By Fred Jeter
special correspondent

During the work week, Ryan Boggs is all about safety, safety, safety. Then comes Friday night and caution is chucked to the wind.

Boggs’ day job is installation manager for Richmond Alarm Company, specializing in security systems (burglar and fire alarms/surveillance cameras).

His daredevil hobby is pressing the pedal to the metal and trading paint in the Modified Division of Southside Speedway.

“I’m different from a lot of the guys, since no one in my family raced,” said the 26-year-old Midlothian High graduate. “But it’s something I always wanted to.”

Boggs gets his Friday-night thrills in the red No. 50 car with yellow trim. The racer was built by Creech Motorsports of Ashland. Something of a hand-me-down, the same car was used in previous seasons by Brandon Hendrick (now Late Model contender) and Billy Morris (current Modified leader).

As part of Six Pack Racing Team with best friend Kyle Wood, Boggs finished fourth among Modifieds a year ago and is in seventh place in points, after finishing seventh in both races of the twin 50’s chase last Friday.

The Modified season concludes Sept. 4, and Boggs feels there’s still time to shimmy up the point ladder.

“The car’s been running well – hasn’t been bent up too bad,” he said. “I’ve led in three or four of the seven races so far … but I usually wind up getting spun out; if they can’t get by me, they spin me out.”

Boggs started at Southside in the U-Car division.

“I remember reading about it on the internet, and getting excited,” he recalled. “My dad (Jimmy) gave me one of our salesmen’s cars – a Sunbird - that had a blown head gasket. Dad told me that if I could fix it, I could race it.”

Boggs won several U-Car races before upgrading to Grand Stocks, then Modifieds. 

Away from the motor’s roar and insinuations, a more peaceful Boggs is much involved with the family security business that his grandfather, Sam Boggs, founded in 1947.

“We’ve got something like 8,000 accounts. We’re all over Chesterfield,” said Boggs.

A former Midlo High fullback, Boggs is married to another MHS graduate, Stephanie. In calmer times, the couple enjoys boating and wakeboarding at Lake Chesdin and on the Potomac.

Boggs is also a regular on the Six Pack softball team competing Monday nights at Iron Bridge Park. But nothing stirs his competitive embers like a Friday night race at the one-third mile oval dubbed the “toughest short track in the South.”

“I’m fast enough to win and I’ve been so close, but I still haven’t won one,” said Boggs of his bottled up frustrations.

For that break-through victory, Boggs concedes it will happen when both he and his ride are hotter than a four-alarm blaze.