success in the Feature.
“You’ve gotta be smart, but you’ve also gotta be fast,” Laplante said. “You’ve got to unload fast, and Qualifying is everything.”
2025 will mark Laplante’s first season following a national Sprint Car tour of any kind. It’s a goal he’s worked toward for several years, though not his final destination as he begins to carve out a career path to the top of the open-wheel racing world.
“Hopefully, (I can) do this for a living and travel around the world and do it,” Laplante said. “That’s my goal. I’d like to do the best I can with ASCS, get my name out there, and see where it takes me.”
Ryder Laplante continues his rookie season on the ASCS National Tour in the next event — Saturday, April 12 at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Salina, OK.
Tickets for this event will be on sale at the gate on race day. If you can’t be there to watch, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
